Cotton Comes To Harlem

[Quisqueyanaable]

It will be airing on TVONE December 17 at 6:pm..

[NicolasYates]

Anybody know what camera they used to make this movie?

[ke467]

old skool movies are the best

[eyesley]

Godfrey Cambridge was sooo funny in this movie.

[RandomUsername010]

Is this movie black enough for you?

[BellumSacrumBellum28]

Jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton

[twinkle152000]

cool

[meezleton]

i saw this when i was little and im 23. i remember the lyrics specifically. "when cotton comes to harlem we gon kick cottons ass!" than this other line from the movie "Gravedigger, Dont you step on my ribs!"

[Classic63]

Redd Foxx named the character Fred Sanford in tribute to his brother, Fred who was

in jail at the time.

[Melhex]

LMAO! This was a funny movie but that part where they tossed that nigga in the air had me dieing!!!

[3dixthus]

hey i saw some cotton and crackers running with a snowball and a jar of mayo through harlem, some milk duds got angry at them and started throwing mud and chocolate pudding.

but all of the sudden they stopped and all agreed that racist

people are losers.

[ColdSilverPeaches]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA WATER MELONS

[MrAngates]

Pleasenthis movie is nothing more than black explotation. These find actors,had to reduce them selves to this shit,because they did not cast blacks in decent roles..... well atlease not often. The learning tree,now that's a great black film.......

[nathans226]

This is truly a classic. I remember last time any channel showed this was two years ago on TV One.

[1958dsm]

Wonder why BET doesn't play these???

[Kamaria7]

I believe you've answered your question, dear. It's BET! Buffoon Entertainment Television. :-)

[tubetubesly]

Great point. They're too "busy" playing demeaning (to blacks) music videos and stupid-ass talk shows a la "Mo'nique"... :/

[davydmx]

@1958dsm They used to before Viacom bought BET from Robert Johnson. They removed any programming deemed offensive to viewers (RIP Uncut).

[pudddingnpie]

Wow, my mother took me to see this at the Melba theater in the Bronx!

[williambrown007]

RIP to feww of the main characters I know throughout the movie:

Redd Foxx

Raymond St. Jacques

Godfrey Cmabridge

Calvin Lockhart

Helen Martin

[frankd1965]

also J.D. Cannon. He later portrayed Cheif Peter B. Clifford on the 1970's series McCloud.

[MrTennesseeVols]

@williambrown007 Raymond St Jacques died of AIDS and so did His Son.

[manuvsteel1]

the narrator is the voice of william thomas mercer aka rosko....

[cheebs19]

LOL @ smichelle65

This flick is comedy. So was Come Back Charleston Blue. Hilarious!!!!!

[HammondBishop]

Is that black enuff 4 ya?

[DarthTigreros62]

I wannasee this!

[geneofisis]

This is great-y'all need to check out the sequel COME BACK CHARLESTON BLUE. Just as good as Cotton Comes to Harlem.

[romax216]

I bought this move a couple of years ago because I'm in it in the beginning. They filmed a small part on my block, 111st bet Mad and 5th ave. Of course, I wasn't a paid actor. I was just hanging around when the were filming.

[gstrongbricks]

referring to bizzaronumber4's question, nah

[Bizarronumber4]

Thanks. I just thought he looked like Jim.

[rockjohnson80]

In reference to the discription...This movie isn't forgoten. You can buy it on DVD.

[smichelle65]

Free Deac' O'Malley!

[Bizarronumber4]

Is that Jim Kelly as the karate guy?

[gstrongbricks]

Nah

[butterp7]

I never understood why they were called "Blaxploitation". I just thought it was just black people making movies with black people in them. The movies just echoed what was going on at that time. We don't look at movies on Lifetime channel and call them Whitesploitation. They're just movies about suburban people.

[MightySaturn5]

yeah..you're right

[pooryorik3]

@butterp7 I think they're referred to as Blaxploitation films because they tended to represent black people in a very flat way, portraying most of them as pimps, hoes, and drug lords. Often the people who wrote these films didn't have any real experience with black culture, and so they played off popular stereotypes. On the other hand, my dad says that these were some of the first and only mainstream movies at the time to feature black casts. The films opened doors, but they weren't perfect.

[butterp7]

@pooryorik3 Yeah..I get it. I guess. But they had some big time black actors in these movies and it doesn't look like somebody held a gun to their heads to be in these movies. I mean look at the claibreof black actors in these movies including Cosby and Poitier, Pryor, Hooks, Mckee. I guess that's why these movies saved Hollywood at the time.

[jor99912]

@pooryorik3 They were certainly BLACK EXPLOIXTATION! And I was proud that the Pro Hustler, PAM Grier, or Jimmy Brown or any of them, ever denied the obvious! Black people on the Net today LIE like White Peoples!

And don,'t know the difference! They were NOT good movies! But better than most today! Those 2 COPS today would be Nice Guys! STELLA STEVENS, TONY FRANCIOSA, LEE VAN CLEEF, a lot of White Stars worked in those movies! I heard 1 denial, Fred, SEN ORIN HATCH Williamson,

[Foxx1981]

@butterp7 because the main selling point was black actors, black producers, black director, black score, and so on. The blackness of everything in the film was the point.

[MadScout]

@butterp7: Fred Williamson agrees with you.

Anyway, the reason is the big studios weren't making films like these. So, smaller ones like United Artists, AIP, New Line Cinema put stuff like this out a lot, which were pretty outrageous at the time.

[SimVik91]

@butterp7 It wasn't necessarily "movies made by black people". More often it was WHITE people who made these movies to appeal to a BLACK audience.

[Nickcat5]

@SimVik91 This was written & directed by Ossie Davis

[Nickcat5]

@butterp7 It was a case of 'Knee-Jerk Labeling'. Your parallel to 'whitesploitation' is well founded.

[cha5]

I've got to see this movie!

I think I remember seeing the very end of it on TV a long time ago, Does anyone know if it's out on DVD?

[Srananbloke]

Yep, it's out on dvd, part of the MGM Soul Cinema collection

[cha5]

Thanks for the information.

[Odawg96]

Probably the most faithful film adaptation of Chester Himes' books. I actually saw Charleston Blue first as a kid and loved it. Read THIS book in grad school and finally saw the movie a few years ago. Great movie. Also has GREAT clips of JUDY PACE!! :-)

[ImPrettyDammit]

Calvin Lockhart is the second crush I ever had!! All my life this was my main man!! God rest his pretty soul!!

[uluvme67]

Calvin Lockhart had a place in my heart right next to Billy Dee Williams. I was a tot then.(smile)

[awm1006]

Yeah this was one of the best movies I saw as a kid. Along with all the others Melba Moore was also in in a very small part at the end singing in a small group.

[Srananbloke]

yeah, she also did the opening song, a favorite on my ipod :)

[boomcc1]

@awm1006 yep right along with come back charlston blue,coffee,cleopatra jones,

foxy brown with pam grier, super fly, the 50 cent movie theater we had so gone now

awww

boomcc1

[blackenuf4ya]

I got my YouTube channel name from this movie... sort of.  ;)

[jesiahbailey]

People dont know this but this film was the main reason Sandford and Son was created. Norman Lear watched this film and loved Redd Foxx's character so much, the show was created based on this performance.

[jl2279]

I thought Sanford and Son was based off of a British sitcom called Steptoe and Son. Most of the episodes in Season 1 of Sanford and Son were based on episodes of Steptoe and Son. This sitcom was from the 60's.

[Srananbloke]

You're right. It is based on Steptoe & Son, it is listed in the end credits. However, jesiahbailey has a point on Redd Foxx, with Norman Lear being impressed by his role in this film, that he gave him the lead role in Sanford & Son or that he decided to create a sitcom based on Steptoe & Son with Redd as the main character, somehow based on his role in this film. (or something like that :)

[frankd1965]

Redd Foxx played Uncle Bud in this movie. Also J.D. Cannon who appeared in this film was the actor who played the cantankerous Chief Peter B. Clifford on the classic series McCloud. BTW, The series was based on a 1968 Clint Eastwood film "Coogan's Bluff".

[zebco2]

1970

[SHILOHDREAM]

I would looove to see will smith and chris tucker remake this movie! Great idea huh?

hint to the producers

rest in peace Calvin Lockheart! You were sooo fooooine. My great aunt said cotton actually came to harlem in her day.

[curtis3martin]

An excellent film. If you like this, you can get the dvd for about $10. Now we need "them" to release the sequel, Come Back, Charleston Blue, to dvd.

[Brinah]

wow, this looks like a movie to sit down with the family with a bowl of popcorn, chek mix and sody pops!

[rickyk1234]

i saw this movie i loved it

[passthepick]

I saw Redd Fox,Paul Mooney AND that old lady from 227! I gotta dig this up.

[frankd1965]

J.D. cannon was also in this film. He was the cantankerous Chief Clifford on the 1970's cop show "McCloud"

[nathans226]

Now this is a classic movie. It's sad that the majority of famous stars are now dead, especially with Calvin Lockhart dying back in March '07. Some of the stars are still alive, such as Calvin Lockhart's girlfriend, who guest starred recently on Girlfriends as Monica's mother, as well as the woman who played Will's mother on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. She had a small cameo role.

[SHILOHDREAM]

hey nathan I never knew that about calvin lockhearts gf's starring on gfs and fp of belair. Interesting. May his fine soul rip

[chelcie3]

The lady that played Will's mother on FPB was also a Sweathog on Welcome Back Kotter. She was Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington's gf.

[petesrcmodelyachts]

yeah,come back charleston blue was really good too!

[rockstarchad]

Godfrey Cambridge was in the Blob sequal, Beware! The Blob. He was one of the Blob's first victims. First The Blob eats its kitten, then his wife, then it crawls onto his chair and he sits on it. That movie was more of a comedy than a horror flick. R.I.P. Godfrey, he was a comedic genius! If anybody has that movie, please post it!

[petesrcmodelyachts]

grave digger jones and coffin ed johnson were 2 cool cops!

[GilbertSmith]

I've had this movie for months and haven't gotten around to watching it. Looks like a lot of fun. Kinda funny that civil rights hero Ossie Davis directed a soul cinema crime film. Evidence as to just how empowering blaxploitation flicks were.

[chelcie3]

I wouldn't exactly call this one or Come back Charleston Blue blaxploitation. I think there some very deep messages dealing with social and racial issues expressed in both movies.

[GilbertSmith]

A lot of movies we call blaxploitation have deep messages. Superfly is a deep statement on slavery, for example.

[CesMan83]

"Is that black enough for you?"

[EdWood2006]

Hey this is a funny film seen it years back. Got anymore clips from it?

[EdWood2006]

Hey this is a funny film seen it years back. Got anymore clips from it?