Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby were paired together again in this follow-up to Uptown Saturday Night, this time playing working class, married men from Atlanta (Poitier is a milkman, Cosby a factory worker). When their community lodge has to come up with cash to relocate, Cosby convinces Poitier to accompany him to New Orleans and to use his knack for hypnosis to fix a big boxing match.

Accompanied by their wives – the uptight Lee Chamberlain and soulful Denise Nicholas – Poitier & Cosby “put the whammy” on a boxer played by Jimmie Walker, transforming him from a chump into a he-man. The con nets a big payoff from rival gangsters (played supremely well by John Amos and Calvin Lockhart). But Amos tracks the pair down and forces them to return to New Orleans and put the whammy on the rematch. Poitier & Cosby decide instead to sting the gangsters, with a little help from their wives.

Directed by Sidney Poitier and written by Richard Wesley (from a story by Timothy March), Let’s Do It Again is perhaps the best buddy comedy of the era, and I’m including the Gene Wilder-Richard Pryor pictures and the Eddie Murphy comedies of the ’80s in that statement. There isn’t one scene that falls flat here. The movie works beautifully from beginning to end.

As the lead performer of an impressive ensemble, Poitier shows much greater comfort doing comedy than he did in Uptown. Instead of playing the straight man and deferring to Cosby, Poitier gives himself a lot more to do here, “putting the whammy” on people or impersonating a high rolling hustler, complete with pimp hat and cape.

Cosby once again runs away with the movie, delivering perhaps the best film work of his career. The well traveled setup is for Poitier & Cosby to be discovered someplace they’re not supposed to be, and Cosby’s character having to talk their way out.

Classic bits include Cosby imitating a hotel detective, before realizing the dude he’s trying to con is the real hotel detective, and a laugh-out-loud bit where Cosby, decked out in pimp Bermuda shorts, cap and wraparound shades, tries to play himself off to Amos as a high roller. Nothing could be further away from Heathcliff Huxtable than Cosby playing a super fly hustler, but he’s brilliant in the movie.

As director, Poitier not only delivers laughs, but cast his movie extremely well. In addition to Amos – who is great fun to watch get furious – Chamberlain & Nicholas play women with wit who get to strut their stuff as a part of the sting. Jimmie Walker – who on one hand, always wore on the nerves the more dialogue he was given – gets laughs just by appearing in boxing trunks. The scene where he comes out to spar with superhuman strength, launching a punching bag through a window, is hilarious.

Ossie Davis is well utilized as the elder of the lodge, amusingly named “The Sons and Daughters of Shaka.” Also of note is George Foreman, who pops up as a factory worker at the beginning of the film, heckling Cosby and radiating all the charm he would during his boxing comeback the following decade.

Curtis Mayfield, whose music for Super Fly ranks as one of the best soundtracks ever recorded for a movie, wrote and produced the sensational soul music here. Among nine tracks, The Staples Singers performed a classic theme song in “Let’ Do It Again” that captures the fun and flirtatious vibe of the movie. Highly recommended.