, . Deke raises $87,000, but before he can pocket the money, a group of masked white men hijack the money. I read this book for school. She is easily made angry and jealous, has a short temper, and can be considered the novel's femme fatale. One of Dekes cronies, John Hill, resists and is shot dead. Uncle Bud, a homeless junk collector, finds a bale of cotton that fell off the white hijackers get-away truck and eventually ends up selling it to a junkyard run by a man named Goodman. Their white counterparts in the precinct see how they operate, and this earns them some respect, but more importantly power. She is ultimately killed in a jealous rage by Iris. Flim-flam man Deke OHara is no sooner out of Atlantas state penitentiary than hes back on the streets working the scam of a lifetime. Comedy, With Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones on everyone's trail and piecing together the complexity of the scheme, Cotton Comes to Harlem is one of Himes's hardest-hitting and most entertaining thrillers. I watched the movie by the same title (1970) not long ago, and it uses many elements found in the book. [5] The novels popularity led to other crime novels featuring African American cops and detectives, earning Himes the reputation as the father of the black crime novel. As sponsor of the Back-to-Africa movement he's counting on the big Harlem rally to produce a big collection-for his own private charity. He helps the detectives with clues as to where the bale could have ended up. By the time of Cotton Comes to Harlem, Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones had well-developed personae in the detective series.They are known for their uncompromisingly harsh treatment of the . Iris is shocked to discover O'Malley seducing Mabel Hill, the widow of one of his subordinates killed in the robbery, leading to a fight between the two women and Iris being disillusioned with O'Malley. Gravedigger Jones: One more word, soul brother. The church catches on fire, and Grave Digger and Coffin Ed use this threat to coerce Iris into telling them where the cotton is: with Billie. Deke persuades hardworking African American families to pay $1,000 for the chance to return to Africa and escape white oppression. , . Also, Iris uses her feminine charm to deceive a police officer. Mabel Hill - the attractive wife of one of O'Malley's henchmen who is killed at the Back-to-Africa rally; she is used by O'Malley for information, a place to stay, and sex. Directors Ossie Davis Starring The deal is made. , "exploitation" , . If youre interested in selling back the Cotton Comes to Harlem book, you can always look up BookScouter for the best deal. But the take is hijacked by white gunmen and hidden in a bale of cotton that suddenly everyone wants to get his hands on. When New York City police officers Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson look into O'Malley's scam, they learn that the cash is being smuggled inside a bale of cotton. Jones and Johnson expose the Reverend OMalley to the audience of the theater as the fraud that he is, remarking that he could had been another Marcus Garvey or Malcolm X, but instead he chose to be just a petty conman who exploited ordinary people. producer Music by Galt MacDermot Cinematography by Film Editing by Robert Q. Lovett Art Direction by Emanuel Gerard Costume Design by Its soul looks very much like . Grave Digger stays close to his partner, Coffin Ed, and gets along with his white lieutenant, Anderson, but otherwise remains an outsider on the force. As they say "It could only happen in a story". wide, Release Date (Streaming): Redd Foxx was great. Chester Bomar Himes began writing in the early 1930s while serving a prison sentence for armed robbery. 2): Location Comedies / Two Sides of Sidney Lumet, You're a Big Boy Now, Cotton Comes to Harlem, Bye Bye Braverman, Serpico, by J. Hoberman posted August 6, 2013. He also sets up a Back-to-South movement in the middle of Harlem, causes a ruckus, and tries to get the bale of cotton back unsuccessfully. [13] All the reviews during this time describe the book as something people should read, but none of them really seem to capture the essence of the time period it was in and how it was reflected. Cotton Comes to Harlem is one of a series of crime novels featuring Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones written by Chester Himes while living in Europe. Coffin Ed and Grave Digger Jones roles as black police officers in a white-dominated and racist New York City precinct are treated in a unique way. The second is the date of Learn how and when to remove this template message, Fun City (Pt. On their way out of the junkyard, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed are nearly gunned down by a passing car. In the interrogation room, they refuse to contact his lawyer and instead bring in Iris, who tells Deke she will testify that he murdered Mabel Hill. While investigating a criminal minister for wrongly collecting money for a fund raiser, two New York City cops discover a truck load of cotton bales stuffed with money has been hijacked leaving everyone in Harlem looking for the lost loot. Himes is no James Baldwin or Richard Wright but there is an angry power to his writing that certainly affected writers from Walter Mosley to Rachel Howzell Hall. Iris tells Jones and Johnson the truthnamely that the robbery was part of a plan to allow O'Malley to steal the money without discrediting himself, but that he was double-crossed by his partner Calhoun, a white career criminal whom he met in prison who decided to take the money for himself. An angry mob gathers to protest Calhouns organization. Deke sends Barry to negotiate with Calhoun, but Calhoun and his men grab Barry and demand to know where the cotton is. [4] The film, later cited as an early example of the blaxploitation genre, is based on Chester Himes ' novel of the same name. Black folks would have followed you anywhere. Log in here. African American detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson take on the case. Very American, similar to Raymond Chandler, etc. [24] He visits Mabel at her home shortly after the death of her husband, who had been working under Deke for the Back-to-Africa movement. Cotton Comes to Harlem 1970 watch Cotton Comes to Harlem online for free | Watch online movies through best free 1080p HD videos on desktop, laptop, notebook, tablet, iPhone, iPad, Mac Pro and more. It tells the tale of two cops, Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, as they trace a bale of cotton throughout the city of Harlem. [13] Detectives Gravedigger and Coffin Ed do not always follow the rules. She is strong and independent, not something typically seen in secondary characters during the 1960s, especially those that are black and female.[3][4]. Drama. As the chase continues, a local rag picker, Uncle Bud, discovers the bale, loads it onto his cart, and hauls it to a nearby junkyard to sell. Uncle Budd, a scavenger, finds the bale of cotton and sells it for $25 to a junk dealer, but later buys it back for $30. . Grave Digger and Coffin Ed learn about one of Dekes associates, Barry, who has been helping Deke since he left the crime scene at Mabels place. She jokes about him being ugly, exploiting the man's poor self-image, and eventually strips down and seduces him, but requires him to wear a bag over his head. Jones and Johnson arrest and humiliate Calhounwho was dressed in blackfaceat the theater. They won't be able to see your review if you only submit your rating. Meanwhile, two other black detectives, Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, learn of the robbery and set off to investigate. But the ships are fictions. If there are two dates, the date of publication and appearance Fearing for his life, Barry tells them Deke has it. [5] The opening theme, "Ain't Now But It's Gonna Be," was written by Ossie Davis and performed by Melba Moore. When the novel begins, Grave Digger has just returned from six months leave after being shot on duty. Cotton Comes to Harlem was released as a motion picture in 1970 (produced by Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., directed by Ossie Davis, distributed by United Artists). Among his best-known thrillers are Blind Man with a Pistol, Cotton Comes to Harlem, The Crazy Kill, A Rage in Harlem, The Real Cool Killers, and The Heat's On, all available from Vintage. As police and hired gunmen pursue the white hijackers, a bale of cotton falls off the back of the white mens meat truck as it disappears onto the streets of Harlem. Cotton Comes to Harlem. The last date is today's It was interesting and held my attention. Back at the station, Coffin Ed and Grave Digger play innocent about how Calhoun managed to escape. A new business opens in Harlem: The Back-to-the-Southland headquarters run by Colonel Calhoun, a Southerner from Alabama who wants to convince black people to return to the South and pick cotton. "[15] Ossie Davis planned on making multiple movies about the characters Grave Digger and Coffin Ed since there were already multiple books based on them. 18 Apr. Mabel and Iris fight, and Iris shoots and kills Mabel. In many ways this film was a preview of things to come due to the fact that the very next year with the premier of Shaft, the era of the "blaxploitation" film would begin. The ending of the novel displays great energy as Grave Digger and Coffin Ed use their wits to trick everyone into working against one another, while benefiting them. From "the best writer of mayhem yarns since Raymond Chandler" (San Francisco Chronicle) comes a hard-hitting, entertaining entry in the trailblazing Harlem Detectives series about two NYPD detectives who must piece together the clues of the scam of a lifetime.Flim-flam man Deke O'Hara is no sooner out of Atlanta's state penitentiary than he's back on the streets working a big scam. The money scammed from the families is stolen by the thugs of a Back to the Southland movement, run by Alabama 'gentleman' Colonel Calhoun. She gives the black detectives an extremely hard time while they are only trying to help her. "Chester Himes: Portrait of an expatriate", "Author Himes Likes Director Davis' Handling of Film", "Goldwyn Eyes Filming Novelist Himes' Harlem Sleuths", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cotton_Comes_to_Harlem_(novel)&oldid=1145036622, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 March 2023, at 23:02. They then recognize the body of Early Riser and search for his known associate, Loboy. Word Count: 856. She loses him and he ends up locked out of the apartment. Simultaneously, a meat truck drives up, apparently to replenish the rally barbecue. The two women fight. Arnold Perl, Release Date (Theaters): Harlem's African-American population is being ripped off by the Rev. When released, he focussed on semi-autobiographical protest novels. Cotton Comes to Harlem marked the debut of Calvin Lockhart, Judy Pace, Redd Foxx and Cleavon Little onto the big screen. Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are two black cops with a reputation for breaking the odd head. Chapter-by-chapter summaries and multiple sections of expert analysis, The ultimate resource for assignments, engaging lessons, and lively book discussions. The bale is auctioned off to Calhoun. Deke O'Malley, who dishonestly claims that small donations will secure parcels of land in Africa. The interweaving of callous agendas, double crossing, ploys, tricks and bluffs, creates a dense net of intrigue that is bewildering but ingenious, and gives structure within which the barely controlled chaos of the action can erupt. BookScouter checks 30+ buyback vendors with a single search and gives you actual information on buyback pricing instantly. Exciting, fast-moving, police procedural/hard-boiled detective novel. As NYPD detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones piece together the complexity of thescheme, we are treated to Himess brand of hard-boiled crime fiction at its very best. Cotton Comes to Harlem inspired more black films during the 1970s, including more action-packed numbers such as Shaft and Super Fly. Chester Himess 1965 novel Cotton Comes to Harlem is the sixth and best-known novel in his Harlem Detective series. [8] This novel has also been described as a "rollicking funny book". Lo Boy - an ordinary con-man who worked with Early Riser (a gangster) on petty crimes; he's the main witness to the Hijacker vehicle crash. [20][21], The film grossed $90,000 in its opening week, setting a house record at the Woods Theatre. Writer: Ossie Davis, Chester Himes, Arnold Perl Release Date (Theaters): May 27, 1970 wide Release. Wasn't as good as I thought it was gonna be.I mainly watched this movie cauz it had Redd Foxx but he was hardly in it. Iris is arrested for Mabel's murder, but when she says she can prove Deke is a Confidence artist, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed agree to break her from jail to find where Deke is hiding. His writing is gripping, eloquent and funny. During the rally, two black police detectives arrive, allegedly sent to bring Deke in to the station for questioning and to confiscate the money he has collected. Lieutenant Anderson - he is in charge of the detective branch of the police precinct where Gravedigger and Coffin Ed work. The soundtrack was created by Grammy Award-winning composer, Galt MacDermot ( Hair) and featured Moore as well as the theme song, performed by George Tipton. In the book, the people of Harlem will even steal purses out of the back of a woman's dress, for what today is considered enough money to survive. During the car chase, the mirror on the driver's side of the police car gets shot off. You could've been another Marcus Garvey or even another Malcolm X. The film has walk-ons for two of his familiar characters, Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, made famous in his Cotton Comes to Harlem (1965, filmed in . Ossie Davis. He sees his opportunity as she is at her most vulnerable and lonely, and uses this to seduce her. Colonel Robert Calhoun opens up his Back-to-the-Southland movement, asking the Black people of Harlem to come back South to make a living picking cotton. Cotton Comes to Harlem also demonstrates Black Power by depicting tools such as self-determination. The second date is today's S'ok. [27] The eventual sequel, Come Back, Charleston Blue, loosely based on Himes' The Heat's On, with much original material injected, ended up being directed by Mark Warren and was released in 1972. The back doors of the truck burst open, and masked white gunmen jump out and hijack the loot. It's strictly for people who don't care much about moviesor who persist in regarding movies as sociology. 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