"They call her Coffy and she'll cream you!" screams the poster. They call her Coffy because her name is Ms. Coffyn (no first name is ever actually given), and because writer-director Jack Hill had once had a phone conversation with a woman who described herself as "coffee colored." The imagery stuck with him, until he found the chance to memorialize it as his heroine's name.

For all the "black power" and "black is beautiful" pride that drove the onscreen antics of films like this, Hill found it very hard to staff the off-screen production team with African-Americans. Longstanding prejudice in the industry had kept the ranks of talented black technicians low, and the few African-American crew members Hill did find were often inexperienced.

He hired Bob Minor as stunt coordinator, but Minor had to learn on his feet and didn't really come into his own until their next film together, Foxy Brown. At one point, the script called for Coffy to grapple with an enraged madam, but Minor wasn't able to find a sufficiently competent black stuntwoman to go at it opposite Grier (the star was one tough chick who was already adept at performing her own stunts). Hill rethought the scene to play down the stunts and emphasize the comedy.

In another memorable sequence, the white gangsters tie pimp King George (Robert DoQui) to the back of a car and drive off, dragging his body behind them until he dies from the trauma. Horrifyingly, such incidents have occurred in the real world all too often, with perhaps the most famous being the case of James Byrd, who was killed in just this way on June 7, 1998 in Texas-prompting a national debate about hate crimes.

The finale, set at the palatial digs of crime lord Vitroni (Allan Arbus), was actually filmed at Roy Rogers' house. In honor of the legendary cowboy, Hill had dressed up one of Vitroni's bodyguards in outrageous Western gear-that actor was then stricken with hepatitis and had to leave suddenly, so a different character took his place in some scenes. Allan Arbus, the actor playing the diminutive kingpin, is the former husband of storied photographer Diane Arbus.

Pam Grier auditioned for roles in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994), but didn't make it. Tarantino kept the actress in mind, though, and built Jackie Brown as a vehicle for her. That 1997 film was based on Elmore Leonard's book Rum Punch, which featured a white heroine named Jackie Burke. Tarantino rewrote the part for Grier, rechristening the character in honor of Grier's Foxy Brown role. Jackie Brown features a scene all but copied intact out of Coffy, reunited Grier with Coffy co-star Sid Haig, and had a soundtrack by Coffy's composer Roy Ayers. One part cinematic genius, one part fanboy love, Jackie Brown proved that after all those years, Ms. Grier was still a crowd-drawing superstar.

Compiled by David Kalat

SOURCES:
Jack Hill, commentary track on the MGM Coffy DVD.
Darius James, That's Blaxploitation, St. Martin's Griffin.
Colin Murphy, "She's Here, She's Grier," The Vital Voice.
Interview with Sid Haig, Psychotronic Video.
Gerald Martinez et al, What It Is...What It was!, Hyperion Books.