See China and Die

See China and Die (released in Europe as Hearsay) is a 1981 television film written, produced and directed by Larry Cohen.

See China and Die
Genre	Crime Drama
Written by	Larry Cohen
Directed by	Larry Cohen
Starring	Esther Rolle Kene Holliday
Music by	Joey Levine and Chris Palmaro
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Producers	Larry Cohen Hal Schaffel
Cinematography	Paul Glickman
Editor	Armond Lebowitz
Running time	86 minutes
Production company	Big Hit Productions
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	January 9, 1981 (1981-01-09)

Premise

A maid who reads detective stories finds herself embroiled in a real life mystery involving her dead boss and a mysterious statue he brought back from China. She acts as an amateur sleuth to solve the murder of her employer.^[1]

Cast

• Esther Rolle as Momma Sykes^[2]
• Kene Holliday as Sgt. Alvin Sykes
• Frank Converse as Tom Hackman
• Paul Dooley as Ames Prescott
• Andrew Duggan as Edwin Forbes
• Laurence Luckinbill as Dr. Glickman
• Jean Marsh as Sally Hackman
• Fritz Weaver as Poston
• Jane Hitchcock as Ruth
• Claude Brooks as Jessie Sykes
• William Walker II as Andy Sykes
• Miguel Pinero as Gonzalez
• James Dukas as Transplant^[3]

Production

The film was originally produced as a pilot for a mystery/crime series starring Esther Rolle called Momma the Detective, but the show never materialized.^[4]