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Cotton Comes to Harlem [VHS] 
Actors : Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, Calvin Lockhart, Judy Pace, Redd Foxx
Director : Ossie Davis
Studio : MGM (Video & DVD)
by MGM (Video & DVD)
Release Date : 2001-01-09
Publisher : MGM (Video & DVD)
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780792839934
UPC : 027616738035
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 21 reviews)
List Price : $9.94
Our Price : $2.65
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Description |
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One of the most influential Soul Cinema pix ever to shoot onto the screen, Cotton Comes To Harlem spawned the blaxploitation boom by delivering a "refreshingly different detective action yarn with soul and humor" (Cue) and an unbeatable mix of "fast-paced adventure [and] comic lunacy" (Pacific Film Archive). Detectives "Gravedigger" Jones (Godfrey Cambridge) and "Coffin Ed" Johnson(Raymond St. Jacques) are on the case and in everyone's face when they investigate Rev. Deke O'Malley (Calvin Lockhart)a brother whose "Back To Africa" campaign is nothing more than a big scam forbigga' bucks. But when $87,000 of O'Malley's laundered cash gets stashed in a bail of cotton, Gravedigger and Coffin find they're not the only dudes suddenly interested in soaring cotton prices! Trailing the bale all over Harlem, the detectives come up against the mafia, the police, black militantsand more in an all-out dash to nab the $87,000 cashand to 86 anyone who stands in the way! |
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Cooltechelectronics.com |
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Based on Chester Himes's novel, this film marked actor-writer Ossie Davis's directing debut. Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques play Himes's volatile police detectives, Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, who are on the trail of white men who pulled an armed stickup at a Back to Africa rally in Harlem. The money belongs to the poor people who paid for a chance to return to the motherland--but was it really a stickup? Or is the flashy preacher at the center of the Back to Africa movement (Calvin Lockhart) involved in a scam to rip off his own people? The plot drags; the best part of the film are the performances (as well as spotting cameos by such actors as the then-unknown Cleavon Little) and the on-location shooting in parts of New York where a camera had rarely ventured previously. Redd Foxx shows up in a small part as a ragpicker that led to his role in TV's Sanford and Son. --Marshall Fine |
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great!!!! |
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I remember this movie from when it first hit the wide screen at the Drive-in Theatre |
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Solid, fairly light early blaxploitation piece helps get the genre going |
This 1970 Ossie Davis film is sometimes considered the first real entry in the "blaxploitation" genre. That's debatable - there are several other films from 1968-70 that seem to bear many of the genre tropes, but not being familiar with most of the other examples yet, I can't really argue the point. In any case COTTON DOMES TO HARLEM is certainly a prime example of this kind of film as it struggled to find an identity - how black should it be? How violent? How sexy? How serious/funny? COTTON seems to tread the middle ground in most of these areas, mostly for better but occasionally for worse.
The film begins with unorthodox New York City police detectives Gravedigger ("Digger") Jones (Godfrey Cambridge) and Coffin Ed Johnson (Raymond St. Jacques) casting a wary eye on the proceedings of a benefit for voluntary repatriation to Africa in Harlem, lead by the magnetic Revererend Deke O'Malley (Calvin Lockhart) which gets broken up - just after the money ($87,000) has all been collected - by armed men firing into the crowd. The men grab the dough and escape, and the Reverend disappears too in another car. The cops pursue, and we have a short but fairly exciting car chase that ends in - believe it - the bad guys' cars blowing up, and the cops hitting a watermelon stand. Along the way we find a drug addict wandering out into traffic and just missing getting hit, and a black conman stealing furs from a Jewish street vendor. Way to hit up those stereotypes, Ossie & company...
The detectives think O'Malley is behind the disappearing money himself; Coffin Ed in particular harbors a violent hatred for the guy. Various encounters with a stranger old guy (Red Foxx) who has a bale of cotton for sale, white mafiosi, the typical hard-ass police captain (John Anderson) who threatens to take our heroes' badges at least a couple of times, and the preacher's very, very fine mistress (actually referred to multiple times as a "stone cold fox") Iris (Judy Pace) make for a pretty entertaining, if ultimately disjointed action-comedy. There's a serious story going on about how black people are often their own worst enemies, allowing people like O'Malley to bilk them on false promises - and there's just a little bit of exploration of the problems of being black cops in a crime-ridden black community - but the film isn't really interested in dealing with the social issues. Certainly it's not as interested as it is in showcasing some great outfits on Ms. Pace, the detectives and the pimp-like O'Malley; the great often-unclothed body of Ms. Pace; and the pretty damn awesome music by Galt MacDermot which oscillates easily between low-key R&B, a funky sound that's not quite the "typical" blaxploitation vibe, and even for a scene or two a country-folk-rock groove.
All in all then, it's a lot of fun, though it might have been a little more memorable had it actually taken itself and the material (a screenplay by the director and Arnold Perl, based on a Chester Himes novel) a little more seriously. And frankly, the whole repatriation-to-Africa theme seems pretty weird for a film set in 1970 - the novel it's based on was set significantly earlier, pre-Civil Rights movement. |
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Cotton Comes to Harlem/Hell up in Harlem |
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I am very please I have been looking for the back in the day African American movies, I feel like I have struck gold. |
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The Movie is Fine, the Description is Not Complete |
This refers to the double feature version containing both "Cotton Comes to Harlem" and "Hell Up in Harlem".
I purchased the older DVD with just "Cotton Comes to Harlem" some years ago but was looking for a replacement with the correct aspect ratio, which is 1.85:1 per IMDb. From the description of this product, both here and elsewhere, it appeared to me that both films were available in both 1.33:1 and 1.85:1, a not uncommon occurrence.
Unfortunately, this is not correct: the package labling clearly states that "Cotton Comes to Harlem" is 1.33:1 and "Hell Up in Harlem" is 1.85:1.
The film itself is great. I enjoyed when I read the book, when I saw the film at the time it came out, and I enjoy it every time I see it even in P&S.
I just wish the product description had been more precise. |
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El Cojonu Speaks |
Make no mistake about it, this is the funniest, most down with it movie made about life in the Hood back in the 70's.
Best characters: Calvin ( The Right Reverend Deke O' Malley - I'M I BLACK ENOUGH FOR YOUUUU ! ), and Redd at the end who winds up with the money and the chicks( Redd Style ! ).
The part of REV. O'Malley was a take off on Rev. Ike, a real life Rev. up in Harlem who dressed in Custom Made Silk Suits,Wore Mink Coats of different colors, Alligator Shoes and Borsalino Hats, Drove a Gold Rolls-Royce and lived in a Penthouse up in Riverdale in the Bronx. Rev. Ike was a man of his time, he always had a
Knockout Sister on his Arm and Transmited his sermons on Sundays from his Church up in Harlem; I remember him saying one time that the Lord didn't want him to be poor and neither any member of his Congregation, that they should all go out there and get rich and bring him some.
The Brother was Super Cool and Out-of-sight; they broke the mold when he was born.
How many of you out there remember Rev. Ike ? |
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