“If you must know I’m going to shit, shower, and shampoo.”
What better way to celebrate Juneteenth than with Matt Cimber’s Lady Cocoa (1975). The title character, played by the beautiful Lola Falana, is so badass and cool. She’s a “hot piece of cheese” that doesn’t suffer fools. Falana may not be as iconic as Pam Grier but she is Grier’s equal in attitude and posture. As she herself puts it “Cocoa’s always ready” be it to take names or put a man squarely in his place.
Lady Cocoa was Cimber’s second foray into the genre of Blaxploitation movies. The film follows Coca for twenty-four hours after she’s been released from prison in order to testify against her gangster boyfriend Eddie (James A. Watson Jr.). In the custody of officers Doug (Gene Washington) and Ramsey (Alex Drier), Cocoa is hauled up in the hotel of a Nevada casino. While in protective custody Eddie makes his move, dispatching a series of goons to kill Cocoa before she can testify.
The core of the film is the relationship between Cocoa and Doug. At first Cocoa dislikes Doug because, as a cop, she believes he has betrayed his Black cultural heritage. She sees him as a puppet for “the man”. Cocoa compares Doug to Eddie who, although a criminal, has made series inroads for Black Americans into casino ownership and management in Nevada.
Doug as the Black cop represents a kind of cultural hypocrisy that is prevalent in blaxploitation movies. Black cops either crack the heads of white gangsters or are the villains that a Black anti-hero has to take down. In Lady Cocoa Doug transitions from being a collaborator to a protector, thusly redeeming himself.
But while the dramatic core of the film is Cocoa and Doug’s romance, the best directed segments are the action set pieces. Cimber stages chases with a great visual economy where less is more. The chase and shootout that ends in the casino’s pool is the highlight of the movie. However, the film is at its most suspenseful during the shootout on the boat at the end of the third act. Cimber knows how to work around a small budget and still deliver eye catching scenes of action.
Despite being a solid entry in the blaxploitation canon Lady Cocoa remains largely unknown. Too often it’s overshadowed by the films of Pam Grier or Cimber’s own infamous The Candy Tangerine Man (1974). It would be fun to pair Lady Cocoa with the equally neglected Emma Mae (1976) in a double feature program that highlights the badass women of blaxploitation cinema.
