Sheba Shayne
Created by William Girdler and David Sheldon

Who's the queen of the private dicks that digs like a sex machine with all the boys?

Sheba!

Uh, damn right?

In Sheba, Baby, the 1975 blaxploitation classic that does a sex-change on Shaft, Pam Grier gets to let her P.I. freak flag fly.

She plays SHEBA SHAYNE, a Chicago P.I. who gets called home to Louisville, Kentucky when her dad's loan agency is threatened with a hostile takeover by some local tugs. What's a sister to do except step in and lend a hand -- especially after a second attack leaves her defiant dad in the hospital?

At first, it looks like the culprit is Pilot, a local black crime boss, but ultimately the real culprit pulling the strings is revealed as "The Man." And we all know who "The Man" is, right? Dick Merrifield plays "Shark" with cheesy glee, laying on the racism, cruelty and misogyny every chance he can get. Man, Whitey sucks.

Did you get the joke, by the way? Pilot? Shark? And with thugs with names like Hammerhead, Tank, Fin and Whale romping through this flick, it seems pretty obvious the writers were thinking fish, for some reason. Or wrote this just before lunch.

This is strictly B-Land, so don't go expecting Chinatown. Or even Shaft. But it's still a lot of pulpy fun. Sheba, Baby hits all the right notes: gratuitous sex and violence, a strong lead (and a suitably studly male lead "for the ladies": Austin Stoker as Sheba's former -- and possibly current -- "main man" Brick Williams), an alternately cheesy and funky score and some truly atrocious seventies-era fashions.

In fact, with its non-stop stream of establishing shots of Chicago (despite the fact it almost all takes place in Kentucky), its bold brassy score ("Sheba Baby!") and oh-so-seventies typography in the opening credits to set the mood, this looks like nothing so much as a failed TV pilot that decided, at the at moment, to light out for the B-movie circuit. So we get numerous shootouts, some buttkicking, a speedboat chase, a chase through a carnival midway, a catfight at a party (Hair is pulled, tops come off), a car bomb or two, a little sex ("oooooooooh, baby!") and a memorable scene where Sheba dunks a thug's face in some toxic chemicals to get him to talk. In fact, Sheba's more than up for almost anything here, using whatever she can -- be it her .chrome-plated 44 Magnum or her ample feminie charms, to see that justice is done.

UNDER OATH

• "The thing I like best about Pam Grier is her sense of boundless energy. So many actresses are so protective of themselves on screen. Even in the action scenes, they seem afraid to mess up their hair or get their dresses dirty. Not our gal Pam, who in "Sheba, Baby" engages in a couple of breakneck chases, dives off a yacht, practices karate on the bad guys and gets into a brawl at a party. She seems to be having fun, and the characters she plays seem more athletic, more active, than a lot of the action roles played by aging male superstars."
  -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

MOVIES

• SHEBA, BABY....Buy this DVD
  (1975, American-International)
  Story by William Girdler and David Sheldon
  Screenplay by William Girdler
  Directed by William Girdler
   Produced by David Sheldon
  Original Music by Alex Brown and Monk Higgins
  Starring Pam Grier as SHEBA SHAYNE
  Also starring Austin Stoker, D'Urville Martin, Rudy Challenger, Dick Merrifield, Christopher Joy, Charles Kissinger, Charles Broaddus, Maurice Downs, Ernest Cooley, Edward Reece Jr., William Foster Jr, Bobby Cooley, Paul Grayber, Sylvia Jacobson
  

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith..