sos v cleopatra : casino of gold beats

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She’s 6 feet 2 inches of pure dynamite! When there’s trouble that the hood can’t handle,This mama will explode in a burst of blaxploitation B movie Badassness!

The late Tamara Dobson enjoyed a very brief movie career,starting in 1972 and ending in 1975 on a not so high note with the movie Cleopatra Jones And The Casino Of Gold.

This is an unconvincing attempt at a sequal to the the first Cleopatra Jones Movie,where our heroine, U.S agent jones enter deep Hong Kong waters for another hot kung fu mama adventure.
With Chinese female side kick Mi Ling Fong. they come to the gun blazing  karate kicking knife throwing rescue of her two fellow Soul brother’s,agents Mattew and Melvin Johnson.

The Hong Kong U.S connection Join forces to topple ’sister big’,The ruthless’ Dragon Lady‘ played by Stella Stevens and bring her seedy drug organization crashing down in a high octane explosive blaze.

Here is another Warner Brothers production cashing in on the blaxploitation era of the early to mid 70’s.

Believe it or not,films like this actually saved Hollywood in it’s dark years.
Jive talkin soul brother nonsense, meets chinese kung fu,with automatic weapons and high explosives was what the doctor ordered in the black b movie era
These were the days when a low budget movie of the blaxploitation genre could cost a few 100 000.U.S to make, and gross 2 million dollars upwards at the badass box office.

Meanwhile back to the golden casino set…

Chinese kung fu film giant Run Run Shaw partnering with Warner brothers attempts to heat up the action. We struggle through particularly bad fight scene choreography with even worse camera angles. The Stunt doubles standing in for female fighter’s scenes are clearly men dressed as women.

‘Unfriendly fire’ as gun wielding Cleopatra Jones kill no less than 30 chinese thugs in one sitting with  weapon’s that never seem to need reloading,how many more chinese guys gonna fall from the damn balcony for us to get the point that Cleopatra Jones is whuupin ass!!

In alot of the outdoor location scenes there’s that typical low budget ‘let’s film in really bad locations were the general public get into the shot looking confused and bewildered, baffled by what’s going on,totally ruining the authenticity of the scene’.

In fact its difficult to tell if the people jumping out the path of speeding vehicles in backstreet chase scenes are stunt people,or in fact regular people ‘jumping out the way of speeding vehicles’.

Wardrobe and make up is pretty shocking as to be expected in’ b’ movie hell,the stunning Dodson appears in no fewer that six really appalling costume changes,the clownish looking make up daubed on Miss Dobsons Face cheapens and ultimately rubbishes the look of Cleopatra Jones

Scriptwise, Cleopatra Jones one liners do not end up in the book of classic blaxploitation quotables.
Although Dobson does have acting ability and screen presence, She always seems to come off second best in comparison with blaxploitation queen the fantastic Pam Greer.

Warner brothers have a whole catalog of this type of low budget movie, which in a strange twist makes them very collectable for obscure film buffs and bad badass cinema lovers.

In fairness,this movie definately should be viewed in the same way any Blaxsploitation B movie should be viewed, with that being said this film automatically is nominated for an award the category of ‘The best of the badass bad’.

If there is one thing that saves this movie,it is the soundtrack.Choppy wha wha guitars and drum breaks meets orchestral super tension
There are doubts that an album release project was in the Warner budget,so for your listening pleasure Son of Scientist has edited some of the funkiest moments together,

As for our heroine Tamara Dobson…if it’s any consolation…well this film would have ended the careers of many a promising actress.

written by Shottsman