HARLEM NIGHTS 1989
21%
Written and directed by Eddie Murphy
Starring Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Della Reese, Danny Aiello, Michael Lerner, Arsenio Hall, Jasmine Guy
Synopsis
A 1930s New York nightclub owner battles rival operators, crooked cops, and bickering employees all while trying to protect and mentor his quick-on-the-trigger adopted son. When a larger outfit wants a piece of the pie, the club owner comes up with his next, and possibly his last, play: to beat the competition at its own game and walk away with a hefty payday.
Why We Love It
If you’re 1980s Eddie Murphy and could cast Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, and Robin Harris (your own idols) in your first directorial outing, wouldn’t you do it? Regardless of what you think of Harlem Nights the movie, you can’t knock the hustle. At the height of his power, Murphy took a big swing here, directing, producing, writing, and starring in his take on the black gangster movie. Set It Off, New Jack City, and Hoodlum would all score better with the critics, but they all owe a little something to Murphy’s pioneering film.
Clearly inspired by Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club, Murphy said he wanted to appear in a period piece, and with the actor dominating the box office with hits like Coming to America and Beverly Hills Cop II, Paramount saw no reason not to give him $16 million for his vanity project. Critics saw the eventual product as all style over substance, with a stale story only worsened by Murphy’s pedestrian dialogue; Dolores Barclay from the Associated Press quipped, “Murphy’s writing is about as snappy as a Sunday school lesson.”
Spending too much time nitpicking some (admittedly) rough patches of the screenplay, however, is to ignore the strong chemistry between Harlem Nights’ stars—especially between Della Reese and Foxx, who work together to generate big laughs and, ultimately, even bigger feels. It’s also to ignore the movie’s aim: as with any comedy, the goal here is to be funny, and Harlem Nights has plenty on screen that will have you doubled over with laughter, especially in the expletive-stuffed patter from Murphy, Pryor, Foxx, and Hall. (Even among that comedy royalty, though, it’s Stan Shaw as the stuttering boxer Jack Jenkins who quietly steals every scene he’s in.)
The costumes and look of the film were groundbreaking in their own way. This was not the first lavish 1930s period piece, but it was one of the first to feature a primarily black cast, and the care that costume designer Joe I. Tompkins takes with that distinction shows; Murphy’s white suit and hat are the prime examples, along with any of Jasmine Guy’s opulent gowns. Tompkins’s costumes rightfully earned him an Oscar nomination.
The movie was released shortly after Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989) and Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle (1987), both of which were well received and earned enough money for some to wonder whether they heralded a resurgence of studio-backed black cinema. It was not to be at the time, but you can feel Murphy’s earnest ambition here. He brought to the big screen black characters who existed in 1930s New York—the Civil Rights Movement decades away—and who weren’t willing to accept their lot in life. They would be smarter and slicker than the people around them and ultimately pull off an epic heist, riding off into the sunset with the American Dream in their hands.