Rififi no Harlem

COTTON COMES TO HARLEM is the adaptation of Chester Himes' 1965 novel of the same title and stars Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques as his two Harlem police detectives "Gravedigger" Jones and "Coffin" Ed Johnson respectively. Their motto: "[We] may have broke some heads, but we ain't never broke no promise." Jones and Johnson are on the trail of "Reverend" Deke O'Malley (Calvin Lockhart. O'Malley is funding a "Back to Africa" cruise by taking donations from the good people of the 'hood. However, before he can make his getaway, a robbery breaks out and the money, hidden in a bale of cotton, gets lost in Harlem. This sends the cops, O'Malley and the robbers on a wild search through the New York area for the stolen loot. Redd Foxx appears as a junk dealer (two years before SANFORD AND SON) who holds the key to the fate of the money.

Oddly enough, the movie is less rough then Himes' novel (which had quite a bit of rough language and sex in it), yet received an R rating back then. It would hardly register as a PG-13 today. COTTON COMES TO HARLEM should be seen to see the true origins of the genre known as "blaxploitation" (black exploitation movies).

COTTON is quite an enjoyable action romp. It is especially light compared to the later "blaxploitation" films that followed it.

Cotton Comes To Harlem is a good movie. The actors and actresses are good plus redd foxx who plays uncle budd he's funny. I'm a big redd foxx fan! the movie and story line is ok!

One of the better black exploitation pictures to come out of the Seventies was Cotton Comes To Harlem where Raymond St. Jacques and Godfrey Cambridge gave a black twist to the male buddy film that so many white actors had done over the years going all the way back to James Cagney and Pat O'Brien.

St. Jacques and Cambridge play a pair of police detectives assigned to a precinct north of Central Park where they've drawn duty being security for a rally headed by the Reverend Calvin Lockhart who's got a nascent Back to Africa movement going. He's collecting money at his rally and preaching up a storm when some masked bandits armed with automatic weapons take off with the proceeds. The money gets hidden in a bale of cotton and then the bale gets ripped off.

Our two detectives got a whole host of suspects, some white numbers gangsters from Pleasant Avenue, black militants, the good reverend himself who St. Jacques has a passionate dislike for and various and assorted other criminal types. Lockhart is one charismatic preacher and as he says himself, he could be another Marcus Garvey who immediately came to mind before Lockhart mentioned his name during the film.

John Anderson and Eugene Roche are St. Jacques and Cambridge's superiors in the police department, Anderson impatient with them and Roche inclined to give them plenty of room to maneuver. Judy Pace plays Lockhart's mistress and one seductive temptress if there ever was one. And we can't forget Redd Foxx in a delightful performance as an old rummy whose ship might just be coming in.

Cotton Comes To Harlem moves at a very fast pace with absolutely not a wasted frame of film. It holds up very well after almost 40 years even if those fashions and those Afros don't.

This is an early blaxploitation flick, that would had probably been considered to be very racist, was it not directed by an African American director and not been a part of the early blaxploitation era.

I mean seriously, just think about it. Here we have a bunch of African American persons who are searching for a bale of cotton, at one point two characters crash into a cart of melons and in an attempt to control a large crowd, one of the characters throws a bunch of chickens into the crowd. But of course the movie isn't racist and is simply a silly black urban comedy, that pokes fun at lots of the prejudices against black society. And as a silly entertaining movie, this movie really works out well.

It by no means is a great movie though. The movie just doesn't always makes sense with its story and also the way it ends seems very random, though the characters all pretend like it was something they planned out. The movie is also often too silly for its own good and the movie really goes over-the-top with its comedy at times.

But luckily this all hardly goes at the expense of its entertainment value. I can definitely see a large crowd having tons of fun with watching this movie.

The movie really has some good characters in it and the two lead cops Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are great charismatic leading characters. I would had loved to see more movies featuring those two but only one sequel starring Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques in those roles got made. Just imaging Shaft times two and you have Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. Not that the actors playing them are very impressive but they are just some two very charismatic and entertaining characters, who don't necessarily always play by the rules. Calvin Lockhart as the main villain of the movie is also a very good and entertaining villain and Calvin Lockhart is probably also being the best actor of the movie and about the only one who also had a decent acting career before and afterward.

But still biggest name involved with this movie was Ossie Davis, who directed this movie. It actually was his directorial debut and you could tell that this movie was low-key and fairly cheaply made. Considering those circumstance, this movie is even more an accomplishment from Davis. He actually directed a bunch of other blaxploitation flicks, that nobody has ever heard off and are even more obscure and hard to get than this movie already is. A bit of a shame, since he really seemed to be a director who understood and embraced the genre. But oh well, at least he still had an all the more impressive career as an actor though, so you don't have to feel bad for him.

By no means a great movie but it's a very entertaining one!

6/10

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This is one of the funniest movies of the early 1970's. The story, the acting as well as the characters helped to make this a great film. In many ways this film was a preview of things to come due to the fact that the very next year with the premier of Shaft, the era of the "blaxploitation" film would begin. Also, you have to wonder if the team who created the Lethal Weapon series were somewhat inspired by this due to the fact that characters of Gravedigger and Coffin are somewhat reminiscent of Briggs and Murtaugh from that series. However, the thing that really made this fun was the brief appearance of Redd Foxx playing a character that was not dissimilar from the character that would earn him his biggest fame, Fred Sanford. This is definitely a lost classic.