A Piece Of The Action (1977)

Starring:

• Sidney Poitier
• Bill Cosby
• James Earl Jones
• Denise Nicholas
• Hope Clarke
• Tracy Reed
• Ja'net DuBois
• Frances Foster
• Ernest Thomas
• Eric Laneuville
• Sheryl Lee Ralph

Storyline
Dave Anderson (Bill Cosby, Man and Boy, Let's Do It Again) and Manny Durrell (Sidney Portier, In The Heat of the Night, Buck and the Preacher) are two high-class sneak thieves who have never been caught. Joshua Burke (James Earl Jones, The Man, Claudine) is a retired detective who has enough evidence on both of them to put them behind bars. Instead, he offers to maintain his silence if the crooks will go straight and do work at a youth center for delinquents. At first, the crooks are reluctant and unwilling (and so are the kids). As time goes by they gain the trust and admiration of the kids and they start to enjoy the job. All goes well until someone out of the past tells them they have to do one last heist...or else...

Link to soundtrack review
Mavis Staples & Curtis Mayfield - A Piece of the Action (1977)