Harlem Nights (1989) on Netflix
Sugar Ray runs an illegal casino and nightclub in Harlem with Quick, the orphan boy he raised. The gangster Bugsy Calhoune wants a share of the club's weekly earnings.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb6.1/1027,628 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes27%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1918 Harlem, an angry customer nearly kills the gambler Sugar Ray, and Ray's young errand boy, Vernest Brown, shoots the man dead. Ray learns the boy has no family and takes him in. By 1938 the two, Vernest now called Quick, run Club Sugar Ray, where patrons gamble and dance in front and a brothel works at the back. The club's success threatens Bugsy Calhoune, the gangster who owns most of Harlem's after-hours clubs.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Harlem Nights (1989)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The part of Dominique La Rue, played by Jasmine Guy, was originally cast with Michael Michele, who was fired during production because, according to Eddie Murphy, she "wasn't working out". Michele sued, saying she was really fired for rejecting his advances; Murphy denied it and the suit was settled out of court.
- Brawlers were ejected from a Sacramento theater showing Harlem Nights; their feud continued in a parking lot and ended with gunshots that seriously injured two 24-year-old men. An hour later a 17-year-old was fatally shot in a similar fight at a theater in Richmond, California.
- Asked about the film's reception, Murphy said it was not a pleasurable experience: he had just wanted to direct to see if he could do it, found out that he can't, and said he won't do it any more.
- Reviewers panned the film, and at the 10th Golden Raspberry Awards Murphy won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay, yet Harlem Nights still grossed $60.9 million against a production budget of $30 million.
- Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert featured the film on their "Worst of 1989" episode of At the Movies, Siskel calling it racist, sexist and badly directed, with Ebert agreeing and adding that they thought Murphy was directing a film to call himself a director.
