A Piece of the Action ***(1977, Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, James Earl Jones) – Classic Movie Review 7904

Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby team up to play con artists Manny Durrell and Dave Anderson in the meandering and schmaltzy, though endearing 1977 comedy drama A Piece of the Action. The two high-class sneak thieves find themselves blackmailed by ex-cop Joshua Burke (James Earl Jones), a retired detective who has enough evidence on them to send them to jail, into working for their local community youth centre, where the young delinquents are doing time.

Poitier directs with an indulgent hand, but occasionally he manages a Frank Capra touch. The playing of the two stars (in their third pairing, after Uptown Saturday Night and Let’s Do It Again) is always appealing, heading a cast of highly likeable performers, while Charles Blackwell’s rambling screenplay (based on a story by Timothy March) takes time out for broad comic moral homilies and the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Also in the cast are Denise Nicholas, Hope Clark, Tracy Reed, Jason Evers, Marc Lawrence, Titos Vandis, Frances Foster, Marc Lawrence, and Janet DuBois.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7904

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