CLEOPATRA JONES

A Turkish poppy field is torched and a U.S. drug trafficker known as Mommy (Shelley Winters) is feeling pretty burned. She phones the local cops she owns and orders a retaliatory strike on an inner-city antidrug headquarters. Mommy's next call should be to 911. Because now she'll have to mess with Cleopatra Jones (Tamara Dobson). Mommy is relentless in her vendetta but Cleo responds with catlike karate stealth. (Bong So Hon, technical advisor on Billy Jack, supervised the karate sequences.) Doodlebug, Pickle, Snake and more of Mommy's offbeat stooges add glide to the story's stride. Their antics, Mommy's chortling sleaziness and Cleo's class shape the power and pizzazz of Cleopatra Jones.