CINEHUNCH / YOUR NEXT CHAPTER

A FRESH ALLOWANCE AT MIDNIGHT · ISTANBUL TIME

Back to the finderTHE FILM / 1970
Cotton Comes to Harlem posterA FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOK

THE FEATURE PRESENTATION

MOVIE1970 1h 37m USA

IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU

Movies like
Cotton Comes to Harlem

ActionComedyCrime
IMDbView on IMDb
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME

Keep the feeling.

SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION

If you loved Cotton Comes to Harlem, try these.

Shaft poster 01

Movie / 1971 / Action / Adventure / Crime / Thriller

Shaft

Why this pick

Its streetwise Harlem detective, cool forward momentum, and sharply observed Black urban world make it a natural companion, though it plays the crime stakes more straight.

The Spook Who Sat by the Door poster 02

Movie / 1973 / Action / Drama / Crime

The Spook Who Sat by the Door

Why this pick

Matches the politically charged, witty Black-cinema energy and 1970s city texture, using a confident genre frame to deliver pointed institutional satire.

Trick Baby poster 03

Movie / 1972 / Crime / Drama / Action

Trick Baby

Why this pick

A brisk, character-led con-game crime picture with lively banter and a skeptical eye toward hustles, corruption, and survival in the urban underworld.

Friday Foster poster 04

Movie / 1975 / Action / Thriller

Friday Foster

Why this pick

Its playful detective plotting, flamboyant pulp style, and charismatic heroine preserve the original's mix of community texture, comic snap, and crime-caper momentum.

Black Dynamite poster 05

Movie / 2009 / Action / Comedy

Black Dynamite

Why this pick

A loving, exceptionally sharp spoof of 1970s Black action cinema that recreates the era's visual swagger, righteous humor, and increasingly outrageous crime plotting.

CURATING YOUR NEXT FRAME

Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.

Our curator needs a little longer. Please come back shortly.

No confident matches yet. Try our personal film finder.

01 / THE STORY

A little about the film.

"Reverend" Deke O'Malley, a conman, is selling shares at a Harlem rally, for the purchase of a Back-to-Africa movement ship to be called ''The Black Beauty''. During the rally, several masked gunmen jump out of a meat truck and steal $87,000 in donated cash from the back of an armored car. Two Harlem Detective, Gravedigger Jones and "Coffin" Ed Johnson chase the car, and a bale of cotton falls out of the vehicle, unremarked at the time. Uncle Budd, a scavenger, finds the bale of cotton and sells it for $25 to a junk dealer, but later buys it back for $30. There is a reward out for the $87,000, and Gravedigger and Coffin deduce that the money was probably hidden inside of the bale which had fallen out of the getaway vehicle during the chase. After accusing Reverend O’Malley of stealing the money and taking him captive, Detectives Jones and Johnson are able to blackmail Tom, a mob leader, to give them $87,000 - to be restored to the original donors - after discovering that Uncle Budd has run off with the stolen money and emigrated to Ghana, to live in retirement with his ill-gotten gains.

Showing saved details. Some information may be out of date.

02 / FACES IN THE FRAME

The people who bring it to life.

Godfrey Cambridge

Godfrey Cambridge

Gravedigger Jones

Raymond St. Jacques

Raymond St. Jacques

Coffin Ed Johnson

Judy Pace

Iris

Emily Yancy

Emily Yancy

Mabel

Lou Jacobi

Lou Jacobi

Goodman

Eugene Roche

Lt. Anderson

J.D. Cannon

J.D. Cannon

Calhoun

Dick Sabol

Jarema