Sparkle (1976 Film) - Plot Synopsis

Plot Synopsis

The movie starts at 1958's Harlem, New York. The Williams sisters – Sister (Lonette McKee), Dolores (Dwan Smith), and Sparkle (Irene Cara) – are singers in their local church's teenagers' choir along with their friends Stix (Philip Michael Thomas) and Levi (Dorian Harewood). The girls' mother, Effie (Mary Alice), works hard as a maid for the Gerber family at Long Island and struggles to keep her girls, especially the "high-spirited" Sister, safe. Stix, a budding songwriter who is in love with Sparkle, wants to start a group, and arranges the five of them into a quintet called "The Hearts". The Hearts enter a local talent show contest, which they win with the help of Sister's stage appeal. Shortly afterwards, however, Levi drops out of the group so that he can become an important man in the operations of local gangster Satin (Tony King).

Stix decides to repackage the group as an all-girl trio, appointing Sister lead singer and reducing his role in the act to manager and songwriter. The girls, now known as "Sister & the Sisters", debut at the seedy Shan-Doo Club; their immediate success gains them a position as regular performers there. Satin, invited to the show by Levi, takes up with Sister, who leaves home to move in with him. Sister begins showing up at the Shan-Doo with bruises from Satin's abuse and begins taking cocaine. When Dolores learns that Satin has gotten her hooked on drugs, she plots revenge, coming on to one of Satin's flunkies in order to set the kingpin up. Dolores calls the police to let them know when and where Satin's next drug pick-up will be, but Levi is the one caught in the sting. Regretful and weary of life in Harlem, Dolores packs up and leaves home in order to pursue her dreams of racial equality.

Sister's drug use and her life in the "big time" caused her to relinquish her position as lead singer of the group, and a frustrated Stix gives up on music. He leaves Harlem to work in construction upstate, breaking Sparkle's heart in the process. Several months later, Sister has died of a drug overdose, and Stix reconciles with Sparkle after her funeral. By this time, he has moved back to New York and gained employment with a record label, and offers to produce Sparkle as a solo star. He borrows money from Effie's employer Max Gerber (Paul Lambert) to fund a recording session, and Sparkle's first single becomes a smash hit. Stix lands Sparkle a gig at Carnegie Hall as Ray Charles' opening act, but finds himself kidnapped by Gerber's partners in the Mafia for refusing to agree to a partnership in owning the rights to Sparkle's fame. Despite being threatened with death, however, Stix refuses to give in, and the impressed Gerber lets Stix go free. Stix arrives at Carnegie Hall just in time to see Sparkle finish her set.