Harlem Nights

Harlem Nights is a 1989 American crime comedy-drama film written, executive produced, and directed by Eddie Murphy. Murphy co-stars with Richard Pryor as a team running a nightclub in late-1930s Harlem while contending with gangsters and corrupt police officials. The film also features Michael Lerner, Danny Aiello, Redd Foxx (in his last film before his death in 1991), Della Reese, and Murphy's brother Charlie. The film was released on November 17, 1989, by Paramount Pictures.

Harlem Nights
Poster artwork by Drew Struzan
Directed byEddie Murphy
Written byEddie Murphy
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyWoody Omens
Edited by
Music byHerbie Hancock
Production
company
Eddie Murphy Productions
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • November 17, 1989 (1989-11-17)
Running time
116 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$30 million
Box office$95 million[2]

Harlem Nights remains Murphy's only directorial effort. He had always wanted to direct and star in a period piece, as well as work with Pryor, whom he considered his greatest influence in stand-up comedy.[3] Reviews of the film were mixed. Nonetheless, the film was a financial success, grossing $95 million against a $30 million budget. It has since been regarded as a cult classic.[4][5]

Plot

In 1918 Harlem, Sugar Ray owns a candy store that serves as a front for an illegal gambling club. A customer at the craps table attempts to rob the game but is shot to death by seven-year-old Quick. Ray learns that Quick is an orphan and takes him home to raise as his own son. Twenty years later, Ray and Quick run Club Sugar Ray's, the hottest after-hours spot in Harlem.

One night Club Sugar Ray's is visited by Tommy Smalls and Dominique LaRue, both of whom work for gangster Bugsy Calhoun. Ray is suspicious of their visit, at closing time he tells everyone to be cautious. Quick gets into a fight with Vera over her girls and money. Vera calls him outside for a fistfight and is easily beating him until he fights dirty. The fight ends with Quick shooting Vera in the foot. Ray comes home to find Sgt. Phil Cantone waiting in his house for him. Sgt. Cantone asks Ray about his club and Ray denies owning it. The next night at the club, Ray tells everyone that they're going to have to move to a new city. Quick doesn't want to leave, but Ray insists that they won't survive taking on Calhoun. They are interrupted by Jack Jenkins, the current boxing champion who is in town for a fight later that week. Sgt. Cantone arrives af the club and talks to Ray and Quick. He tells them that Calhoun wants to take over their club and makes them a business offer. Ray meets with his staff and he reveals his plan to finance their move by robbing Calhoun of the money being bet on the Jenkins fight. Ray learns that Richie Vento will be delivering Calhoun's cash and has Vera assign a girl named Sunshine to seduce Vento. Meanwhile, Dominique LaRue asks Quick to meet her for dinner. Quick arrives expecting a romantic date and quickly gets agitated to find Calhoun there as well. Calhoun offers Quick a job which he declines. After Quick leaves, Calhoun orders Dominique to seduce Quick.

Calhoun discovers that Tommy Smalls has been stealing from him and orders Sgt. Cantone to kill him. Sgt. Cantone shoots Smalls to death in his apartment. Ray asks Quick to meet with Smalls to get information on Calhoun, but Quick finds Smalls dead when he arrives. As he leaves Smalls' apartment he is seen by Smalls' brother Reggie. Reggie finds his brother dead and thinks Quick killed him, Reggie chases Quick down in his car and they have a shootout that Quick wins. Quick returns to Ray's club for closing time and is again contacted by Dominique LaRue. She asks Quick to come to her apartment and he agrees on the condition that Calhoun won't be there. She meets Quick at the door in a revealing outfit and starts seducing him. While she is in the bathroom he finds her gun under her pillow and realizes she intends to kill him. She tells Quick that if he won't work for Calhoun she has to kill him but Quick shoots her first. Quick goes to Ray's house in a panic and Ray forces him to go into hiding to protect him from Calhoun.

The next day, Sgt. Cantone raids Club Sugar Ray's and shuts it down. After Ray bails out his customers Calhoun arrives and takes him for a ride in his car. Calhoun threatens Ray and demands to know where Quick is. Ray refuses to say where Quick is and again refuses Calhoun's offer of a partnership. Ray begins his plan to rob Calhoun by having one of his men place a large wager on Jack Jenkins' opponent in the fight. Sgt. Cantone tells Calhoun about the bet and they deduce that Ray has convinced Jenkins to throw the fight to help Ray make money to relocate. Calhoun and Cantone both place large wagers of their own to take advantage.

On the night of the fight, Ray has his men burn down one of Calhoun's clubs. Calhoun realizes that Jenkins isn't throwing the fight after all and that he has lost a lot of money. Sunshine gets Richie to pick her up as he is also picking up Calhoun's money. She brings two bags with her that match the bags Richie is carrying. Ray and Quick stage a car accident and pose as policemen responding to the scene. They tell Richie that Sunshine is actually a heroin dealer and they need to seize her bags as evidence. They take Calhoun's money but are interrupted by two real policemen who seize the money bags themselves before letting Richie go. Sgt. Cantone follows Ray and Quick to an abandoned bank where he is ambushed by Ray's men and sealed in the bank vault for the weekend. Richie arrives at Calhoun's and delivers the bags Sunshine left in his car. Calhoun opens the bags to find packets of sugar instead of money. Vera comes to Calhoun's house and tells him that Ray and Quick are at Ray's house and that she wasn't involved in the theft. Calhoun and his men break into Ray's house but no one is home. They find Sgt. Cantone's badge and hat on a table, Calhoun deduces that they've walked into a trap but the house explodes before they can leave.

Ray and Quick meet up with the two policemen who seized Calhoun's money. They give him the money bags and receive their cut. Everyone stops to look at Harlem one last time before they leave for good.

Cast

Production

The part of Dominique La Rue, played by Jasmine Guy, was originally cast with actress Michael Michele. Michele was fired during production because, according to Murphy, she "wasn't working out". Michele sued Murphy, saying that in reality she was fired for rejecting Murphy's romantic advances. Murphy denied the charge, saying that he had never even had a private conversation with her.[6] The lawsuit was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.[7]

"It's turning out to be more pleasant than I expected," Pryor told Rolling Stone. "[Murphy is] wise enough to listen to people. I seen him be very patient with his actors. It's not a lark to him. He's really serious." "He's on top of the world and he's doing a hell of a job," agreed Foxx. "He sure knows how to handle people with sensitivity. He'll come over to your side and give private direction – he never embarrasses anyone." "You walk around here and look at the people," added Pryor. "Have you ever in your life seen this many black people on a movie set? I haven't."[8]

About the movie's reception, Murphy said: "It wasn’t a pleasurable experience. I just wanted to direct—just to see if I can do it. And I found out that I can’t, and I won’t do it anymore. And the biggest thing is I didn’t enjoy doing it. The problem with Harlem Nights wasn’t the directing as much as it was the writing of it. It was just written fucked up, and that’s because I threw it together real quick. And then it was disappointing because Richard wasn’t the way I thought Richard was gonna be. I thought it would be like a collaborative thing where I would get to work with my idol, and then it would be like, “This is great.” But Richard would come to the set, say his line and leave, it wasn't like a collaborative thing."[9]

Later he said: "That movie was a blur. It was Richard [Pryor], Robin Harris – all comedians. I remember Richard and Redd Foxx laughing offstage during the whole movie. The funniest shit was off camera, we’re all just crying. Redd was a really funny dude, he would have the set screaming all the time. But afterwards it was like, Whoa, that's a lot of work. I was really young when I did it. I had one foot in the club, and one foot on the set, a lot of shit going on. It's amazing it came together." He also said he didn't know Pryor was sick at the time. "He was sick with MS by then, but nobody knew it was going on. And I was like a puppy to him ‘cause he was my idol. "Hey! Let's go make this movie!" I never put it together what was happening till afterwards. So it was kind of sad, that part of it."[10]

Release

Box office

Opening in North America in mid-November 1989, the film debuted at No.1 its opening weekend.[11] It grossed $16,096,808 from 2,180 screens during those first three days setting a record pre-holiday fall opening[12] and would go on to collect a total of $60,864,870 domestically at the box office.[2] Despite a fair gross, the film was considered a box office disappointment by the studio, earning roughly half of Murphy's earlier box office successes Coming to America and Beverly Hills Cop II from the previous two years.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 23% based on reviews from 35 critics, with an average score of 3.9/10.[13] The site's consensus states; "An all-star comedy lineup is wasted on a paper-thin plot and painfully clunky dialogue."[14] Michael Wilmington noted in the Los Angeles Times that the "production design lacks glitter. The movie also lacks the Harlem outside the gaudy gangland environs, the poverty, filth, pain, humanity, humor and danger that feeds these mobster fantasies."[15]

Both Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert panned the film; it was featured on their Worst of 1989 review show with Siskel stating that it was racist, sexist, and badly directed and Ebert agreeing with him, also adding that they thought Murphy was directing a film to call himself a director.

Movie theatre shooting controversy

On November 17, 1989, two men were shot and killed inside AMC Americana 8 theater in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, Michigan.[16] According to witnesses quoted in the Detroit Free Press, the shooting happened on opening night taking place during a shooting spree in the film's opening. A 22-year-old woman, who panicked and ran into traffic, was in critical condition two days later at the city's Providence Hospital; her name was withheld by police. Less than an hour after the shooting, police arrived at the theatre to find a 24-year-old Detroit man who had shot at an officer. The gunman was wounded when the officer shot him back in the theatre parking lot. The incident caused the theatre chain to cancel showings of Harlem Nights. One resident of the area, D'Shanna Watson, said:

There were so many people in the theater and there was so much going on, they stopped the movie three times.[17]

Later that night, brawlers were ejected from a Sacramento theater showing Harlem Nights. Their feud continued in a parking lot and ended with gunshots. Two 24-year-old men were seriously injured. An hour later, Marcel Thompson, 17, was fatally shot in a similar fight at a theater in Richmond, California. When police stopped the projection of Harlem Nights to find suspects, an hour-long riot erupted. In Boston, Mayor Raymond Flynn saw so many fistfights taking place in a crowd leaving Harlem Nights that he at first threatened to close the theater down but decided to tighten police security at the theatre. Flynn blamed the film for the riot, stating that it "glorifies violence." However, Raymond Howard, a lieutenant of the Richmond police department, defended the film, saying, "There's nothing wrong with the show. But this tells me something about the nature of kids who are going to see these shows."[18]

If there's a fight at McDonald's, what does that have to do with McDonald's? ... If there's a fight at Giants Stadium, are you going to blame the Giants? Of course not. It's not about the Eddie Murphy movie.[18]

— Bob Wachs, Eddie Murphy's manager, on the movie theatre incidents, December 4, 1989.

Accolades
Nominated

References
  1. "Harlem Nights". British Board of Film Classification. January 10, 1990. Archived from the original on March 27, 2022. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
  2. "Box Office Information for Harlem Nights". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on May 1, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2012.
  3. Reid, Shaheem (December 12, 2005). "Chris Rock, Bernie Mac, Eddie Murphy Call Pryor The Real King Of Comedy". MTV News. Archived from the original on January 3, 2015. Retrieved January 5, 2015.
  4. "Harlem Nights is Comedy's Most Overrated Cult Classic". May 2020.
  5. "HARLEM NIGHTS is a Forever Staple in Black Culture". Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  6. Zehme, Bill (August 24, 1989). "Eddie Murphy: Call Him Money". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on December 3, 2017. Retrieved May 30, 2016.
  7. Kinetic Koncepts (April 7, 2017). ""New Jack City" ACTRESS Revealed Why She Filed $75M LAWSUIT Against Eddie Murphy". Old School Music. Kenner, LA. Archived from the original on January 9, 2019. Retrieved January 9, 2019.
  8. Zehme, Bill (August 24, 1989). "Eddie Murphy: the Rolling Stone interview". Rolling Stone. p. 5o.
  9. "Eddie Murphy and Spike Lee in Conversation: Our 1990 Cover Story". November 19, 2020. Archived from the original on April 29, 2021. Retrieved February 26, 2021.
  10. "Eddie Murphy on Making His First Indie Movie, Celebrating Pluto Nash, and Returning to Stand-up". Archived from the original on February 15, 2019. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  11. "WEEKEND BOX OFFICE : Murphy's 'Nights' Overtakes 'Talking'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
  12. "'Home' finds a niche at the top; 'Rescuers' mild; 'Cyrano' solid". Variety. November 26, 1990. p. 8.
  13. "Harlem Nights". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on August 1, 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  14. Rotten Tomatoes, "Harlem Nights Archived August 1, 2020, at the Wayback Machine". Accessed December 17, 2014.
  15. "MOVIE REVIEW : Eddie Murphy's 'Harlem Nights': Slick, Slack". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved November 21, 2010.
  16. "Southfield movie theater canceled all ..." Orlando Sentinel. November 20, 1989. Archived from the original on November 23, 2015. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
  17. "Shooting, violence mar 'Harlem Nights'". Ludington Daily News. November 20, 1989. Archived from the original on September 15, 2012. Retrieved October 7, 2016.
  18. "Violence Darkens the Bright Opening of Eddie Murphy's Plush, Flush Harlem Nights". People. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved August 24, 2014.
  19. "Official summary of awards". Razzies.com. Archived from the original on July 7, 2012. Retrieved August 24, 2014.
  20. "The 62nd Academy Awards (1990) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
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