Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)

I love this movie so much

Pretty Good

Powerful

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

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.

Brilliant B style blaxploitation movie. it has so many comedic moments intentional or otherwise. It's simply a comedy that will have you smiling or giggling throughout, if you've watched police squad you'll get the general idea.

Although Shaft/Sweet Sweetback are usually credited as the blaxploitation movies that kickstarted the funky genre, Cotton Comes to Harlem from one year earlier deserves that honour. A suitably entertaining action/comedy romp that has a great first half hour which it never quite manages to equal again. Of note is that the villain is a black corrupt preacher type and not whitey. Ossie Davis combines some great lines with cool music, some nice location shots of Harlem that add an air of guerilla authenticity, a freewheeling car chase, a junkyard shootout and good ole fisticuffs. It's never boring but some scenes are better than others, as if two different movies (one good, one average) are duking it out and the result is a draw.

I had high expectation for "Cotton Comes to Harlem" - an early exploitation flick oriented around a rogue bale of the southern cash crop. The storyline is patently absurd, filled with gratuitous nudity, bumbling white men, plot holes, and coarse stabs at the true meaning of blackness. Yet, for being such an early and low budget blacksploitation flick, the movie dosen't have much zip, and comes off as aimless and nonsensical. There isn't much chemistry between Cambridge (whose grinch-like smirk I have to say really irritates me) and St. Jaques, they really just seem like they're going through the motions asleep. Redd Fox is a high point, and does an admirable job in his part as "Uncle Bud", an old bum bent on making an honest buck, a precursor to his other, more famous roles. A few scenes are excellent, with discussions based around, "Am I black enough for ya!@#?". Generally, however, there just isn't enough to chuckle at, amd it's not over the top enough for my tastes. The fight choreography is pretty lackluster, too. This an amusing enough film, but it is neither classic nor the kind of prime blacksploitation cut you really hope it will be.