Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975)

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Statuesque special agent Cleopatra Jones (Tamara Dobson) is back in this action-heavy sequel, facing off against yet another lesbian drug lord (Stella Stevens). Two of Cleopatra's friends go missing in Hong Kong so she heads there to find them. She teams up with a local detective (Ni Tien) and the two chop-socky their way to the evil Dragon Lady.Tamara Dobson was certainly an elegant and striking presence. While I don't think she was as good an actress as Pam Grier, she did bring something unique to the screen. She's like a more feminine and attractive Grace Jones. Her makeup choices in this are very questionable, though. Busty Stella Stevens makes for a sexy villainess. She doesn't appear nude here (despite a scene that teases she will) but she does show off her magnificent cleavage. Pretty Ni Tien (billed as Tanny) is good as Dobson's butt-kicking partner. Norman Fell plays the obligatory white boss that is the brunt of many deserved jabs from Dobson.It's a watchable movie but not as good as the first Cleopatra Jones. There's many reasons for this but a few are the weaker soundtrack, a more boring script, too much focus on other characters besides the lead, and no Shelley Winters hamming it up. This does have some nice martial arts scenes (particularly for blaxploitation, where 'amateur' would be the kindest way to describe most fight choreography). It does seem like it was filmed with a higher budget than most blaxploitation movies I've seen. Still, there's something ho-hum about it all and I found myself wishing it was more fun than it is.

Made in the midst of the seventies and the era just before the explosion of the horror genre. Just before that exploitation was the independent thing. And of course black actors wanted to have their own exploitation. Here we have a very good example what we call blaxploitation. But this here is really good. Naturally the main leads are black people but the one to look out to is Tamara Dobson. She was a natural beauty but sadly she became sick and stopped making movies in 1984. She died of her disease which was MS in 2006. Here she's Cleopatra Jones, let's just say a black 007. But look how the feature was made, back in those days they knew how to do their stuff, no CGI or other stupid effects, here's it's the real stuff but here it's effects in the attacks and the many fights. Don't think that you will see a serious amount of blood, no it doesn't. But of course for the seventies nudity was a normal thing and it contains some nudity. But also have a look at Cleopatra's clothes and the way they put some make-up on her. The score, pure seventies, this is excellent stuff. I can't say anything that I didn't like in it. The chases with the cars and motorcycles, it goes on for minutes. You can guess it, one to watch

A much better looking lesbian villainess for Cleopatra Jones to fight in this second one of the series! Stella Stevens as the "Dragon Lady" is a two-face: smiling and cooing to her casino guests, but a deadly bitch to those who cross her (including one of her Chinese girl lovers whom she has killed when the girl decides she prefers Black dude Albert Popwell instead of her blonde sapphic mistress.The climatic fight to the death between the black heroine and the white villainess is totally rousing, and the outcome prompted cheers from the 1975 audience! Rumors of Stella's nude bath scene are still unconfirmed. It would be great to see!

CONTAINS SPOILERS: It's a case of "sack the blacks, sign the chinks", when Cleo jets off to the Orient hot on the trail of two undercover agents who have mysteriously disappeared after an explosion on a sampan full of opium. In Hong Kong she teams up with shady operator Mi Ling, a female kung fu superstar in her own fight - but that's another article. After layin' some kung-fu moves on the local Triads, they head to Macao to investigate the white-as-snow owner of the 'Casino of Gold', the Dragon Lady, played by Stella Stevens. Stella spent the 60s looking sweet and acting dumb; here she plays a vicious lesbian heroin lord (again with the lesbians?) and gets deadly with a blade. Tamara Dobson returns as Cleo, minus the big hair but still the show pony for those ghastly 70s fashions. The film plays up the comedy and was a hit for a brain-dead actioner, but the genre, like Stella Stevens at the end of Casino of Gold, was dead in the water.