Harlem Nights won’t win any awards for political correctness but it is undeniably funny in spots.
30 years ago, Eddie Murphy was at the pinnacle of his career. His star-making tenure on Saturday Night Live was behind him and he’d had a string of box-office hits, including Beverly Hills Cop and Coming to America. He was selling millions of comedy albums and he’d had a hit single with “Party All The Time.” He’d conquered everything he’d done so far, why not write and direct a film too?
Murphy’s Harlem Nights takes place in 1938. Sugar Ray (Richard Pryor) owns and operates an illegal gambling house in New York’s Harlem district. With the help of his adopted son, Quick (Murphy), Ray’s establishment has been a little too successful. Local gangster Bugsy Calhoune (Michael Lerner) wants a cut of Ray’s profits in exchange for the privilege of continuing to do business in the neighborhood. Calhoune wants two-thirds of the money Sugar Ray is bringing in and, of course, Ray isn’t about to give that up. But Ray doesn’t have the muscle to beat Calhoune in a fight, so he’ll have to outwit him to win.
As a gangster movie, Harlem Nights is fairly unremarkable. It certainly looks good thanks to amazing 1930s-era set and costume design. Unfortunately, the plot isn’t very complex. Yet, for some reason, the script contains a ton of expositional dialogue to make sure the audience doesn’t get lost. Because everything is spelled-out as well as predictable, the pace feels leaden at times.
Thankfully, the comedic aspects of the script — when they’re on-target — make the experience a little more bearable. Murphy saves most of the best bits for himself but does allow Pryor and Redd Foxx, as Bennie, a nearly-blind craps dealer, to have a few laughs. Most of the humor hasn’t aged well, particularly the misogynistic and racist bits, of which there are plenty. And, if foul language offends you, you’ll be horrified by the nonchalant use of f-bombs and racial epithets. But if you’re familiar with the work of Murphy, Pryor, and Foxx, none of this should really be a surprise.
Some tweaking in the editing room could have made this a much tighter, better-paced movie but it’s still not the disaster that some critics have made it out to be. Harlem Nights won’t win any awards for political correctness but it is undeniably funny in spots.
3.0 out of 5.0 stars
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