Lets Do It Again (1975 film) - Alchetron, the free social encyclopedia

Let s do it again

Milkman Clyde Williams (Sidney Poitier) and his best friend, Billy Foster (Bill Cosby), are members of a fraternal lodge, The Brothers and Sisters of Shaka, that needs money for the retirement home they sponsor. Since Clyde has a gift for hypnotism, they decide to fix an upcoming boxing match by hypnotizing the underdog fighter (Jimmie Walker). The scam works, and the men collect big winnings before a couple of mafia dons realize theyve been tricked and decide to track Clyde and Billy down.

Lets Do It Again is a 1975 film starring Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby and Jimmie Walker plus an all star black cast. The film, directed by Poitier, is about blue-collar workers who decide to rig a boxing match to raise money for their fraternal lodge. The song of the same name by The Staple Singers was featured as the opening and ending theme of the movie, and as a result, the two have become commonly associated with each other. This was the second film pairing of Poitier and Cosby following Uptown Saturday Night, and followed by A Piece of the Action (1977). Although their characters have different names in each film, the three Poitier-Cosby pictures are considered to be a trilogy. Of the three, Lets Do It Again has been the most successful both critically and commercially. Calvin Lockhart and Lee Chamberlin also appeared in Uptown Saturday Night.

Lets Do It Again (1975 film) movie scenes

Clyde Williams and Billy Foster are a couple of blue-collar workers in Atlanta who have promised to raise funds for their fraternal order, the Brothers and Sisters of Shaka. However, their method for raising the money involves travelling to New Orleans and rigging a boxing match.

Plot

Set in Atlanta, it follows Clyde Williams (Poitier) and Billy Foster (Cosby) as a pair of blue-collar workers who are trying to raise funds for the Brothers and Sisters of Shaka. They decide to rig a boxing match in New Orleans. They use hypnotism to convince underdog boxer Bootney Farnsworth (Jimmie Walker) that he is a highly skilled prize fighter. He fights and defeats the champion, 40th Street Black (Rodolphus Lee Hayden). Williams and Foster clean up after betting Farnsworth. The pair return home, and all is fine until the gangsters who lost money betting on the other guy figure out the scam and come to Atlanta, to get the pair to do it again...or be killed. Unable to enter Farnsworths training room to dehypnotize him, which in turn would cause him to lose the fight, Williams and Foster decide to bet on the match being a draw, and place bets with both gangster groups. They then enter 40th Street Blacks training room and successfully hypnotize him. Both fighters end up simultaneously knocking each other out, and Williams and Foster are able to collect their bets before the gangsters discover what happened.

Cast

Sidney Poitier — Clyde Williams

Bill Cosby — Billy Foster

Calvin Lockhart — Biggie Smalls

John Amos — Kansas City Mack

Jimmie Walker — Bootney Farnsworth

Ossie Davis — Elder Johnson

Denise Nicholas — Beth Foster

Lee Chamberlin — Dee Dee Williams

Mel Stewart — Ellison

Julius Harris — Bubbletop Woodson

Billy Eckstine — Zack

Rodolphus Lee Hayden — 40th Street Black

When the film premiered, John Amos and Jimmie Walker were starring as father and son in the CBS sitcom Good Times. George Foreman makes a cameo as a factory worker who challenges Billy to a fight in the beginning of the movie.

Influence in popular culture

The late New York rap artist The Notorious B.I.G. took his alias, Biggie Smalls, from Calvin Lockharts character in this film. However, the alias could not be used as his name due to ownership issues.

East Coast rap group Camp Lo named their second album "Lets Do It Again" after their debut album was named "Uptown Saturday Night," a reference to the two Cosby and Poitier movies.

Musician/MTV personality Fonzworth Bentley took his stage name from Jimmie Walkers character, Bootney Farnsworth.

Reception

The film earned $6 million in theatrical rentals in North America.

Remake

In 2002, it was announced that Will Smith and his production company, Overbrook Entertainment, had secured the rights to the trilogy for remakes to star Smith and to be distributed by Warner Bros. Smith stated that he hoped to get Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence and other famous African-American stars to be in the films.

References

Lets Do It Again (1975 film) Wikipedia

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