The popular novelist Chester Himes wrote several stories featuring two Harlem detectives, Grave Digger and Coffin Ed. His books are sexy, some might say raunchy, and their tone is darkly satirical, some might say fatalistic. He focused on black protagonists doomed by a combination of white racism and self hatred. Cotton Comes to Harlem is one of the books in that series.
The humorous Godfrey Cambridge and the humorless Raymond St Jacques played the two honest but unorthodox detectives who “broke a few heads, but never any promises.” The screenplay was written by actor-turned-auteur Ossie Davis, who also directed. This film was a financial success, so Ossie directed several films after this one, but never again with such success, and he returned to performing after 1976. A respected orator, he spoke at the funerals of both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. If you can’t picture him, you certainly know his voice, since he did the famous commercial that said “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
This film balanced heavy themes with slapstick comedy, ranging in tone from Cleavon Little’s tragic portrayal of a strung-out junkie, to Redd Foxx basically playing the very same character he played on Sanford and Son. There are times when the very serious pursuit of justice is interrupted by humorous unrelated vignettes, basically non-sequiturs in the style of Laugh-In. Some of the jokes and pratfalls that seemed funny at the time now seem cringe-worthy in today’s more sensitive times. Even though the film was written and directed by a respected and intelligent man of African heritage, I doubt if such a man today would relish images of black detectives crashing into a watermelon truck while chasing down a bale of cotton. A certain amount of self-deprecatory humor would still be present in a modern dramedy from a black auteur, but the topics and symbols would be presented with more subtlety.
For my taste, the plot has too many characters and digressions. It’s one of those deals where the guys who robbed the money were actually hired by the guy they robbed, or maybe they weren’t. And there are all sorts of sub-plots involving militants, an innocent junk dealer (yes, Redd Foxx), con men, the mafia, girlfriends who may or may not be involved, and I don’t know what all. I occasionally got lost in the digressions and distracted by the surreal gags. But that was pretty much OK. It is an atmospheric film, and the confusion was used as part of the atmosphere. It would be made differently today, but it’s still a very entertaining movie, with plenty of laughs, a good detective story, and a great ending.
And Judy was a stunner!
1080 HD Videos. There are also some unidentified actresses in the final scene. (SPOILER ALERT: The clip with the unidentified actresses ruins the surprise ending that I mentioned above.)
Tuna did the full screen version years ago, but I don’t see any additional nudity.
Very hot lady, this might have been first black actress to appear fully nude in a Hollywood studio film?
I never thought about that before, but you might be right. Any of you guys have a rebuttal?
Don’t remember if she was fully nude but Barbara McNair did an earlier scene. Might be worth a new look.
You’re right. She was nude in If He Hollers, Let Him Go in 1968, which was also based on a Chester Himes novel, and also starred Raymond St. Jacques.
But I don’t think that was a studio film, unless we consider CRC a major studio. I suppose that’s debatable. I guess you can argue that either way.
IIRC Thelma Oliver, who is black, showed the first naked breasts in a Hollywood film, but that wouldn’t count as “fully” nude.
True, and The Pawnbroker was an indie, not a studio film, even though it was directed by the famous Sydney Lumet, so it didn’t fit his full definition, which required
(1) full nudity
(2) studio film
But if we change the criteria slightly, I think she was the first black actress to do any nudity in a Hollywood film, and probably the first in an Oscar-nominated film.
Once again, whenever a black woman removed her clothing, Raymond St. Jacques was in the cast! (He was also in Roots.)
Ossie Davis is best known as JFK unless you’re a godless heathen who has no taste in films.
Bubba Ho-Tep is a truly weird film. As I note in my review, it is the Citizen Kane of “Elvis and JFK battle a zombie in a cowboy suit” movies. Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis are both magnificent as Elvis and JFK.
I’m in that movie. My one moment in the spotlight! Of the flashback concert scene. That was edited down so you can’t really see the crowd. And not me.
But I was there, dammit!
I love to see actresses from the 60s TV shows I grew up with nude. Batman, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, the Flying Nun… classics.
Scoop, I’m surprised you didn’t close with the tidbit that she’s the widow of Curt Flood. See, everything on this site ties together.
I was looking closely at this nude scene a week ago, on another site, because I saw Judy in a Batman. The one where the Riddler dresses as Charlie Chaplin and robs a theater. I came to the conclusion Judy was wearing a big ol’ 1960’s pubic shield when she gets fully nude & hops into bed to tease a guy. I can’t see it here, but I saw it in a video when I froze it at a certain frame. I guess she was willing to show her t&a this one time, but her modesty kicked in when it came to flashing her muffin. The thing looked pretty huge to me, indicating she might’ve had one of those forests down there that were so curiously fashionable in those days, like Pam Grier had as well.
I think pubes in a Hollywood release (Cotton was United Artists) got you an “X” in 1970, things would loosen up in a year or two