# Cotton Comes to Harlem
**Cotton Comes to Harlem** is a 1970 American comedy film directed by [Ossie Davis](https://www.edgepedia.org/ossie-davis), adapted from Chester Himes's 1965 detective novel of the same name. It follows two Black New York police detectives, Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, as they investigate a con man who has stolen $87,000 from Harlem residents through a fraudulent Back-to-Africa scheme, with the money hidden in a bale of cotton.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) Often credited as the first blaxploitation movie, it was a surprise box office hit that helped launch the cycle of Black-themed urban crime films of the early 1970s.[2](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/programs/cotton-comes-to-harlem)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | Premiered 27 May 1970 in Chicago; 97 minutes; rated R; distributed by United Artists[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) |
| Director and writers | Ossie Davis's first film as director; screenplay by Arnold Perl and Ossie Davis after Himes was replaced[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) |
| Stars | Godfrey Cambridge as Gravedigger Jones, Raymond St. Jacques as Coffin Ed Johnson, Calvin Lockhart as Rev. Deke O'Malley, with Redd Foxx and Judy Pace[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) |
| Finances | Budget of $1.2 million; approximately $5.2 million in rental fees during 1970[3](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9798765160657_A63161475/preview-9798765160657_A63161475.pdf) |
| Filming | Shot at locations in Harlem in spring 1969, except a junkyard sequence, with interiors at Filmways Studio[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) |
| Recognition | Eight NAACP Image Award nominations; won for screenwriter, producer, and supporting actor[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) |
| Sequel | Followed by *Come Back Charleston Blue* in 1972, not directed by Davis[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
At an outdoor barbecue, the charismatic confidence man Rev. Deke O'Malley defrauds Harlem residents of $87,000 that they believe will pay for their transport to Africa. The money is immediately seized by O'Malley's white partner, Calhoun, who flees in a meat truck with the cash secreted inside a bale of cotton. O'Malley pursues in an armored car while police detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones pursue both men. During the chase the bale bounces from the truck, is found by a junkman, Uncle Bud, and sold as a prop to Mabel, a stripteaser performing at Harlem's Apollo Theater. Calhoun and O'Malley appear onstage in blackface to comb the cotton for money, are exposed and arrested by the detectives, who then coerce a Mafia don to compensate O'Malley's congregation. The pair later receives a postcard from Uncle Bud, who has absconded with the missing money to Africa.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM)
The central figure is drawn from Himes's novel, in which ex-con Deke O'Malley collects money at a Back-to-Africa rally for his own private charity before the take is hijacked by white gunmen and hidden in a bale of cotton.[4](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18413078-cotton-comes-to-harlem) The stress on cotton, a byproduct of slavery, is read by critics as Himes's deliberate commentary on racism.[5](https://detective.gumer.info/txt/forshaw.pdf) A legal scholar, Rosanna Cavallaro of Suffolk University Law School, has argued that the novel repudiates formal [retributive justice](https://www.edgepedia.org/retributive-justice) while endorsing an ad hoc regime of restitution that metaphorically enacts economic reparation for injuries of slavery.[6](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1023978_code737120.pdf?abstractid=963622&mirid=1)
## Production
The project was announced in April 1969, with Himes expected to collaborate on the screenplay with first-time director Ossie Davis; Himes was later replaced by Arnold Perl.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) Principal photography ran from 12 May to early August 1969. With the exception of a junkyard sequence, the entire picture was shot at locations in Harlem, and 200 background actors were hired from local theater groups and the neighborhood. Security was provided by the New York City Tactical Patrol Force and Harlem's Black Citizens' Patrol.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM)
**Neighborhood participation** extended behind the camera. Davis was encouraged by Harlem's burgeoning independent production community and predicted that within twenty-five years Harlem would be "the film capital of the world."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) Aware of the absence of minorities on commercial film crews, Davis hired young minority apprentices through the Community Film Workshop Council, an initiative funded by the [Ford Foundation](https://www.edgepedia.org/ford-foundation). Their non-union status prevented most of the seven apprentices from handling equipment, and the program's shortcomings were widely resented on set, although one apprentice was promoted to unit publicist and another became a casting director.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) • [7](https://www.nyc.gov/assets/mome/pdf/mome-diversity-report-2018.pdf) After completing the film, Davis worked to create pathways for young people of color to receive professional training and enter the film unions.[7](https://www.nyc.gov/assets/mome/pdf/mome-diversity-report-2018.pdf)
Godfrey Cambridge, previously an obese actor-comedian, lost 152 pounds before filming with the aid of hypnotherapy.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) The film marked the screen debut of comedian [Redd Foxx](https://www.edgepedia.org/redd-foxx), and also featured the film debuts of [Calvin Lockhart](https://www.edgepedia.org/calvin-lockhart), Judy Pace, and [Cleavon Little](https://www.edgepedia.org/cleavon-little).[8](https://www.belcourt.org/films/cotton-comes-to-harlem-35mm/) • [2](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/programs/cotton-comes-to-harlem) A theme song, *Black Enough (Ain't Now But It's Gonna Be)*, was performed by Tony winner Melba Moore over the opening credits.[9](https://time.com/6232703/is-that-black-enough-for-you-films/)
## Release and reception
The film premiered in Chicago on 27 May 1970 and was a hit during the summer, popular with Black and white audiences alike.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) • [7](https://www.nyc.gov/assets/mome/pdf/mome-diversity-report-2018.pdf) Made on a budget of $1.2 million, it took in about $5.2 million at the box office.[3](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9798765160657_A63161475/preview-9798765160657_A63161475.pdf)
Critical notices were generally positive. Vincent Canby's review in *The New York Times* of 11 June 1970 described the picture as "a conventional white movie that employs some terrible white stereotypes of black life"; Canby revised his opinion five weeks later, conceding that the film contained a number of funny scenes and featured an array of African American characters never before seen on screen.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) A survey reported by the Los Angeles Sentinel attributed the film's popularity to "its unalloyed use of ghetto humor, and its unashamed fun with what used to be called stereotypes," together with an infusion of "soul" credited to Davis's direction.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) Variety praised the on-location mise-en-scène for "giving Harlem a brazen brawly look that is perfect for the tale told," and noted that Davis kept Himes's local color without reverting to stereotype.[10](https://asset.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/6SSCSUJIV2H5E8W/R/file-f3a71.pdf)
The film garnered eight NAACP Image Award nominations, including Picture of the Year, and won three: [Screenwriter](https://www.edgepedia.org/screenwriter) of the Year, Producer of the Year, and Actor of the Year in a Supporting Role.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM) Not all reception was positive: some within the Black community saw the comedic caper as trivial in a moment of radical politics, the aftermath of [Martin Luther King Jr.](https://www.edgepedia.org/martin-luther-king-jr)'s assassination, and the [Vietnam War](https://www.edgepedia.org/vietnam-war), and the film scholar Donald Bogle judged it a failure in its presentation of the Black experience.[7](https://www.nyc.gov/assets/mome/pdf/mome-diversity-report-2018.pdf) • [11](https://popularculturereview.org/uploads/1/3/6/5/136597491/5.1.pdf)
## Legacy
*Cotton Comes to Harlem* is often credited as the first blaxploitation movie, and its commercial success convinced Hollywood executives to invest in more Black-themed urban action films.[2](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/programs/cotton-comes-to-harlem) • [7](https://www.nyc.gov/assets/mome/pdf/mome-diversity-report-2018.pdf) That year, no other feature made in New York City had a Black director at its helm, and the film opened the door for [Gordon Parks](https://www.edgepedia.org/gordon-parks)'s *[Shaft](https://www.edgepedia.org/shaft-1971-film)* (1971) and [Melvin Van Peebles](https://www.edgepedia.org/melvin-van-peebles)'s *Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song* (1971), while Gordon Parks Jr.'s *Super Fly* (1972) confirmed Harlem as a favored setting for 1970s inner-city crime movies.[12](https://www.screenslate.com/articles/cotton-comes-harlem) • [7](https://www.nyc.gov/assets/mome/pdf/mome-diversity-report-2018.pdf) Unlike those successors, Davis criticized the system from the inside, framing the story through two detectives working within the police force rather than against it.[12](https://www.screenslate.com/articles/cotton-comes-harlem)
The film also changed the phrase "Is that Black enough for you?": Davis borrowed the saying from Black revolutionaries, and the recurring line in the film, delivered in different tones by O'Malley, Gravedigger, and Uncle Budd, later supplied the title of the 2022 documentary *Is That Black Enough for You?!?*[9](https://time.com/6232703/is-that-black-enough-for-you-films/)
The characters of Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson came from Himes's series of Harlem crime novels; three of the novels were eventually filmed, including *Come Back, Charleston Blue* (1972) and *A Rage in Harlem* (1991).[4](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18413078-cotton-comes-to-harlem) The film was released in France as *The Uncle Tom Caper*.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM)
## References
1. [Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/23443-COTTON-COMES-TO-HARLEM)
2. [Cotton Comes to Harlem, Harvard Film Archive](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/programs/cotton-comes-to-harlem)
3. [1970: Black Film and White Anger (book preview)](https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9798765160657_A63161475/preview-9798765160657_A63161475.pdf)
4. [Cotton Comes to Harlem by Chester Himes, Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18413078-cotton-comes-to-harlem)
5. [The Rough Guide to Crime Reading, Barry Forshaw](https://detective.gumer.info/txt/forshaw.pdf)
6. [Chester Himes's Cotton Comes to Harlem: A Reparations Parable, Rosanna Cavallaro, Law and Literature (2007)](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1023978_code737120.pdf?abstractid=963622&mirid=1)
7. [Breaking Boundaries in Cinematic Harlem, Museum of Modern Art diversity report (2018)](https://www.nyc.gov/assets/mome/pdf/mome-diversity-report-2018.pdf)
8. [Cotton Comes to Harlem (35mm), Belcourt Theatre](https://www.belcourt.org/films/cotton-comes-to-harlem-35mm/)
9. [6 Black Films That Changed the Course of Cinema, TIME (2022)](https://time.com/6232703/is-that-black-enough-for-you-films/)
10. [Getting In On The Act, University of Wisconsin dissertation](https://asset.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/6SSCSUJIV2H5E8W/R/file-f3a71.pdf)
11. [Cotton Comes to Harlem 45, Popular Culture Review](https://popularculturereview.org/uploads/1/3/6/5/136597491/5.1.pdf)
12. [Cotton Comes to Harlem, Screen Slate (2024)](https://www.screenslate.com/articles/cotton-comes-harlem)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1970s films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license