A Piece of the action

United States, 1977

Film
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Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier star as Dave and Manny, two Chicago crooks who have independently made a bundle ripping off rip-off artists who exploit the poor. But they have no intention of giving to the poor, until ex-Detective Burke pulls a con of his own - he anonymously gives the pair a choice, to donate time to a Community Centre or do time in a federal prison. Scrambling in their off-hours to find out who is blackmailing them, the two spend their working hours in classroom confrontations reminiscent of Poitier’s “To Sir With Love,” with 30 troubled ghetto kids. Cast includes James Earl Jones, Hope Clarke and Ja’net Du Bois.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

director

Sidney Poitier

producer

Melville Tucker

production company

First Artists

Warner Bros Pictures

Duration

02:10:00:00

Production places
United States
Production dates
1977

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

311001

Language

English

Audience classification

MA

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Wikidata

Q4507741

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

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If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/88436/ |title=A Piece of the action |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=14 November 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}