Tough Chicks: Tiana Alexandra – Catch the Heat
While it’s more well known that Tiana Alexandra was the first female student of Bruce Lee, her starring role in 1987’s Catch the Heat may be a little less known. Did I know that Tiana was the first lady student of Bruce before seeing it on her IMDb page? Nope. But do I believe it having seen her work in Catch the Heat? Damn straight!
Except for the gloriously 80’s song at the end of the film, I’m not 100% sure why the film is titled Catch the Heat. I would be willing to bet it’s some undercover cop lingo that hasn’t stayed relevant. No matter what it means, the film is one of those ones that has no right to be any good but turned out to be fantastic because of its leading lady. Tiana doesn’t land on the same lists as other notable action ladies like Cynthia Rothrock or Michelle Yeoh, but if her performance in Catch the Heat is an example of the type of movies she would have made then we are damned unlucky that she chose a life off screen instead of one full of jumping high kicks and wet tank tops.
Tiana plays the excellently named Checkers Goldberg. She’s an undercover cop working with her partner played by David Dukes (the actor, not the white supremacist). Checkers and Dukes’ Waldo have some pretty good sexual chemistry as he’s always stealing glances at her and she looks super hot throughout the entire movie. In fact, I can’t think of a single male character who doesn’t fawn over her during the movie. It’s a wonder that she was able to be a successful undercover officer.
There aren’t many scenes in Catch the Heat that fall short of entertaining. Tiana gets plenty of help from her supporting cast as veteran actor Rod Steiger, bad guy Brian Thompson, and the powerful Professor Toru Tanaka all lend a hand. Tiana is given plenty of opportunities to flex her muscles by kicking ass (she even gets her own Enter the Dragon tight black suit scene!) and she does so in most of the scenes while wearing the 80’s equivalent of leggings. It makes for a beautiful sight! It’s a shame that Alexandra didn’t make more action films before she rode off in the sunset of philanthropy and social activism but I’m certain that she’s been able to touch more lives through her work than we’ll ever truly understand.
