Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)

Director:

Ossie Davis

Writers:

Ossie Davis (writer)
Chester Himes (novel)

Release Date:

27 May 1970 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy

Tagline:

Introducing COFFIN ED and GRAVEDIGGER, two detectives only a mother could love.

Plot:

Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are two black cops with a reputation for breaking the odd head...

Plot Keywords:

African American | Chase | Cotton | Detective | Loot

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Godfrey Cambridge	...	Gravedigger Jones
Raymond St. Jacques	...	Coffin Ed Johnson
Calvin Lockhart	...	Rev. Deke O'Malley
Judy Pace	...	Iris
Redd Foxx	...	Uncle Bud / Booker Washington Sims
Emily Yancy	...	Mabel
John Anderson	...	Bryce
Lou Jacobi	...	Goodman
Eugene Roche	...	Anderson
J.D. Cannon	...	Calhoun
Mabel Robinson	...	Billie
Dick Sabol	...	Jarema
Cleavon Little	...	Lo Boy
Teddy Wilson	...	Barry (as Theodore Wilson)
Maxwell Glanville	...	Caspar

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1971) | Sweden:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Formosa Productions

Goofs:

Continuity: During the car chase, the mirror on the driver's side of the police car gets shot off. Once the police car collides with the watermelon cart a few seconds later, the mirror reappears.

Quotes:

Coffin Ed: White guys?
Gravedigger Jones: White guys? They had on masks. How did you know they were white?
Lo Boy: [crying] Oh Lordy, help me!
Coffin Ed: I'm asking you. How do you know they was white?
Lo Boy: They run white, dammit.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Best of Eddie Murphy: Saturday Night Live (1989) (V)

Soundtrack:

Going Home

Early blaxploitation which manages to mess up some good material

Ossie Davis's early blaxpoitation pic has clearly been made on a shoestring budget and, despite its excellent source material, fails to deliver a coherent or engaging plot. Probably of more interest as a time capsule of Harlem in the late sixties/early seventies, the plot sees a couple of tough-talking police detectives, Coffin Ed (Godfrey Cambridge)and Gravedigger (Raymond St. Jacques) hunting for a bale of cotton containing $87,000. The money has been swindled from Harlem's poor black people by slick Marthin Luther wannabe Reverend Deke O'Malley (Calvin Lockhart). The film is fairly typical of its genre, although it hasn't really nailed down the street smart characters yet (at times it is played like a comedy, which just doesn't sit right with the material): Women get naked and beaten up by the men, and the white characters are either incidental or stupid.