Friday, April 7, 2023

Velvet Smooth (1976)

A blaxploitation epic full of hilariously bad fights.



Strange looking men in masks are muscling in on King's (Owen Watson) street hustles. Velvet Smooth (Johnnie Hill) is a female private detective who King hires to find out who is behind the attacks. The "investigation" seems to consist of random fights all over the place and hanging out in Velvet's stylish 1970s apartment. The police are also investigating in the form of Lt Ramos (Frank Ruiz), Sgt Barnes (Moses Lyllia) and a Kojak impersonator!

The story is fairly basic and easy to follow but this film is about the violence. There is a lot of it and it is nearly all bad. Endless fights in the streets and warehouses, obviously (if not very good) choreographed but also very ineptly. It helps to make the film highly entertaining, it also had plenty of late 1970s cheese.