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Ebony, Ivory & Jade
[Anchor Bay Entertainment]
1976; color
Directed by Cirio H. Santiago
Starring: Roseanne Katon, Colleen Camp & Sylvia Anderson
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B-Movies come in as many varied forms as there are colors of the rainbow but there's one cinematic tennet all forms of B-Movie makers, distributors, etc. seem to agree on: if you run one title up the flagpole and no one salutes, just try another. Today's subject has been released under many alternate titles; American Beauty Hostages, Foxfire, Foxforce and She Devils In Chains, to name four. (According to the imdb, it was also remade for TV about three years after it's release on the big screen but since we're not reviewing TV shows, I didn't research that past looking at the entry.) None of these are particularly appropriate titles, at least if we base the title of a movie on it's contents; maybe this is how the need/desire for alternate titles came about in the first place. For example, going by the title we're using here, one would imagine that the plot revolves around a trio of women, each of whom physically represent the three words in the title. Not true. There are three female main characters who survive and triumph at the end, but if the movie was named to specifically represent their physical appearances or racial / ethnic backgrounds it would have been "Ebony, Ivory & Lighter-Skinned Ebony." In terms of marquee appeal, definitely not as catchy as what wound up being the film's most widely known title, Ebony, Ivory & Jade. Obviously the filmmakers made the right choice because, thanks in part to that title, this is one of the more widely remembered flicks of the era. The TV thing might have helped too; but it's certainly not because the movie itself is that memorable. Over the years it's come to be regarded as some sort of sexploitation, blaxploitation, or some other style of -sploitation flick but after watching it I have a hard time figuring out exactly how that legend grew. (Is there an unrated version in existence somewhere where the girls shower together or carve up some non-English speaking dude's face with a shiv or anything?) It's lacking in both sex and violence—two hallmarks of the -sploitation flick—and there's really not that much racism, or even racial dis-harmony, to speak of in the plotline. Well, the taller African American athlete seems to hate whitey but it was the mid-'70s, pretty much everybody was down on whitey back then—even many white people. I'd say Ebony, Ivory & Jade would be better described as a martial arts-pliotation (uh, you know, if such a genre existed) due to the fact that there's more karate in the movie than anything else. As mentioned previously, fans of the more scantily clad & giggly flicks of the '70s aren't going to find very much to write home about here. On the other hand, if you ever wished Charlie's Angels were more ethnic, used a lot of politically incorrect slang and beat the shit out of numerous men on a daily basis, this movie is for you.
—Bunny
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