Details
Movie Description
A RAGE IN HARLEM starts out with brutal violence, proceeds into bawdy comedy, and somehow ends up a surprisingly touching love story. Forest Whitaker stars as Jackson, a naively pious accountant at a Harlem funeral parlor. When the sexy Imabelle, played to vamping perfection by Robin Givens, rolls into town with a trunk full of stolen gold, Jackson's world is turned upside down. But when the bad guys arrive--hot on Imabelle's heels--Jackson desperately turns to his estranged stepbrother, Goldy (Gregory Hines), the only person he knows who might have the street smarts to get them all out of trouble.
Synopsis
Director Bill Duke made his feature debut with this superbly entertaining film. Robin Givens vamps impressively as Imabelle, who flees from Natchez to Harlem to fence the gold ore her vicious boyfriend, Slim (the impressively menacing Badja Djola), stole. Forest Whitaker gives a deft comic performance as Jackson, a devout Christian who works at a Harlem mortuary. Imabelle takes the naive Jackson for an easy mark but soon finds herself touched by his sweetness and won over by his devotion to her. When Slim shows up in Harlem, Jackson and Imabelle turn to Jackson's estranged stepbrother, Goldy (Gregory Hines), a numbers runner, and Goldy's best friend, Big Kathy (Zakes Mokae), a transvestite who runs the local brothel. Slim wants Imabelle back, and the four find their lives in danger as they try to sell the stolen gold to Easy Money (Danny Glover), the crime kingpin of Harlem. Duke captures the irreverent tone of Chester Himes's novel and creates a memorable vision of Harlem in the 1950s, filled with interesting and sometimes dangerous characters. Givens and Whitaker are touching and believable as the unlikely lovers, lending the wild tale a surprising emotional weight.
Film Notes
Estimated budget of $8 million.
Filmed in Cincinnati, Ohio (standing in for Harlem), in DeLuxe color.
Began shooting April 23, 1990; completed shooting June 24, 1990. Premiered at Apollo Theater, New York City April 29, 1991; released in the USA May 3, 1991. Released on video November 20, 1991.
Shown in competition at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival; the 1991 Norwegian Film Festival in Haugesund August 18-24; the Deauville Film Festival August 30-September 9; and the Stockholm Film Festival November 15-24.
Actor Bill Duke directed TV shows and one feature film, "The Killing Floor," that was never distributed in the US. "A Rage in Harlem" is his second feature.
Chester A. Himes (1909-84) was the author of a series of popular crime novels featuring two streetwise black detectives, Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. Two of Himes' other books have been made into movies, "Cotton Comes to Harlem" in 1970 and "Come Back, Charleston Blue" in 1972, during the heyday of "blaxploitation" cinema.
Industry Reviews
"...Robin Givens finally gets her breakthrough role in A RAGE IN HARLEM....[She has] a commanding edge..."
USA Today - Mike Clark (05/03/1991)
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