The Cotton Club (1984)

74% of critics liked it
(23 reviews)
52% of users liked it
(6,684 ratings)

Combining electric song and dance performances with drama (both on and off screen), Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984) looks back to the 1920s-1930s peak of the legendary Harlem nightclub where only blacks performed and only whites could sit in the audience. Mixing historical figures with… More Combining electric song and dance performances with drama (both on and off screen), Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984) looks back to the 1920s-1930s peak of the legendary Harlem nightclub where only blacks performed and only whites could sit in the audience. Mixing historical figures with characters loosely based on actual people, Coppola and co-writers William Kennedy and The Godfather's Mario Puzo create a panorama of love, crime, and entertainment centered on the Club. Among them are cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere, playing his own solos), who escapes psycho gangster "benefactor" Dutch Schultz (James Remar) for a George Raft-type Hollywood career as a gangster film star; Schultz's nubile mistress Vera Cicero (Diane Lane), who loves Dixie against her mercenary instincts; Cotton Club Mob owner Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins) and close associate Frenchy Demarge (Fred Gwynne); Vincent (Nicolas Cage), Dixie's no-good Mad Dog Coll-esque brother; Club tap star Sandman Williams (Gregory Hines), who woos ambitious light-skinned Club singer Lila Rose Oliver (Lonette McKee); and cameos by Charles "Honi" Coles and Cab Calloway impersonator Larry Marshall. Complementing the period story, Coppola evokes the style of '30s gangster movies and musicals through an array of old-fashioned devices like montages of headlines, songs and shoot-outs. Conceived by producer Robert Evans as his crowning achievement and directorial debut, Evans had to hand over the troubled production to Coppola, but the budget spiraled out of control as the script was repeatedly re-written throughout the chaotic shoot. By the time it was released, The Cotton Club's epic production story of power struggles, financial bloat, and even a murder overshadowed the "reunion" of The Godfather's creative team. Neither a Heaven's Gate-sized failure nor a wallet-saving hit like Coppola's Apocalypse Now, The Cotton Club got some favorable critical notices (although it drew fire for subordinating the African American stories). It did not, however, find a large enough audience to justify its expense and controversy, becoming another mark against 1970s "auteur" cinema in increasingly blockbuster-driven 1980s Hollywood. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: R, 2 hr. 7 min.
Directed By: Francis Ford Coppola
Written By: William Kennedy, Francis Ford Coppola
Genres: Musical & Performing Arts, Drama

In Theaters: Dec 14, 1984 Wide
On DVD: Jan 19, 2000
Studio: Nelson Entertainment

Critic Reviews

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine
Given its garish production history, one rather expected The Cotton Club to sing with hot-jazz desperation. Instead, we get the mediocre craftsmanship of a pit band in Vegas.
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
It was the most assured film Coppola had made in a decade, full of casual wit and visual invention.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Whatever it took to do it, Coppola has extracted a very special film out of the checkered history of this project.
, Film4
This musical gangster movie is a tour de force, even if a little muddled.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Lavish, interesting, evocative but strained and self-conscious, Cotton Club is all watchable curiosity.
, Time Out
The narrative is a mess despite the simplistic twinning of tales.
Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
Energetic and involving.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, San Francisco Examiner
Coppola's most shamefully underrated movie.
Chuck Rudolph, Matinee Magazine
Ambitious, but like many post-Apocalypse Coppola films, it doesn't quite hit the mark.

Read all 9 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

Lucas M

Good motion picture, but The Cotton Club presents some cliches of gangsters movies. Whatever, Coppola made a remarkable film.
Ken S

While not the Godfather (and what is really...besides Godfather 2, but I digress) The Cotton Club is a great entertaining little movie. All controversy about it's making aside Coppola and Evans managed to craft a thoroughly entertaining film with several great scenes and mostly… More
While not the Godfather (and what is really...besides Godfather 2, but I digress) The Cotton Club is a great entertaining little movie. All controversy about it's making aside Coppola and Evans managed to craft a thoroughly entertaining film with several great scenes and mostly solid performances (I'm looking at you Nic Cage and James Remar). I can say however, that this is hands down, the single best tap dancing gangster film ever made.
xGary X

Period gangster drama set around a nightclub in the 20s that's a little lacking in substance.
Cameron J

I know he wrote it, but one can only wonder how many times they had to tell Francis Ford Coppola that they weren't actually sticking cotton in their mouths. See, a joke like that should tell you that I'm am drained of creative juices and it doesn't help that… More
I know he wrote it, but one can only wonder how many times they had to tell Francis Ford Coppola that they weren't actually sticking cotton in their mouths. See, a joke like that should tell you that I'm am drained of creative juices and it doesn't help that there's not much that's very outstanding film. It's just kind of bland and not terribly original, making it pretty easy to lose interest in the film. The film also suffers from a lack of development and slow spots. Also, although anthologies feel smoother when we see the stories are split into segments layered on top of each other, whether then whole back-to-back stories, there is still a very real chance that the transition between story segments with kind of throw you off. That's definately the case here, as the messy storytelling makes our jumps between the multiple segments feel rather bumpy. Also, Diane Lane puts on a pretty weak performance and although she's rarely given anything to do, she's not the most enjoyable thing to see, outside of the pretty face, of course. Still, that short leg isn't enough to knock the chair over, because the other performances, keep the film going, among other things. The story is not terribly original nor complex, but still rather compelling and the fabulous production designs really bring everything to life. Coppola really knows how to bring life to this film's period in how he sets the tone and even though you've seen this period explored to death, it's still fascinating to see. What further captures the time are the performances, which - with the exception of Lane, of course - capture the time, but still enough spirit and charisma in them to make the characters strong ones. Wow, this review isn't as bad as I feared. I mean, it's pretty bad, but not as bad as the opening joke promised. I guess I'm just no good at jokes or producing enough sentences to close out a paragraph, leaving me to resort to this stupid monologue to close out this paragraph. Okay, let's just close this thing out. Overall, although the lack of originality and the somewhat messy storytelling keep it from delivering as well as a Coppola gangster film should, "The Cotton Club" holds the fabulous production design and compelling, well-acted ensemble that make a film like this an enjoyable one.
Mike T

Another underrated work from Francis Ford Coppola. I feel that this movie's triumphs outnumber its shortcomings, and it is a satisfying experience overall. It gets off to a weak start, and within the first twenty minutes I thought I was in for a tedious watch, but it really finds… More
Another underrated work from Francis Ford Coppola. I feel that this movie's triumphs outnumber its shortcomings, and it is a satisfying experience overall. It gets off to a weak start, and within the first twenty minutes I thought I was in for a tedious watch, but it really finds itself in the second act. The screenplay went through numerous re-writes and alterations during the process of making the film, and that's definitely evident. Nevertheless, it pieces together nicely and aside from some poor dialogue, it's actually a well-written movie. As I have come to expect from Coppola, it is a technically astonishing piece with stunning art direction and some awe-striking film editing.

Cast

            Richard Gere as Dixie Dwyer

            Gregory Hines as Sandman Williams

            Diane Lane as Vera Cicero

            Lonette McKee as Lila Rose Oliver

            Bob Hoskins as Owney Madden

            James Remar as Dutch Schultz

            Nicolas Cage as Vincent Dwyer

            Allen Garfield as Abbadabba Berman

            Fred Gwynne as Frenchy Demange

            Lisa Jane Persky as Frances Flegenheimer

            Maurice Hines as Clay Williams

            Julian Beck as Sol Weinstein

            Novella Nelson as Madame St. Clair

            Tom Waits as Irving Stark

            Wynonna Smith as Winnie Williams

            Charles "Honi" Coles as Sugar Coates

            Larry Marshall as Cab Calloway

            Woody Strode as Holmes

            Dayton Allen as Solly

            Tracey Bass as Dancer

            Sandra Beall as Myrtle Fay

            Ralph Brown as Hoofer

            Thelma Carpenter as Norma Williams

            Kim Chan as Ling

            Rony Clanton as Caspar Holstein

            Bill Cobbs as Bib Joe Ison

            Nick Corri
            
            Joe Dallesandro as Charles "Lucky" Luciano

            Derwin Jordan
            
            Wendy Edmead as Dancer

            Giancarlo Esposito as Bumpy Hood

            Laurence Fishburne as Bumpy Rhodes

            Nicholas J. Giangiulio as Screen Test Thug

            Jennifer Grey as Patsy Dwyer

            Rosalind Harris as Fanny Brice

            Sonia Hensley as Dancer

            Paul Herman as Policeman #1

            Robert Earl Jones as Stage Door Joe

            Ron Karabatsos as Mike Best

            Damien Leake as Bub Jewett

            Bruce MacVittie as Vince Hood

            Zane Mark as Duke Ellington

            Susan Mechsner as Gypsie

            Randle Mell as Policeman #2

            Ed O'Ross as Monk

            Mario Van Peebles as Dancer

            Gregory Rozakis as Charlie Chaplin

            James Russo as Vince Hood

            John P. Ryan as Joe Flynn

            Tom Signorelli as Butch Murdock

            Tucker Smallwood as Kid Griffin

            Brian Tarantina as Vince Hood

            Leonard Termo as Danny

            Diane Venora as Gloria Swanson

            Gwen Verdon as Mrs. Tish Dwyer

            Glenn Withrow as Ed Popke

            Ed Zang as Clerk

            Bill Graham as J.W.

            Henry Le Tang as Hoofer

            Marc Coppola as Ted Husing

            Sarita Allen as Dancer

            Jacquelyn Bird as Dancer

            Carla Earle as Dancer

            Joe Lynn as Marcial Flores

            Steve Vignari as Trigger Mike Coppola

            Bruce Howard as Bumpy Hood

            George Cantero as Vince Hood

            Vincent Jerosa as James Cagney

            Ed Rowan as Messiah

            Christopher Lewis as Child in Street
See full cast