Beatniks Bird, Zelda, and Theodore show the movies that must be shown, every Saturday at Midnight on WBBZ-TV’s nationally syndicated “Off Beat Cinema.”
This week, Teresa Graves stars in “Get Christie Love!”
Get Christie Love! is a 1974 made-for-television film starring Teresa Graves as an undercover female police detective who is determined to overthrow a drug ring. This film is based on Dorothy Uhnak’s crime–thriller novel The Ledger.
The film was inspired by the 1970s heroine blaxploitation films such as Tamara Dobson‘s Cleopatra Jones (1973), and Pam Grier‘s Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). The title character had a catchphrase; upon apprehending a criminal, Love would declare, “You’re under arrest, Sugah!” The film proved a success, and consequently spawned a short-lived television series on the ABC network (23 episodes from January 22, 1974-April 5, 1975).
Harry Guardino co-stars.
The starring TV role made Graves the only African-American female lead in a U.S. network drama