Review of Harlem Nights (1989) by Joseph E — 25 Aug 2010

There are two moments early on which demonstrate what's wrong with this movie. First, we see these credits, one after another (emphasis mine):

"In association with EDDIE MURPHY Productions".

"A Film by EDDIE MURPHY".

"EDDIE MURPHY".

So, right off the bat, we have an egotistical star who's also serving as director and, as we soon learn, writer. Then follows a prologue showing our hero, Quick (Murphy, of course) as a boy. At the end of this, to defend his surrogate father, Sugar Ray (Richard Pryor), he shoots a man--between the eyes. This being a comedy, wouldn't it have been funnier (and just as reasonable, from a plot perspective) to shoot him in the ass? This is just the first of several unsettlingly brutal pieces of business in the film; later, Quick and Della Reese (playing a madam who works for Pryor) get into an alley fight, which is not only poorly staged (Murphy makes for a lackluster director) and tedious, but it ends with him shooting off her pinky toe. This could have been played for dark humor, but Murphy just doesn't pull it off. Even later (SPOILERS), he and the femme fatale Dominique LaRue (Jasmine Guy) have just made love, and she, working for the villain, pulls a gun on him, but he had already removed the bullets. He then shoots her.

Later, talking to Sugar Ray, he says:

QUICK: I killed her.

SUGAR RAY: Damn, was the pussy that bad?

Funny? Maybe, but the gratuitousness of the killing (as opposed to, say, handing her over to Reese) really leaves a sour taste in the mouth. And prior to this, we have seen a lengthy car chase between Quick and a gang, whose leader (Arsenio Hall) has just discovered his brother's corpse--his brother being an associate of Quick's, and his having seen Quick leave the building where the murder took place--is out to kill him. They are utterly inept at this, even killing one of their own, and Quick ultimately dispatches them with one shot each; Hall, with his dying breath, mutters "Asshole". The scene could have been solid dark comedy, but Murphy's writing and direction just don't cut it.

The storyline isn't much to speak of: Quick and Sugar Ray are harassed by a racist cop (Danny Aiello) and a racist gangster (Michael Lerner), they get back at them, and then flee New York for their own safety. An attempt is made to set up an elaborate con-plot, but it feels more like a rip-off of THE STING than anything else. As noted before, Murphy's direction is lackluster, blunting moments that should be hilarious and lacking in pace (it runs an excessive 116 minutes). His screenplay has some funny lines, but the language (profane and otherwise) feels all too contemporary; that the film is set in 1938 is not often backed up by the script.

But HARLEM NIGHTS has its redeeming qualities. First, the choice to make the film a period piece, while self-indulgent, pays off visually. The sets and costumes are stylish and attractive (the latter being Oscar-nominated), and Woody Omens' smooth cinematography shows them off to good advantage. Whatever else it may be, HARLEM NIGHTS is a good-looking film.

The cast, while hit-and-miss, do help a deal. Murphy is rather flat as Quick, although he has some good moments, especially when he speaks to the corpse of his aforementioned associate. Pryor comes off better, bringing wit and paternal warmth to Sugar Ray--although one can tell that his health was already in decline by this point, and he seems rather tired much of the time. Redd Foxx is mostly wasted as the nearly-blind craps caller, Bennie; he has a couple of funny moments, but the script gives him virtually nothing to do, although his antagonistic relationship with Vera (Reese's character) is one of the film's highlights; Reese is also quite good. Jasmine Guy is lovely, but a fairly wooden actress; that her role essentially exists for Quick's benefit doesn't help. Danny Aiello essentially plays a variation on the role he played in the infinitely superior DO THE RIGHT THING; he's good, but the role isn't highly rewarding. Michael Lerner (who would seem to be a natural choice for The Penguin), also stuck with a poorly-written part, gives the role more than its worth, and he makes an effectively sinister heavy. Stan Shaw has an amusing small role as a stuttering boxer; Arsenio Hall milks the "grown man sobbing" bit for all it's worth, but gets few laughs, as does the film itself. Though a solid hit, it marked the peaking of Eddie Murphy's star career, and he then began a decline which intermittent successes (DREAMGIRLS, for example) haven't really stopped.