Velvet Smooth

'Velvet Smooth' has to be the least convincing martial arts movie I've ever seen. I was laughing so much I got a pain, I could have beaten most of these guys/gals and I'm disabled!

It really is bottom of the barrel stuff but it gets a 1.5 for entertainment value, for Johnnie Hill-Hudgins in her one and only acting role, as Velvet Smooth, (who came across better than any of the other actors in the film) AND for the last line which just had me staring at the screen in disbelief...I mean WTF :-)

If you love watching bad movies that are hilarious then I direct you to 'Velvet Smoooooooth'!

I have never seen such an atrocious looking film with an equally atrocious soundtrack before. A film with the most horrible fight choreography ever depicted and a spiral staircase that obviously went nowhere! That is what we get in Velvet Smooth, a film that tries to be too clever in terms of twists while probably telling the actors to just have fun with it as far as the fight scenes go.

The story, some guys are beating up and stealing from businesses involved in illegal numbers. They belong to a crime guy called King. There is also a dude who has a casino, but I forgot his name. Well King needs to find out who is behind the string of crimes so he gets Velvet Smooth and her lady friends who can unrealistically beat down a superior number of men in masks with karate that is worse than that of the Guy From Harlem. They have to track down the guy behind the masked attackers and get in some loving while pretending the spiral staircase in her apartment leads to a bedroom when it is obvious it goes nowhere.

The actors are horrible, the plot is horrible and the martial arts (if that is what you want to call it) is horrible. I began wondering if this thing were maybe a spoof made at a later date and made to look older when the strange dying screeching music began playing during the fight scenes and that one dude yelled on the roof, but alas, no, not meant to be a spoof.

So, I have seen this and The Guy From Harlem and both are bad, but this one was worse to me. My ears still bleed due to the screeching music. The Guy From Harlem had a more straightforward plot, while this one was all over the place. I saw it coming though, I knew it was going to be an "Aha, I'm the real culprit" type ending. So, it fails to surprise even with all the misdirection and the horrible decor to try and distract you!

Velvet Smooth (1975) plunders Cleopatra Jones territory and stars Johnnie Hill, a stick-thin fashion disaster in her lemon suit and Tamara Dobson afro wig. Martial arts was the old stand-by to warm up any old leftovers, and true to grindhouse cinema tradition, Velvet Smooth contains the lamest kung-fu scenes you'll ever witness, where the punches land twelve inches from their target. Best of all is the title song: "Velvet Smooth, you are the one... Velvet Smooth, with love or with guns... You're Velvet Smooth, with piece in hand... If fate takes your youth, I won't understand..."

Mega-gangster King Lathrop (Owen Watson) is being hit, and hit hard. Somebody's moving in on his action, and roughing up his customers. King calls in VELVET SMOOTH (Johnnie Hill) to make things happen. Ms. Smooth gets her crew together, including Frankie (Rene Van Clief).

Let the throw-down showdown begin!

See! A dozen masked thugs karate kicked to near extinction!

Watch! As their manhood is put into critical condition!

Velvet and Frankie are taking out the trash!

VELVET SMOOTH is another "urban" crime-thriller from the 1970's. While it's not at the bottom of the barrel, it's certainly no COFFY or CLEOPATRA JONES, either. It does have that funky 70's charm going on.

Yes, Ms. Hill speaks as though she's still rehearsing her lines, but hey! She's awesome! Looking good in red! Especially when she's kicking major felonious buttocks! Sure, the fight choreography is a bit south of TNT JACKSON, but hey! Velvet is Smooooth! Even when the microphone is in plain view, like a character in itself!

Right on!

EXTRA POINTS FOR: The theme song! "Outta Sight" doesn't even begin to describe it!...

This little known film is worthy of seeking out . So o.k the production values are limited and the walls move when they close doors , but don't yours ? Our heroine is the foxy detective who is trying to find out who is breaking in to a local drug tzars turf , with plot lines skipping all over the place she soon learns not to trust anyone .. why was she hired in the first place..whats the alteria motive of the gang leader. Velvet soon discovers the truth and unleashes a whole can of "whoop ass" on the hapless baddies. Its not the best but its a hell of a lot better than the worst , and our leading lady..whoa !