What kind of night club is hopping on a Monday night?........people usually go out Friday or Saturday night..................not on a Monday.......................I thought it was set during the Roaring 20s.........I was close.........could that have been Arsenio Hall.............in this movie of course...........but up close and personal.........he had his own show at one point on TV...........was in tons of movies...................like Antonio Banderas........there was a time period you heard Arsenio Hall all over TV and the news.....................movies, etc........

Harlem Nights

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Harlem Nights
Promotional poster
Directed by	Eddie Murphy
Produced by	Mark Lipsky Robert D. Wachs
Written by	Eddie Murphy
Starring	Eddie Murphy Richard Pryor Redd Foxx Della Reese
Music by	Herbie Hancock
Cinematography	Woody Omens
Edited by	Alan Balsam George Bowers
Production company	Eddie Murphy Productions
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	November 17, 1989 (1989-11-17)
Running time	115 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$30 million
Box office	$95 million[2]

Harlem Nights is a 1989 American crime-comedy film written, executive produced, and directed by Eddie Murphy. Murphy co-stars with Richard Pryor as a team running a nightclub in late-1930s Harlem while contending with gangsters and corrupt police officials. The film also features Michael Lerner, Danny Aiello, Redd Foxx (in his last film before his death in 1991), Della Reese, and Murphy's brother Charlie Murphy.
Murphy received a nomination for Worst Director at the 10th Golden Raspberry Awards, his only directorial effort; the film "won" Worst Screenplay. He had always wanted to direct and star in a period piece, as well as work with Pryor, whom he considered his greatest influence in stand-up comedy.^[3]

Contents

 [hide] 

• 1 Plot
• 2 Cast
• 3 Production
• 4 Release
  • 4.1 Box office
  • 4.2 Critical reception
  • 4.3 Movie theatre shooting controversy
• 5 Accolades
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Plot[edit]

In Harlem, New York, 1918, Sugar Ray has a dice game. Nearly killed by an angry customer, Ray is saved by seven-year-old errand boy Vernest Brown, who shoots the man. After being told that his parents are dead, Ray decides to raise the boy as his own. And because of the boy's savvy, he is nicknamed "Quick."
Twenty years later, Ray and Quick run a nightclub called "Club Sugar Ray", with a brothel in back run by madam Vera. Smalls, who works for the gangster Bugsy Calhoune, and Miss Dominique LaRue, Calhoun's mistress, arrive. Smalls and LaRue have come to see the club and report to Calhoune. Later, Calhoun sends corrupt detective Sgt. Phil Cantone to threaten Ray with shutting the club down unless Calhoun gets a cut.
Ray decides to shut down, but first wants to make sure he's provided for his friends and workers. An upcoming fight between challenger Kirkpatrick and defending champion (and loyal Club Sugar Ray patron) Jack Jenkins will draw a lot of money in bets. Ray plans to place a bet on Kirkpatrick to make Calhoune think Jenkins will throw the fight. Ray also plans to rob Calhoune's booking houses. A sexy call girl named Sunshine is used to distract Calhoune's bag man Richie Vinto.
Calhoune thinks Smalls is stealing and has him killed. Quick is noticed near the scene by Smalls' brother Reggie who tries to kill him. Quick kills him and his men. Calhoune sends LaRue to seduce and kill Quick. Quick realises he is being set up and kills LaRue.
Calhoune has Club Sugar Ray burned down. Sunshine seduces Richie Vinto and tells him she has a pickup to make. Richie agrees to pick her up on the way to collect money for Calhoune. Richie gets into an accident orchestrated by Ray's henchman Jimmy. Ray and Quick, disguised as policemen, attempt to arrest Richie, telling him that the woman he's riding around with is a drug dealer. Quick attempts to switch the bag that held Calhoun's money with the one Sunshine had placed in the car, but two white policemen "real boys" arrive. Richie explains that he's on a run for Bugsy Calhoune, so they let him go.
The championship fight begins. Two of Ray's men blow up Calhoune's "Pitty Pat Club", to retaliate against Calhoun for destroying Club Sugar Ray. At the fight, Calhoune realizes it was not fixed as he thought, and hears that his club has been destroyed. Quick and Ray arrive at a closed bank. Cantone arrives, having followed them. Ray's crew seal him inside the bank vault.
Richie arrives to deliver Calhoun's money, but tells Calhoune that the bags of money had been switched with bags of 'heroin', which turns out to be sugar. Calhoune then deduces that Ray was behind the plot. Vera visits Calhoune and tells them where to find Ray and Quick. Bugsy and his men arrive at Ray's house. One of his men trips a bomb, killing them all. Ray and Quick pay off the two white men who disguised themselves as the policemen earlier, revealing there are white people who are aware of the mis-treatment that has been happening. Ray and Quick take one last look at Harlem, knowing they can never return and that there will never be another city like it. Despite this, they happily depart for an unknown location as the credits roll.

Cast[edit]

• Eddie Murphy as Vernest "Quick" Brown
• Desi Arnez Hines II as young Quick
• Richard Pryor as Sugar Ray
• Redd Foxx as Bennie Wilson
• Danny Aiello as Phil Cantone
• Michael Lerner as Bugsy Calhoune
• Della Reese as Vera
• Berlinda Tolbert as Annie
• Stan Shaw as Jack Jenkins
• Jasmine Guy as Dominique La Rue
• Vic Polizos as Richie Vento
• Lela Rochon as Sunshine
• David Marciano as Tony
• Arsenio Hall as Reggie
• Thomas Mikal Ford as Tommy Smalls
• Charlie Murphy as Jimmy
• Robin Harris as Romeo
• Uncle Ray Murphy as Willie
• Michael Buffer as Ring Announcer
• Reynaldo Rey as Gambler
• Don Familton as Referee
• Ji-Tu Cumbuka as Daryl

Production[edit]

"It's turning out to be more pleasant than I expected," Pryor told Rolling Stone. "(Murphy is) wise enough to listen to people. I seen him be very patient with his actors. It's not a lark to him. He's really serious." "He's on top of the world and he's doing a hell of a job," agreed Foxx. "He sure knows how to handle people with sensitivity. He'll come over to your side and give private direction – he never embarrasses anyone." "You walk around here and look at the people," added Pryor. "Have you ever in your life seen this many black people on a movie set? I haven't."^[4]

Release[edit]

Box office[edit]

Opening in North America in mid-November 1989, the film debuted at No.1 its opening weekend.^[5] It grossed $16,096,808 during those first three days and would go on to collect a total of $60,864,870 domestically at the box office.^[2] Despite a fair gross, the film was considered a box office bomb by the studio, earning roughly half of Murphy's earlier box office successes Coming to America and Beverly Hills Cop II from the previous two years.