This handsome Warner Bros. production starred statuesque newcomer Tamara Dobson as haute couture-garbed, high-kicking, hard-loving special agent Cleopatra Jones. One of the few films of the early 1970s to have a black heroine, the 1973 action-adventure (co-scripted by actor-director Max Julien) arrived during the waning years of the blaxploitation era. Still, moviegoers kept the turnstiles clicking to see Dobson take her drug-busting crusade from the poppy fields of Ankara, Turkey to the 'hoods of southern California. Cleo's chief antagonist is Shelley Winters, in the embarrassingly over-the-top role of "Mommy," a lesbian drug dealer out to destroy the neighborhood rehab house operated by Cleo's lover, ably played by Bernie Casey. Director Starrett paces the film nicely, weaving in action sequences with Cleo zooming around in her sleek black Stingray Corvette equipped with an arsenal 007 would envy. The solid supporting cast also includes Dan Frazier ("Kojak") and Antonio Fargas (Huggy Bear in "Starsky and Hutch"). Dobson also starred in the 1975 sequel, Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold.-Doris Worsham