''Sheba, Baby'' is a 1975 American

blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president o ...

action film directed by

William Girdler William Girdler (October 22, 1947 – January 21, 1978) was an American filmmaker. In a span of six years, from 1972 to 1978, he directed nine feature films in such genres as horror and action. Girdler also wrote and produced three of his fea ...

and starring Pam Grier and

Austin Stoker Austin Stoker (October 7, 1930 – October 7, 2022) was a Trinidadian-American actor known for his role as Lt. Ethan Bishop, the police officer in charge of the besieged Precinct 9, Division 13, in John Carpenter's Howard Hawks-inspired 1976 fil ...

Plot

Private investigator Sheba Shayne (Grier) returns from

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

to her hometown of

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, to confront thugs who are trying to intimidate her father Andy into dissolving or handing over his family insurance company business. Sheba teams up with her father’s partner, Brick Williams, and the two rekindle their old romance. Driving in her father's car, Sheba is nearly killed when the vehicle explodes. The local police warn Sheba against continuing to pursue her investigation, but she persists. Later, four gangsters show up at Andy's office and open fire. Sheba kills three of them, but Andy is shot and killed during the battle. Sheba's investigation leads to an apartment complex, where another shootout ensues. After a chase into a nearby amusement park, Sheba extracts a confession from a gangster named Pilot that the local gang is controlled by an insurance salesman called Shark Merrill. Sheba joins a party aboard Shark's yacht, but is identified and captured. After the gang does away with Pilot by tying him to a speedboat and dragging him through the water at high speed, they attempt to do the same to Sheba, but she escapes using a knife she had hidden in her wet suit to cut the rope. As Brick leads the police to the yacht and another gun battle breaks out, Shark tries to escape in a speedboat, but Sheba gives chase on a jet ski and kills him with a spear gun. Brick urges Sheba to continue their relationship, but Sheba insists on returning to Chicago, though she promises to return to see him again, since they are now business partners.

Cast

* Pam Grier as Sheba Shayne *

as "Brick" Williams *

D'Urville Martin D'Urville Martin (February 11, 1939 – May 28, 1984) was an American actor in both film and television. He appeared in numerous 1970s movies in the blaxploitation genre. He also appeared in two unaired pilots of what would become ''All in the ...

as Pilot *

Rudy Challenger Rudolph Michael Challenger (October 2, 1928 – August 22, 2012) was an African-American supporting actor who had roles in various projects over the course of his thirty-four year career in film and television in Hollywood. He appeared on such ...

as Andy Shayne * Dick Merrifield as "Shark" Merrill

Reception

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4 and expressed his wish to see Pam Grier's "screen personality used in a better-directed film with more ambition."

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called the film "a moderately entertaining B picture in the mode of ' Foxy Brown' and ' Coffy,' though somewhat less violent." '' Variety'' wrote, "Once you get past Grier's dazzling looks — and with coiffed hair, she looks better here than ever before — this is a flat suspenser kept unexciting by plodding pacing and poorly-shot action sequences."

Gene Siskel Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his d ...

of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' gave the film 1 star out of 4 and wrote, "The sound track occasionally misses lips, the dialog always is stilted, and the fight scenes look as tho they've been choreographed at half speed." Linda Gross of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' wrote, "'Sheba, Baby' is a routine adventure story but thankfully the racism and violence are minimal. William Girdler's direction is listless and lethargic and there is an embarrassing lack of electricity between Miss Grier and Stoker."

Soundtrack

Barbara Mason sang vocals on the tracks "Sheba Baby," "I'm In Love With You," "A Good Man Is Gone," and "She Did It" on the soundtrack for the film.

Releases

Arrow Films released a restored

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

edition of the film in 2016, which includes a new documentary ("Pam Grier: The AIP Years") and two audio commentaries.

Sources

Bogle, Donald. ''Blacks in American Films and Television: An Illustrated Encyclopedia''. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. p. 187

References

External links

* * * * * {{William Girdler 1975 films American International Pictures films Blaxploitation films 1975 action films American detective films Films directed by William Girdler Films shot in Chicago Films set in Kentucky American neo-noir films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films