The Cotton Club (film)
Encyclopedia
The Cotton Club is a 1984 crime
Crime film
Crime films are films which focus on the lives of criminals. The stylistic approach to a crime film varies from realistic portrayals of real-life criminal figures, to the far-fetched evil doings of imaginary arch-villains. Criminal acts are almost always glorified in these movies.- Plays and films...

-drama
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

, centered on a famed Harlem jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 club of the 1930s, the Cotton Club.

The movie was co-written (with William Kennedy) and directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...

, choreographed by Henry LeTang
Henry LeTang
Henry LeTang was an American theatre,film, and television choreographer and a dance instructor.-Biography:Born in the Harlem neighbourhood of Manhattan, LeTang was the second son of Clarence, born in Dominica, and his wife Marie, who emigrated from St. Croix. The couple owned and operated a radio...

, and starred Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...

, Diane Lane
Diane Lane
Diane Lane is an American film actress.Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at the age of 13 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film A Little Romance, starring opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. Soon after, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine...

, and Gregory Hines
Gregory Hines
Gregory Oliver Hines was an American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Born in New York City, Hines and his older brother Maurice started dancing at an early age, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang...

. The cast included Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...

, Bob Hoskins
Bob Hoskins
Robert William "Bob" Hoskins, Jr. is an English actor known for playing Cockney rough diamonds, psychopaths and gangsters, in films such as The Long Good Friday , and Mona Lisa , and lighter roles in family films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Hook .- Early life :Hoskins was born in Bury St...

, Lonette McKee
Lonette McKee
Lonette McKee is an American film and television actress, music composer/producer/songwriter, screenwriter and director.-Biography:...

, Laurence Fishburne
Laurence Fishburne
Laurence John Fishburne III is an American film and stage actor, playwright, director, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Morpheus in the Matrix science fiction film trilogy, as Cowboy Curtis on the 1980's television show Pee-wee's Playhouse, and as singer-musician Ike Turner...

, Fred Gwynne
Fred Gwynne
Frederick Hubbard "Fred" Gwynne was an American actor. Gwynne was best known for his roles in the 1960s sitcoms Car 54, Where Are You? and The Munsters, as well as his later roles: Pet Sematary and My Cousin Vinny...

, Maurice Hines
Maurice Hines
Maurice Hines is an American actor, director, jazz singer and choreographer.Born in New York City, Hines began his career at the age of five, studying tap dance at the Henry LeTang Dance Studio in Manhattan. LeTang recognized his talent and began choreographing numbers specifically for him and his...

, James Remar
James Remar
James Remar is an American actor and voice artist. He has appeared in movies, video games, and TV shows. He is perhaps best known as Richard, the on-off tycoon boyfriend of Kim Cattrall's character in Sex and the City, as Ajax in The Warriors, as the homicidal maniac Albert Ganz in the 1982...

, Allen Garfield
Allen Garfield
Allen Garfield, born and sometimes credited as Allen Goorwitz , is an American film and television actor.-Biography:...

 and Gwen Verdon
Gwen Verdon
Gwenyth Evelyn “Gwen” Verdon was an actress and dancer who won four Tony awards for her musical comedy performances. With flaming red hair and an endearing quaver in her voice, Verdon was a critically acclaimed dancer on Broadway in the 1950s and 1960s...

.

Despite performing poorly at the box office, the film was nominated for several awards, including Golden Globes for Best Director and Best Picture (Drama) and Oscar
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

s for best Best Art Direction
Academy Award for Best Art Direction
The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...

 (Richard Sylbert
Richard Sylbert
Richard Sylbert was an Academy Award-winning production designer and art director, primarily for feature films....

, George Gaines
George Gaines (set decorator)
George Gaines was an American set decorator. He won two Academy Awards and was nominated for another two in the category Best Art Direction.-Selected filmography:...

) and Film Editing
Academy Award for Film Editing
The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...

. The film, however, also earned a Razzie Award nomination for Diane Lane as Worst Supporting Actress (also for Streets of Fire
Streets of Fire
Streets of Fire is a 1984 film directed by Walter Hill and co-written by Hill and Larry Gross. It was described in previews, trailers, and posters as "A Rock & Roll Fable." It is an unusual mix of musical, action, drama, and comedy with elements both of retro-1950s and 1980s...

).

The Cotton Club was the first privately financed major motion picture, paid for almost entirely by brothers Fred and Ed Doumani of Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...

. The movie was not successful, making only $25,928,721 on a budget of over $50 million.

Plot

A musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 named Dixie Dwyer begins working with mobsters to advance his career but falls in love with the girlfriend of gangland kingpin
Crime boss
A crime boss or boss is a person in charge of a criminal organization. A boss typically has absolute or near-absolute control over his subordinates, is greatly feared by his subordinates for his ruthlessness and willingness to take lives in order to exert his influence, and profits come from the...

 Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz was a New York City-area Jewish American gangster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities such as bootlegging alcohol and the numbers racket...

.

A dancer from Dixie's neighborhood, Sandman Williams, is hired with his brother by the Cotton Club, a jazz club where most of the performers are black and the customers white. Owney Madden, a mobster, owns the club and runs it with his right-hand man, Frenchy.

Dixie becomes a Hollywood film star, thanks to the help of Madden and the mob but angering Schultz. He also continues to see Schultz's moll, Vera Cicero, whose new nightclub has been financed by the jealous gangster.

In the meantime, Dixie's ambitious younger brother Vincent becomes a gangster in Schultz's mob and eventually a public enemy, holding Frenchy as a hostage.

Sandman alienates his brother Clay at the Cotton Club by agreeing to perform a solo number there. While the club's management interferes with Sandman's romantic interest in Lila, a singer, its cruel treatment of the performers leads to an intervention by Harlem criminal "Bumpy" Rhodes on their behalf.

Dutch Schultz is violently dealt with by Madden's men while Dixie and Sandman perform on the Cotton Club's stage.

Cast

  • Richard Gere
    Richard Gere
    Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...

     as Dixie Dwyer
  • Gregory Hines
    Gregory Hines
    Gregory Oliver Hines was an American actor, singer, dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Born in New York City, Hines and his older brother Maurice started dancing at an early age, studying with choreographer Henry LeTang...

     as Sandman Williams
  • Diane Lane
    Diane Lane
    Diane Lane is an American film actress.Born and raised in New York City, Lane made her screen debut at the age of 13 in George Roy Hill's 1979 film A Little Romance, starring opposite Sir Laurence Olivier. Soon after, she was featured on the cover of Time magazine...

     as Vera Cicero
  • Lonette McKee
    Lonette McKee
    Lonette McKee is an American film and television actress, music composer/producer/songwriter, screenwriter and director.-Biography:...

     as Lila Rose Oliver
  • Bob Hoskins
    Bob Hoskins
    Robert William "Bob" Hoskins, Jr. is an English actor known for playing Cockney rough diamonds, psychopaths and gangsters, in films such as The Long Good Friday , and Mona Lisa , and lighter roles in family films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Hook .- Early life :Hoskins was born in Bury St...

     as Owney Madden
    Owney Madden
    Owney "The Killer" Madden was a leading underworld figure in Manhattan, most notable for his involvement in organized crime during Prohibition. He also ran the famous Cotton Club and was a leading boxing promoter in the 1930s.-Early life:Owen Vincent Madden was born at 25 Somerset Street, in...

  • James Remar
    James Remar
    James Remar is an American actor and voice artist. He has appeared in movies, video games, and TV shows. He is perhaps best known as Richard, the on-off tycoon boyfriend of Kim Cattrall's character in Sex and the City, as Ajax in The Warriors, as the homicidal maniac Albert Ganz in the 1982...

     as Dutch Schultz
    Dutch Schultz
    Dutch Schultz was a New York City-area Jewish American gangster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities such as bootlegging alcohol and the numbers racket...

  • Nicolas Cage
    Nicolas Cage
    Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...

     as Vincent Dwyer
  • Allen Garfield
    Allen Garfield
    Allen Garfield, born and sometimes credited as Allen Goorwitz , is an American film and television actor.-Biography:...

     as Abbadabba Berman
  • Fred Gwynne
    Fred Gwynne
    Frederick Hubbard "Fred" Gwynne was an American actor. Gwynne was best known for his roles in the 1960s sitcoms Car 54, Where Are You? and The Munsters, as well as his later roles: Pet Sematary and My Cousin Vinny...

     as Frenchy Demange
  • Gwen Verdon
    Gwen Verdon
    Gwenyth Evelyn “Gwen” Verdon was an actress and dancer who won four Tony awards for her musical comedy performances. With flaming red hair and an endearing quaver in her voice, Verdon was a critically acclaimed dancer on Broadway in the 1950s and 1960s...

     as Tish Dwyer
  • Lisa Jane Persky
    Lisa Jane Persky
    Lisa Jane Persky is an American actress.Persky was born in New York City, New York, the daughter of Jane Holley and Mort Persky...

     as Frances Flegenheimer
  • Maurice Hines
    Maurice Hines
    Maurice Hines is an American actor, director, jazz singer and choreographer.Born in New York City, Hines began his career at the age of five, studying tap dance at the Henry LeTang Dance Studio in Manhattan. LeTang recognized his talent and began choreographing numbers specifically for him and his...

     as Clay Williams
  • Julian Beck
    Julian Beck
    Julian Beck was an American actor, director, poet, and painter.-Early life:Beck was born in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan in New York City, the son of Mabel Lucille , a teacher, and Irving Beck, a businessman. He briefly attended Yale University, but dropped out to pursue writing and...

     as Sol Weinstein
  • Laurence Fishburne
    Laurence Fishburne
    Laurence John Fishburne III is an American film and stage actor, playwright, director, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Morpheus in the Matrix science fiction film trilogy, as Cowboy Curtis on the 1980's television show Pee-wee's Playhouse, and as singer-musician Ike Turner...

     as Bumpy Rhodes
  • Tom Waits
    Tom Waits
    Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...

     as Irving Starck
  • Glenn Withrow
    Glenn Withrow
    Glenn Withrow is an American actor, director, producer and writer.-Personal life:Withrow was born in Highland Heights, Kentucky in 1953. He is married to actress Hallie Todd...

     as Ed Popke
  • Jennifer Grey
    Jennifer Grey
    Jennifer Elise Grey is an American actress. Her first major roles came in the 1984 war film Red Dawn and the 1986 comedy Ferris Bueller's Day Off. In 1987 she starred as Frances "Baby" Houseman in the hit film Dirty Dancing for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe. In the early 1990s, Grey...

     as Patsy Dwyer
  • Diane Venora
    Diane Venora
    Diane Venora is an American stage, television, and film actress.-Early life:Venora was born Diana Venora in East Hartford, Connecticut, the daughter of Marie and Robert P. Venora, who owned a dry cleaning establishment. Diane graduated from East Hartford High School, class of 1970. During her...

     as Gloria Swanson
    Gloria Swanson
    Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...

  • Tucker Smallwood
    Tucker Smallwood
    Tucker Smallwood is an American actor, author and vocalist.-Early life:From 1967 to 1970, Smallwood served in the United States Army Airborne Infantry. Commanding a Mobile Advisory Team during the Vietnam War, he was wounded in action...

     as Kid Griffin
  • Bill Cobbs
    Bill Cobbs
    Wilbert "Bill" Cobbs is an American film and television actor. He has starred in over 120 television programs and movies.-Life and career:...

     as Big Joe Ison
  • Rosalind Harris
    Rosalind Harris
    Rosalind Harris is an American actress who played Tzeitel in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof in 1971.She played "Golde", Tzeitel's mother, in a touring stage revival of the same musical nearly twenty years later with Topol, the Israeli actor as "Tevye".She appeared...

     as Fanny Brice
    Fanny Brice
    Fanny Brice was a popular and influential American illustrated song "model," comedienne, singer, theatre and film actress, who made many stage, radio and film appearances and is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show...

  • Sofia Coppola
    Sofia Coppola
    Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...

     as Kid in Street
  • Mario Van Peebles
    Mario Van Peebles
    Mario "Chip" Cain Van Peebles is an American director and actor who has appeared in numerous Hollywood films. He is son of filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles.-Life and career:...

     as Dancer
  • Larry Marshall as Cab Calloway
    Cab Calloway
    Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....


Real-Life Counterparts to the Characters

Owney Madden
Owney Madden
Owney "The Killer" Madden was a leading underworld figure in Manhattan, most notable for his involvement in organized crime during Prohibition. He also ran the famous Cotton Club and was a leading boxing promoter in the 1930s.-Early life:Owen Vincent Madden was born at 25 Somerset Street, in...

 and Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz was a New York City-area Jewish American gangster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities such as bootlegging alcohol and the numbers racket...

 were actual crime figures of the era. The character of Dixie Dwyer is loosely based on the famous 1920s hot jazz cornet
Cornet
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...

ist, Bix Beiderbecke
Bix Beiderbecke
Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.With Louis Armstrong, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s...

, right down to the alliterative name, and everyone simply calling him "Dix." The character "Lila" is loosely based on Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...

.

Laurence Fishburne
Laurence Fishburne
Laurence John Fishburne III is an American film and stage actor, playwright, director, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Morpheus in the Matrix science fiction film trilogy, as Cowboy Curtis on the 1980's television show Pee-wee's Playhouse, and as singer-musician Ike Turner...

's character, "Bumpy Rhodes," meanwhile, is based on Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson. Fishburne would later play Johnson in the film Hoodlum. Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...

's character is based on Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll. And characters representing Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway
Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was strongly associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City where he was a regular performer....

 and Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...

 are also seen performing at the club, with celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

 and James Cagney
James Cagney
James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...

 seen in the audience.

Production

Inspired to make The Cotton Club by a picture-book history of the famous nightclub by Jim Haskin, Robert Evans was the film's original producer and wanted also to direct. Evans eventually decided that he did not want to direct the film and asked Coppola at the last minute. Richard Sylbert claimed that he told Evans not to hire Coppola because "he resents being in the commercial, narrative, Hollywood movie business". Coppola claimed that he had letters from Sylbert that ask him to work on the film because Evans was crazy. The director also said that "Evans set the tone for the level of extravagance long before I got there". Coppola accepted the job because he needed the money — he was deeply in debt from making One From the Heart
One from the Heart
One from the Heart is a 1982 musical film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The characters themselves do not actually sing but the powerful score dominates the movie. It is set entirely in Las Vegas, on the Las Vegas Strip and the desert surrounding the city...

with his own money. By the time Evans decided not to direct and brought in Coppola, at least $13 million had already been committed. Las Vegas casino owners Edward and Fred Doumani put $30 million into the film. Other financial backers included Arab arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi
Adnan Khashoggi
Adnan Khashoggi is a Saudi Arabian arms-dealer and businessman. He is also noted for his engagements with high society in both the Occident and Arabic-speaking worlds, and for his involvement in the Iran–Contra and Lockheed bribery scandals, and numerous other affairs...

, and vaudeville promoter Roy Radin, who was eventually murdered. According to William Kennedy in an interview with Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...

, the budget of the film was $47 million. However, Francis Ford Coppola told the head of Gaumont, Europe's largest distribution and production company, that he thought the film might cost $65 million.

Author Mario Puzo
Mario Puzo
Mario Gianluigi Puzo was an American author and screenwriter, known for his novels about the Mafia, including The Godfather , which he later co-adapted into a film by Francis Ford Coppola...

 was the original screenwriter and was eventually replaced by William Kennedy who wrote a rehearsal script in eight days which the cast used for three weeks prior to shooting. According to actor Gregory Hines, a three-hour film was shot during rehearsals.

Over 600 people built sets, created costumes and arranged music at a reported $250,000 a day.

From July 15 to August 22, 1983, 12 scripts were produced, including five during one 48-hour non-stop weekend. Kennedy estimates that between 30-40 scripts were turned out.

On June 7, 1984, Victor L. Sayyah filed a lawsuit against the Doumani brothers, their lawyer David Hurwitz, Evans and Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures Corporation was an American independent production company that produced movies from 1978 until 1998. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former top-level executives of United Artists. Although it was never a large motion picture producer, Orion...

 for fraud and breach of contract. Sayyah invested $5 million and claimed that he had little chance of recouping his money because the budget escalated from $25 to $58 million. He accused the Doumanis of forcing out Evans and that an Orion loan to the film of $15 million unnecessarily increased the budget. Evans, in turn, sued Edward Doumani to keep from acting as general partner on the film.

Reaction

The Cotton Club was released on December 14, 1984 and grossed $2.9 million on its opening weekend, fourth place behind Beverly Hills Cop
Beverly Hills Cop
Beverly Hills Cop is a 1984 American comedy-action film directed by Martin Brest and starring Eddie Murphy, Lisa Eilbacher, John Ashton, Judge Reinhold, and Ronny Cox...

, Dune
Dune
In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by wind. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the wind...

, and 2010. The film would have had to gross $100 million to break even. Robert Evans took the blame for hiring Coppola while the director responded that if he had not been hired, the film would have never been made. Evans claimed that Coppola made the budget escalate dramatically by rejecting the script, hiring his own crew, and falling behind schedule.

A stage version, "The Cotton Club: A Musical About Murder, Mayhem and Moxie," is planned for production in New York City in 2012. The songs used in the film, written during the 1920s-1930s, will be replaced by entirely new and original music and lyrics which manage to capture the spirit of composers such as Gershwin, Ellington, etc., without being slavishly imitative. The libretto is adapted from the screenplay by Coppola, Kennedy & Puzo.

This film appeared on both Siskel and Ebert's best of 1984. The Cotton Club currently holds a 78% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

.

External links

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