The Specialist (1975)

Featuring the sort of dippy plot one might expect to encounter in a bad TV crime show, The Specialist concerns a woman who hires herself out as a seductress for clients with legal problems. Specifically, she agrees to sit on a jury and beguile the married defense counsel, because his enemy hopes a scandal will lead to the man’s disbarment. The inherent logic problem, of course, is that courts take pains to prevent jurors from interacting with lawyers, so by the time the seductress has her first conversation with the lawyer—addressing him from the jury box while he’s trying the case—the stupidity level of the film is already off the charts. The Specialist also suffers from sleepy pacing, so even though it’s only about 90 minutes, it feels much longer. That said, The Specialist has some compensatory values. Leading lady Ahna Capri has a knockout figure, so her brief nude scenes are impressive. The same cannot be said of her performance, because she conveys too much sweetness for her role as a cynical manipulator. In terms of this flick’s campy pleasures, one need merely invoke the name Adam West. The former Caped Crusader plays the lawyer whom Capri’s character is tasked with seducing. West flounders his way through a murky performance, sometimes trying for babe-in-the-woods innocence and sometimes trying for studly swagger. His work is enjoyably terrible. Worth mentioning is the movie’s sleazy theme song, a lounge-lizard R&B number crooned by the inimitable Lou Rawls. Listening to the song, which is played at full length twice during the film, is almost as cringe-inducing as watching West grope Capri’s enormous breasts.

The Specialist: LAME