See China and Die

A slight and lighter change of pace for Larry Cohen after the monster infants of It Lives Again (1978). Written, produced and directed by Cohen, this was first broadcast on WNBC on 9th January 1981, the pilot for a TV series to be called Momma the Detective based around the antics of middle-aged negress Momma Sykes, a meddling amateur sleuth who helps out her police officer son in the process. It's easy to see why the series never got off the starting blocks — a reliance on too many flat comedic moments interweaved with Cohen's love of New York grit pull the film in opposite directions.

Affable busybody Momma (Esther Rolle; Cleopatra Jones) works as a maid for several rich tenants in a luxurious New York tower block overlooking Central Park. One morning she discovers one of her clients — Henry Temple — lying dead in his bed, a knife protruding from his body. The police are called in to investigate, with Momma soliciting her own theories — much to the annoyance of son Alvin (Kene Holliday), the Detective heading the case.

The police arrest tenement caretaker Gonzalez (Miguel Piñero, a Puerto Rican play write who wrote the superb Short Eyes), but Momma isn't convinced and swears to clear his name. Scouting around solo, she discovers that the murder of Henry Temple is somehow connected to his recent visit to China, coupled with a museum donation of an ornamental Wei Dynasty lion from several wealthy tenement patrons. Further probing reveals the Chinese lion to be a clever fake used for a tax write-off, but will Momma be able to solve the mystery before she becomes the next murder victim?