In which my buddy, Sonny Chiba, joins me in reviewing COTTON COMES TO HARLEM (1970), which is available on Epix, Prime, Paramount+and Pluto TV.The film, written by Ossie Davis and Arnold Perl, from the novel by Chester Himes, is directed by Ossie Davis and was his directorial debut. The story follows two cops in Harlem, Grave Digger Jones (Godfrey Cambridge) and Coffin Ed Johnson (Raymond St. Jacques) as they try to find outexactly who came and committed a robbery in broaddaylight during a fundraising event hosted by Rev. Deke O’Malley (Calvin Lockhart). The film mixes clever dialogue and humor that still lands, decent action sequences and social commentary to weave a unique story of these 2 Harlem cops who are racing against time to solve the crime and make sure those in the community that have been taken advantage of are afforded justice. The film has a run time of 1 h 37 m, and is rated R. Please note there are SPOILERS in this review.
Shout out to Sonny for doing the podcast and please check him out at the following places:
https://www.instagram.com/chibaindyartist/
https://app.fanbase.app/chibaindyartist
https://www.indyplanet.com/bullets-blunts-and-bullshh-vol-1
Opening intro music: GOAT by Wayne Jones, courtesy of YouTube Audio Library.