Let's Do It Again is like a black child's version of [George Roy Hill's] The Sting—an innocent, cheerful farce about an Atlanta milkman … and a factory worker … who go to New Orleans and pull off a great scam. They outwit the black mobsters … and win enough money for their lodge back home, The Sons and Daughters of Shaka, to put up a new meeting hall. Nobody is hurt, and everybody who deserves a comeuppance gets it. Their con involves hypnotizing a spindly prizefighter…. (p. 66)

It's apparent why Sidney Poitier set this project in motion and directed it: he's making films for black audiences that aren't exploitation films. Let's Do It Again is a warm, throwaway slapstick, and the two leads are conceived as black versions of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in the Road series. Poitier is trying to make it possible for ordinary, lower-middle-class black people...