The Cotton Club (1984) on Netflix
Musician Dixie Dwyer works with mobsters to advance his career and falls for Vera Cicero, girlfriend of Dutch Schultz. Dancer Sandman Williams and his brother Clay are hired at the Cotton Club.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.6/1021,387 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes76%
Trailer
Plot summary
Mobster Owney Madden owns the Cotton Club, and Frenchy Demange is his right-hand man. In 1930s Harlem, the club is a jazz spot where black performers entertain white patrons. Dixie Dwyer, a musician, begins doing work for gangsters so his career can grow, and he becomes involved with Vera Cicero, the girlfriend of crime boss Dutch Schultz. The club hires dancer Sandman Williams and his brother Clay. Sandman grows interested in Lila Rose Oliver, a singer at the club.
Cast
- Maurice Hinesas Clay Williams
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Cotton Club (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Financial backer Roy Radin, a vaudeville promoter, was murdered in May 1983, and his killers later alleged that they had been hired by Evans and Radin's girlfriend, a drug dealer who felt she was cut out of profits from the film. At the 1989 "Cotton Club Trial", Evans invoked his Fifth Amendment right and refused to testify.
- Evans and Paramount Pictures were announced as co-producers on December 12, 1980, with Robert Altman directing and Mario Puzo writing, but Evans and Altman's Popeye premiered that same day and flopped. Evans secured $12 million of financing from the Saudi business tycoon Adnan Khashoggi, and Paramount withdrew in 1981.
- Within several weeks the film was over budget, letting Evans deduct from Coppola's $4 million salary, which had not been fully paid because the script was still being rewritten. Coppola reacted by walking off set and refusing to continue directing until he was paid in full.
- Evans cast Al Pacino, Sylvester Stallone and Harrison Ford as Michael "Dixie" Dwyer before Gere was hired, and Richard Pryor was considered for Delbert "Sandman" Williams. Evans also wanted his friend Alain Delon for a two-scene role as Lucky Luciano, but that did not happen.
- Coppola, who had an adversarial relationship with Evans dating from the Godfather films, accepted the jobs of screenwriter and then director because he needed the money: he was deeply in debt from making One from the Heart with his own money, and his Zoetrope Studios went bankrupt.
- In 2015 Coppola found an old Betamax copy of his original cut, which ran 25 minutes longer than the version he had shortened for distributors who wanted a different structure. Between 2015 and 2017 he spent over $500,000 of his own money restoring the film to that cut.
- The Luciano role intended for Alain Delon went instead to Joe Dallesandro, starting a dramatic film career for the former Warhol Superstar.
