Cotton Comes to Harlem.

Review #1635: Cotton Comes to Harlem.

Cast: 

Godfrey Cambridge (Gravedigger Jones), Raymond St. Jacques (Coffin Ed Johnson), Calvin Lockhart (Deke O'Malley), Judy Pace (Iris Brown), Redd Foxx (Uncle Budd / 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), and Cleavon Little (Lo Boy) Directed by Ossie Davis.

Review: 

“...Harlem was home; was where we belonged; where we knew and were known in return; where we felt most alive; where, if need be, somebody had to take us in. Harlem defined us, claiming our consciousness and, I suspect, our unconsciousness.”

Actors becoming directors is not a surprising thing to see, because it has occurred for several decades, so one shouldn't be surprised to find that this was the directorial debut for Ossie Davis. The Georgia native initially studied at Howard University (after receiving a scholarship from the National Youth Administration) in philosophy. However, when asked by Dr. Alain LeRoy Locke (the head of the department) what his ambitions were, Davis had stated he wanted to be a playwright. Spurred by suggestions to check in with the Rose McClendon Players in Harlem to check what it means to be a writer, Davis left the university to go to Harlem, for which he joined the company in 1939 (seven years later, he would debut on Broadway). Aside from his acting interests, he also served in the United States Army for the Medical Corps and afterwards attended Columbia University School of General Studies from 1947 to 1948. Davis would start appearing in film in 1950 and television in 1955, eventually getting a few prominent roles (such as his first starring role with The Emperor Jones (1955, TV), Gone Are the Days! (1963, film), which also featured Cambridge, or The Hill (1965)) while being well known for his participation in civil rights activism (alongside his wife and actress Ruby Dee). This was the first of five theatrical films that Davis would direct in his life, and he was brought in by Samuel Goldwyn, Jr initially to star before being impressed by Davis' work in rewriting the script to have him direct instead. When it comes to the 1970s, blaxploitation was one of the dominant genres to come forward in making movies. It might be hard to describe what is the first one of its genre, but there were certainly example-setters in films that raised attention and eyebrows that came around at the start of the decade, whether involving Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), or Shaft (1971). Of course one that shouldn't be forgotten is a film released a year before either film, one that is adapted from the 1965 novel of the same name that had been written by Chester Himes. The novel was part of Himes' series of mystery novels known as the Harlem Detective series, which had nine published works from A Rage in Harlem (1957) up to the last one in Blind Man With a Pistol (1969), with one unpublished work eventually being released after Himes' death. Eight of the nine works involved the characters of Gravedigger and Coffin Ed, obviously inspired by the exploits of pulp writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. There have been two subsequent films since this one that were based on the two characters with Come Back, Charleston Blue (1971, starring Cambridge and St. Jacques but with no Davis) and A Rage in Harlem (1991).

What's not to like about a movie that wants to balance high action with cheeky humor? The film was written by Davis and Arnold Perl, who incidentally wrote for a variety of cop dramas (alongside directing the documentary Malcolm X (1972) before his death). They may be rough-and-tumble cops, but they sure don't break their promises to make sure to serve the community, especially when they are being swindled. I sure enjoyed what I saw, and it sure is easy to see why it proved to be on the earliest examples of raucous action entertainment, nothing that ends up great or even really good, but average is pretty good. This might be represented by a brief fight in the opening eight minutes, in which Cambridge and St. Jaques briefly deal in a scuffle with five folks that leads to one of the group getting tossed in the air to the stares of the others as he falls right back down. Not to be let down in further play in action is a roaring heist/duel between cops and thieves for money. Somehow, in the midst of the chase, the money was put into a bale of cotton and fell out of the truck, which naturally means the film is a pursuit of the cotton and the cons played to deal with said money. A variety of things occur through the film, such as a defrocked conman, blackmail, and plenty of gunfire and smart remarks to go around in a film shot in the summer of 1969 right in the heart of Harlem (with community support from The Black Citizens Patrol). Truly, one could see plenty of self-determination when it comes to slam-bang fun for a mostly interesting 97 minute tale. It might not rank up as a great action film or even as iconic as Shaft proved to be a year later, but it sure is a useful film that remains a curiosity after five decades, one that gets by with pride for its setting without too many details to bog things down. We have quite a duo here in Cambridge (who initially wanted to study medicine at Hofstra College before turning to acting) and St. Jaques (a Yale graduate in drama), each of whom did a variety of odd jobs alongside making it in acting through Off-Broadway roles; incidentally, Cambridge would also star in Watermelon Man (1970), which was also one of the first studio films directed by an African American (in this case Melvin Van Pebbles). At any rate, they make for a fine duo together, trading a few snappy lines that make for some chuckles while keeping the peace of mind with a casual cop plot. Lockhart makes for a quality adversary in terms of flim-flam confidence man, which goes over quite well in balancing humor with tension. Others follow along just fine in delivering a few plot details or curious stares, most notably with Foxx (known for his raunchy nightclub acts before sitcom stardom came in 1972), who proves for a few chummy laughs (particularly with a fitting close scene. Others play amusing fiddles such as Sabol or authority like Roche alright. As a whole, the film works best in its first and last acts, mostly because its process of investigation takes its toll in the editing department - the closing may not involve a big gunfight (that was earlier), but having a showdown in the theater is good enough. Is it a great film? No, and there would be plenty of blaxploitation films to come around, but it certainly has a place worth talking about when it comes to actor-director ventures with a bit of action and humor to go around.

Next Time: Now this one is different for Black History Month from the new voices seen so far, but it fits because of its angle within horror at the height of blaxploitation. That, and the fact it has an interesting history to it - Abby (1974).

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Raise the Titanic.

Review #1195: Raise the Titanic.

Cast: 
Jason Robards (Admiral James Sandecker), Richard Jordan (Dirk Pitt), David Selby (Dr. Gene Seagram), Anne Archer (Dana Archibald), Alec Guinness (John Bigalow), Bo Brundin (Captain Andre Prevlov), M. Emmet Walsh (Master Chief Vinnie Walker), J.D. Cannon (Captain Joe Burke), and Norman Bartold (Admiral Kemper) Directed by Jerry Jameson.

Review: 
What film can best be summed up by a quote from its producer other than this one: "It would have been cheaper to lower the Atlantic." With a budget of over $40 million (which would be roughly over $120 million in 2019) and an ultimate box office finish of $7 million, this was another of Lord Lew Grade's failures for the year of 1980, where production overruns and story re-writes doomed a film to fail beyond belief. The film is based off the novel Raise the Titanic! (1976) by Clive Cussler, the third book in his series of adventure books involving the character Dirk Pitt, for which he has currently written 24 of since 1973. Grade saw potential in Cussler's books to adapt to film and make a series much like with the James Bond films. The intent was to have Stanley Kramer as director, although he quit as pre-production began due to creative differences, with the brunt of the budget's spiraling being due to making models (alongside re-writes for the script); a fifty foot scale model was built for the climatic raising of the ship that required a 10 million-gallon tank to accompany its size. Larry McMurtry (writer of novels such as The Last Picture Show and Lonesome Dove) claimed to have worked on the screenplay alongside sixteen other writers, although he was the only one who did not petition for writing credit, although the final credits list Eric Hughes for story and the screenplay credit for Adam Kennedy.

As ridiculous as it may sound, the idea of making an adventure film set around raising the Titanic could have had potential, albeit one that would have to rely on charm and effects instead of tight logic to really work. Keep in mind, the Titanic was not proven to have been broken up into two pieces (as opposed to the theory that it simply sunk intact) until 1985. Unfortunately, the final product is not particularly interesting to watch, managing to squander its premise with plenty of padding surrounded by one pure highlight. Jordan doesn't spring too much interest as the main hero, perhaps in part because there really is nothing for him to go on in terms of personality. I suppose him and Selby are supposed to be an interesting pair to see interact and bicker with, too bad they don't really click well. Robards is okay. The actors besides him really seem to just say the lines very mildly. Honestly, the only one who seems interesting is Guinness, playing a survivor of the Titanic who exists just to say exposition about the mysterious person who just happened to put the "byzanium" in a vault before the ship sank. He's in the film for one scene, looking perfectly like someone waiting to cash a check, but at least it means he isn't stuck in the feature for very long. Archer has slightly more screen-time, yet her character (and her motivations for being in the plot) fade halfway through the film. There isn't even a real villain worth mentioning, and the only real menace in the entire film is boredom over the water scenes, which don't really give the film much in terms of spectacle for 114 minutes of run-time.

Comparing it to Grade's other boondoggle in Saturn 3 is amusing, since both films have such strange differences yet still manage to both be ridiculous in their own ways due to their cast, story and use of effects. In this regard, the earlier film is somehow a bit better, perhaps because it doesn't feel so long. Undeniably, the only shining part of the film is composer John Barry (known for his work on Born Free and the James Bond films) and his score, which is entertainingly majestic, fitting quite well for the film, particularly when dealing with the climatic raising. In a less flawed film (i.e. one that works better), the scene of the Titanic rising the depths would prove to make the film ultimately feel worth it, as it is a nice sequence even after over three decades since its release. Understandably, Cussler was not happy with the results of the film, saying that they had turned the plot into a hollow shell of the original along with not liking the cast. He refused to give permission for any more film adaptations of his books, with the only other film adaptation of his books in Sahara (2005) also being a tremendous failure with audiences. In any case, this is a strangely terrible flick, being occasionally watchable but also being something that doesn't quite elevate itself to serviceable entertainment, unless one likes to watch an adventure film sink itself.

Overall, I give it 5 out of 10 stars.