Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)

 

Release Date: May 26,1970

Director: Dennis Hopper

Writer(s): Chester Himes (novel), Arnold Perl, Ossie Davis

Starring: Calvin Lockhart, Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques

Estimated budget: $1.2 million

 

Harlem's African-American population is being ripped off by the Rev. Deke O'Malley (Calvin Lockhart), who dishonestly claims that small donations will secure parcels of land in Africa. When New York City police officers Gravedigger Jones (Godfrey Cambridge) and Coffin Ed Johnson (Raymond St. Jacques) look into O'Malley's scam, they learn that the cash is being smuggled inside a bale of cotton. But the police, O'Malley and lots of others find themselves scrambling when the money goes missing.