Jungle Fever (1991) on Netflix
Flipper Purify is a married Harlem architect. At his Manhattan firm, Angie Tucci, an Italian-American woman from Bensonhurst, becomes his temporary secretary, and the two begin an affair.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb6.6/1021,232 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes81%
Trailer
Plot summary
Drew works as a buyer at Bloomingdale's and lives in Harlem with her husband, Flipper Purify, an architect, and their young daughter, Ming. At his office, Flipper finds that Angela Tucci, an Italian-American woman from Bensonhurst, has been hired as his temporary secretary. He is unhappy about being the only black person there, and the senior partners say they hire for ability, not race. Angie's fiancé, Paulie Carbone, runs a corner grocery, cafe and newsstand with his widowed father, Lou, and her brothers Charlie and James threaten Paulie over how he treats her. Flipper and Angie work late evenings together, and the affair they begin leads him to tell his friend Cyrus, who faults him not for the infidelity but for choosing a white woman.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Jungle Fever (1991)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Lee dedicated the film to Yusuf Hawkins, killed on August 23, 1989 in Bensonhurst, New York by Italian-Americans who said the teenager was involved with a white girl in the neighborhood, though he was there to inquire about a used car for sale.
- Jackson told Esquire he was able to play the crack addict Gator effectively because he had just got out of rehab for his own crack addiction, and that personal experience let him help Lee establish Gator's antics and make the character seem more realistic.
- Lee initially filmed a prologue addressing racial issues, but at the encouragement of distributor Universal Pictures he decided to remove the "offending" scene from the $12.5 million production.
- In the scene where Drew and her friends discuss Flipper's infidelity the actresses' performances were largely improvised, and the emotionally charged conversation required three days of rehearsal and an entire day to film.
- Certain aspects of the architect Flipper Purify were influenced by cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, Lee's longtime friend and collaborator, who studied architecture at Howard University.
- The soundtrack was by Stevie Wonder and released by Motown Records; although the album was created for the movie, it came out before the film's premiere in May 1991.
