Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)

As might be inferred from its name, this is a comedy, or was meant to be. Unfortunately it isn't that funny, even for those of us who have some familiarity with the nuances of urban black life in the America of this time, if only from similar films."Cotton Comes To Harlem" is also a thriller, and it would have made better viewing if this aspect had been played up, which would have entailed playing down the comic book violence. The bottom line is that $87,000 is stolen in a blatant robbery, and law enforcement including two black detectives turn Harlem upside down in pursuit of it. That sum was worth considerably more then than in today's money, but not so much this was the Great Train Robbery of New York State. The cotton reference is not an allusion to de old plantation but to the stolen money somehow ending up in a bale of cotton.One of the detectives is played by Godfrey Cambridge who just six years later was dead from a heart attack at just 43. This film does not make a good epitaph for him or for anyone else.

If you can get passed the general nastiness of Ossie Davis' Cotton Comes to Harlem, the reverse stereotyping--making white characters functioning morons and black characters vicious, cunning, and foolish-- there's not a bad little story here. Raymond St. Jacques and Godfrey Cambridge are appealing New York detectives--street cool and underlying moralists--who are on the trail of a smarmy community organizer--er--street preacher who is ripping off his own congregation, laying further waste to Harlem's poor, and doing it all with a fine vocabulary and wardrobe and a wife who has beautiful arms.Wait a second. I'm getting my con men mixed up here.CCTH is as incoherent and as blacksploitation as you would expect, but the fun and humor and cinematography and Judy Pace are all so lush that long after you've given up on trying to make hide nor hair out of the incomprehensibilities, you're still in it to finish it.The movie can't decide if it wants to be relevant or a piece of spoofery. If you don't mind or care, sit back and enjoy the ride.

Cambridge and St. Jacques are one of all time best buddy cop duos. They are hip, sexy, and funny. The mystery is intriguing, and the uncomfortable situations keep the viewer's attention throughout. This is one to be seen uncut, because a lot of the humor is quite racy. It's a time capsule in a way also since the Harlem depicted here no longer exists.

I agree with those that say this was an entertaining movie. Of the blaxploitation films, this was the more classier. Fine acting from Cambridge, Lockhart, and others. Ossie Davis direction very good.