The Cotton Club (1984)

Meet the jazz musicians, dancers, owner and guests (e.g. gangster Dutch Schultz) of The Cotton Club in 1928-30s Harlem.

Director:

Francis Ford Coppola (as Francis Coppola)

Writers:

William Kennedy (screenplay), Francis Ford Coppola (screenplay) (as Francis Coppola)

Stars:

Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Richard Gere	...	Dixie Dwyer
Gregory Hines	...	Sandman Williams
Diane Lane	...	Vera Cicero
Lonette McKee	...	Lila Rose Oliver
Bob Hoskins	...	Owney Madden
James Remar	...	Dutch Schultz
Nicolas Cage	...	Vincent Dwyer
Allen Garfield	...	Abbadabba Berman
Fred Gwynne	...	Frenchy Demange
Gwen Verdon	...	Tish Dwyer
Lisa Jane Persky	...	Frances Flegenheimer
Maurice Hines	...	Clay Williams
Julian Beck	...	Sol Weinstein
Novella Nelson	...	Madame St. Clair
Laurence Fishburne	...	Bumpy Rhodes (as Larry Fishburne)

Storyline

The Cotton Club was a famous Harlem nightclub. This is the story of the people who visited this club as well as the people who ran it, and the film is generously peppered with the jazz music that made the Cotton Club so renowned in the 1920s and 1930s.

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Plot Keywords:

nudity | jazz score | jazz club | prohibition | mob hit | 

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Taglines:

Welcome to The Cotton Club. Where Crime Lords rub elbows with the rich and famous. Where deals are made, lives are traded. And the legends of jazz light up the night.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Music

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sigourney Weaver turned down the role of Lila Rose Oliver.

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Goofs

Owney Madden moved to the United States at age 10, and spoke with an American accent, not with an English accent as Bob Hoskins does.

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Quotes

Flynn: Blow that bughouse bastard to kingdom come!

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Crazy Credits

In the original version, the opening credits were intercut with dancers performing "The Mooche." In the 2019 revision, the dancing is eliminated and the credits roll straight through, but have been joined with straight cuts rather than dissolves. Additionally, Coppola has changed his billing from "Francis Coppola" to "Francis Ford Coppola." Finally, restoration credits have been added after the end titles.

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Alternate Versions

In 2019, Lionsgate released a director's cut running 139 minutes, titled "The Cotton Club Encore". This version gave more space to the Williams brothers and Lila Rose, restoring three full musical numbers and extending others, and trimming scenes with impersonations of 1920s celebrities.

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Connections

Referenced in Saturday Night Live: George Wendt and Francis Ford Coppola/Philip Glass (1986)

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Soundtracks

Mood Indigo
Words and Music by Duke Ellington, Irving Mills and Barney Bigard
Piano Solos: Mark Shane
Trumpet Solo: Dave Brown
Clarinet Solo: Bob Wilber

User Reviews

A bold attempt to capture a fascinating era

As a New Yorker who happens to be steeped in the lore of New York in the prohibition era, this film represents a bold attempt to capture the dynamics of the period. At times it succeeds. At other times it falls way short of the mark.

What I really admire is the fact that it deals with racial and ethnic friction honestly. The racial slurs in the dialog were part of the reality of that time. Relations between blacks and whites are not idealized. Richard Gere and Gregory Hines are neighbors and acquaintances, but are not portrayed as close friends. When Gregory Hines prevents Dutch Schultz (James Remar in a vivid characterization) from killing Richard Gere, he does it out of basic decency. Mercifully, there are none of the sentimental relationships between blacks and whites that seem so patently false in other films.

Gangland New York during the prohibition era has rarely been portrayed accurately. A worst case example was a 1991 disaster called Mobsters (a.k.a. "Young Tommy Guns"). The Cotton Club deals with real life chracters like Owney Madden (has he ever been portrayed in another film under his real name?), Big Frenchy DeMange, Arthur "Dutch Schultz" Flegenheimer, a Vincent Coll standin, Charlie ""Lucky" Luciano, "Trigger" Mike Coppola, and (at least in an early shooting script) Jack "Legs" Diamond. Richard Gere's character was loosely based on George Raft.

They were fascinating characters. At times, The Cotton Club tries to play fair with them. It almost succeeds.

On the whole, this should have been a better film. Personally, I would have preferred a film that focused on the real life gangsters with the music simply as background. The attempt to elevate the black characters to a position of equal importance in the narrative is the flaw that undoes the film. It's difficult to follow characters who have no power and little chance of gaining it. Obviously, that is not politically correct. However, I prefer for historical films to deal with life the way it really was, rather than the way some people think that it should have been.

All in all, an interesting and honorable failure.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

14 December 1984 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tough Customers

Filming Locations:

USA

Box Office

Budget:

$58,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,903,603, 16 December 1984

Gross USA:

$25,928,721

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$25,928,721

Company Credits

Production Co:

Zoetrope Studios, Producers Sales Organization (PSO), Totally Independent

Technical Specs

Runtime:

127 min 123 min (video) 139 min (Encore)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby Stereo (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1