NOT Too Good To Fail

 Sometimes Talent Isn’t Enough

Harlem Nights (1989) – In the New York City of the Depression Era, two nightclub owners battle the competition, the police and gangsters to keep their doors open.

Directed by Eddie Murphy

Starring Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Danny Aiello, Della Reese

Why I Liked It –Other than a moment here or there, I didn’t.

It’s not that Harlem Nights lacked the talent, even the star power, it needed for success. The cast leads are pure all-stars. The supporting cast was solid. The basic idea was fine.

So, why is this movie so bad?

My theory is it’s because Murphy, who wrote, directed and starred in it, never made a final decision on what kind of movie he wanted it to be. In interviews in later years, he acknowledged that some days he was more interested in the parties than the work required to make the movie. It remains his only directorial credit. Is it a comedy? Is it a mobster movie? It tries to be everything all at once and ends up being a muddled mess. Imagine sitting with a group of writers who are brainstorming suggestions about what to do with the idea of Black gangsters in the Thirties with corrupt cops and beautiful women. You’d get ideas all over the place. Now imagine you sweep up all those ideas and slam them together into the same script.

That’s “Harlem Nights.”

There are some fun moments here. Redd Foxx and Della Reese’s characters constant bickering (Warning – it’s NSFW. But if you know the performers, that’s not a surprise), is a lot of fun. You can feel the chemistry. On the other hand, Pryor is very restrained here. His diagnosed Multiple Sclerosis may have robbed him of his usual energy. In his autobiography, he claims he never connected with Murphy during the shoot. Murphy also delivers a restrained performance. Again, that feels like even he isn’t sure what he’s supposed to be doing on screen. There is nothing restrained about Arsenio Hall’s performance. Billed only as “Crying Man”, Hall offers an emotional breakdown that would embarrass the worst melodrama ever made. I never figured out if this was a comic scene or a serious one.

Beyond that, the female cast, except for Reese, receives treatment only as window dressing and there are few things to recommend about this movie. If obscenity bothers you, this is not the movie for you. But then, if the top three billed performers didn’t let you know exactly what kind of dialogue would abound, I’m not sure what to tell you. With that in mind, I’ve always felt like Murphy missed the point of obscenity in Pryor’s work. Eddie has always pointed to Richard’s groundbreaking work as a primary inspiration for his own. For me, Pryor used obscenity for a purpose. It felt surgical to me. Murphy’s use felt like carpet bombing, saying “bad words” just for the point of saying them.

What you’re left with is a lot of great performers having some pointless fun in a movie that has no central idea. That’s such a loss in so many ways.

Rating – ** Not Impressed.