Friday Foster (film)
Encyclopedia
Friday Foster is a 1975 blaxploitation
film, written
and directed
by Arthur Marks, and starring Pam Grier
in the title role. Yaphet Kotto
, Eartha Kitt
, Scatman Crothers
and Carl Weathers
co-starred. It was an adaptation of the 1970-74 eponymous syndicated newspaper comic strip
, scripted by Jim Lawrence and illustrated by Jorge Longarón
and Gray Morrow
. This was Grier's final film with American International Pictures. The tagline on the film's poster is "Wham! Bam! Here comes Pam!"
and then seeing her best friend murdered, Friday finds herself targeted for death. She teams up with private detective Colt Hawkins (Kotto) to investigate, and soon the two are hot on the trail of a plot to eliminate the country's African-American political leadership.
In addition to the standard blaxploitation plot elements, the film also dealt with the themes of the power and importance of African American political unity and the potential threat thereto posed not only by the perceived white power structure, but also by those African-Americans willing to betray that goal in search of reward from that establishment.
Blaxploitation
Blaxploitation or blacksploitation is a film genre which emerged in the United States circa 1970. It is considered an ethnic sub-genre of the general category of exploitation films. Blaxploitation films were originally made specifically for an urban black audience, although the genre's audience...
film, written
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
and directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Arthur Marks, and starring Pam Grier
Pam Grier
Pamela Suzette "Pam" Grier is an American actress. She became famous in the early 1970s, after starring in a string of moderately successful women in prison and blaxploitation films such as 1974's Foxy Brown. Her career was revitalized in 1997 after her appearance in Quentin Tarantino's film...
in the title role. Yaphet Kotto
Yaphet Kotto
Yaphet Frederick Kotto is an African-American actor, known for numerous film roles , and his starring role in the NBC television series Homicide: Life on the Street .-Early life:Kotto was born in New York City, the son of Gladys Marie, a...
, Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
, Scatman Crothers
Scatman Crothers
Benjamin Sherman "Scatman" Crothers was an American actor, singer, dancer and musician known for his work as Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man, and as Dick Hallorann in The Shining in 1980...
and Carl Weathers
Carl Weathers
Carl Weathers is an American actor, as well as former professional football player in the United States and Canada. He is best known for playing Apollo Creed in the Rocky series of films...
co-starred. It was an adaptation of the 1970-74 eponymous syndicated newspaper comic strip
Friday Foster
Friday Foster was an American newspaper comic strip, created and written by Jim Lawrence, who was inspired when he saw Donyale Luna on television....
, scripted by Jim Lawrence and illustrated by Jorge Longarón
Jorge Longarón
Jordi Longarón i Llopart , better known as Jorge Longarón, is a Spanish illustrator for magazines and comic strips.Born in Barcelona, Longarón began professionally during the 1940s and 1950s...
and Gray Morrow
Gray Morrow
Dwight Graydon "Gray" Morrow was an American illustrator of paperback books and comics.-Biography:Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Morrow is best known as art director of Spider-Man between 1967 and 1970 and as illustrator of the syndicated Tarzan, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and Prince Valiant comic...
. This was Grier's final film with American International Pictures. The tagline on the film's poster is "Wham! Bam! Here comes Pam!"
Characters and story
Friday Foster (Grier) is a magazine photographer who refuses to heed her boss's admonitions against becoming involved in the stories to which she is assigned. After witnessing an assassination attempt on the nation's wealthiest African AmericanAfrican American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
and then seeing her best friend murdered, Friday finds herself targeted for death. She teams up with private detective Colt Hawkins (Kotto) to investigate, and soon the two are hot on the trail of a plot to eliminate the country's African-American political leadership.
In addition to the standard blaxploitation plot elements, the film also dealt with the themes of the power and importance of African American political unity and the potential threat thereto posed not only by the perceived white power structure, but also by those African-Americans willing to betray that goal in search of reward from that establishment.
Cast
- Pam GrierPam GrierPamela Suzette "Pam" Grier is an American actress. She became famous in the early 1970s, after starring in a string of moderately successful women in prison and blaxploitation films such as 1974's Foxy Brown. Her career was revitalized in 1997 after her appearance in Quentin Tarantino's film...
— Friday Foster - Carl WeathersCarl WeathersCarl Weathers is an American actor, as well as former professional football player in the United States and Canada. He is best known for playing Apollo Creed in the Rocky series of films...
— Yarbro - Eartha KittEartha KittEartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
— Madame Rena - Ed Cambridge — Jake Wayne
- Godfrey CambridgeGodfrey Cambridge-External links:*...
— Ford Malotte - Jason BernardJason BernardJason Bernard was an American actor who starred in movies and on television.-Career:Bernard was born in Chicago, Illinois...
— Charles Foley - Jim BackusJim BackusJames Gilmore "Jim" Backus was a radio, television, film, and voice actor. Among his most famous roles are the voice of Mr...
— Enos Griffith - Julius HarrisJulius HarrisJulius W. Harris was an American actor who appeared in more than 70 movies and numerous television series in a career that spanned four decades.-Early life and career:...
— Monk Riley - Paul BenjaminPaul BenjaminPaul Benjamin is an American actor.Benjamin was born in Pelion, South Carolina. He made his film debut in 1969 as a bartender in Midnight Cowboy...
— David Lee Hart - Rosalind Miles — Cloris Boston
- Scatman CrothersScatman CrothersBenjamin Sherman "Scatman" Crothers was an American actor, singer, dancer and musician known for his work as Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show Chico and the Man, and as Dick Hallorann in The Shining in 1980...
— Noble Franklin - Ted LangeTed LangeTheodore William "Ted" Lange is an American actor, director, and screenwriter best known for his role as the bartender, Isaac Washington, in the 1970s TV series The Love Boat...
— Fancy Dexter - Thalmus RasulalaThalmus RasulalaThalmus Rasulala was an African American actor who was an original cast member of ABC's soap opera One Life to Live from its inception in 1968 until he left the show in 1970....
— Blake Tarr - Tierre Turner — Cleve
- Yaphet KottoYaphet KottoYaphet Frederick Kotto is an African-American actor, known for numerous film roles , and his starring role in the NBC television series Homicide: Life on the Street .-Early life:Kotto was born in New York City, the son of Gladys Marie, a...
— Colt Hawkins