Cotton Comes To Harlem

Trailer of the 1970 movie starring Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, Redd Foxx & Calvin Lockhart, directed by Ossie Davis. Truly a forgotten classic in Black Cinema history. Courtesy of United Artists/MGM

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Cotton
• Comes
• To
• Harlem
• 1970
• Movie
• Soul
• Cinema
• Blaxploitation
• Ossie
• Davis
• Godfrey
• Cambridge
• Redd
• Foxx

[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

[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 :)

[1958dsm]

Wonder why BET doesn't play these???

[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.

[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.

[Quisqueyanaable]

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

[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.

[NicolasYates]

Anybody know what camera they used to make this movie?

[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.

[davydmx]

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

[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.

[ke467]

old skool movies are the best