Uptown Saturday Night

By Mr. Tropnevad

Summary

Steve (Sidney Poitier) and Wardell (Bill Cosby) decide to go to the ritzy side of town one night and go to an illegal nightclub. While winning big money at the craps table the club is robbed and everyone there is forced to hand over their wallets and valuables. Steve discovers the next day that he had a winning lottery ticket and the two men have to find a way to recover it.

Expectations Going In

The last time I saw this was in 2003 and I remembered I loved it. For those that don’t know I worked in a movie store for two years and that is how I have seen so many movies. Anyway I decided this would be our first blaxploitation movie to review and what better way than to start with something good, well I thought it was good back then. Who knows it might be horrible as I have aged. Nah I doubt it because we have Bill Cosby, Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Flip Wilson, and Richard Pryor in this and they have never done anything bad….oh wait. Bill Cosby what happened to you after the 70s. Oh well, let’s get our groove on.


The trailer.

The Bad

Since this is a blaxploitation movie you can expect bad language. If you are offended by the word “nigger” then this might not be the movie for you. This movie was rated PG in the 70s and movies were more lenient back then. Today this movie would have probably received an R rating for the use of the word. They don’t say it every five minutes, but the word is used more than most movies would us it today.

Half way through the movie Steve and Wardell are at a hideout with Geechie Dan (Harry Belafonte) and his gang. Not to give too much away but a car explodes outside the hideout and Silky Slim (Calvin Lockhart) and his gang show up. The two rival gangs decide to meet up after the explosion and a gun fight and the two gangs decide to holster their weapons and talk about something. I’m no expert but I can guarantee that two rival gangs are not going to have their guns holstered while meeting. They would have their guns out and ready to shoot. That’s not even the worst part of this scene because we see Silky Slim for the first time and him and Geechie Dan aren’t even intimidating because Geechie Dan is snorting nasal spray and Silky Slim looks like a pimp with his nice gold chains.

Like most exploitation films the movie usually falls apart near the end. This movie doesn’t really fall apart, it just becomes silly. Steve, Wardell, and the two gangs go to a church party at a park for an alibi while something is going down. This is ridiculous and while I didn’t really like it I understood why and how it would have worked as an alibi, but did they really have to play baseball and compete in a sack race.

The Good

Since this is a blaxploitation film I expected nothing but good music from the 70s and it delivered.The movie has jazz and disco music in it and the music goes with the movie in the scenes that have it. There are several scenes where the film makers knew when to put the music such as in a car chase scene and when characters have little to no dialog.

The cast is great for a blaxploitation film and the names of some of the characters are funny when you hear them. Overall this film has an excellent cast and what helps with the movie is that Sidney Poitier directed it, so naturally a man of his style and abilities is going to make sure he does something good. I am sure he is also the reason why the cast is full of famous people, too. I will not name off everyone in this movie but I am going to name stars with their character name so you get the idea of what we have when it comes to characters with funny names. We have Harry Belafonte as Geechie Dan Beauford the mob boss of the area and no one does anything without his say so. Flip Wilson does a cameo as The Reverend. Next we have a blaxploitation star Calvin Lockhart who plays Silky Slim another mob boss. Last we have the hilarious Richard Pryor as Sharp Eye Washington a private detective.

Lets talk clothes for a second. Some of you may think I have a thing for clothes since I always seem to mention them in movies. Well I do when it comes to movies because the clothes can make the actor/actress who they are in the movie. Naturally since this is a blaxploitation film we have the well dressed black people. Most are wearing really nice suits that I still see older black men ware today. We have the pimps that are dressed in fur coats and flashy clothes, with their fancy hats, gold, and cains. There are madams (the term used for women that are pimps) that ware nice evening gowns and huge diamond rings. Even the average guy on the street looks decent.

Let me talk about Bill Cosby in this for the people that only remember him from the Cosby show. He plays the guy that is essentially the one that acts tough but isn’t tough. You know the guy I am talking about we all know people like him. Anyway he has a big scraggly beard in this movie and I think it makes him look hilarious. We do have a scene where Cosby does get into a fight and he actually could be the tough guy, but naturally someone bigger shows up to show him who is the boss. He did a great job at making me laugh throughout this movie.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Steve and Wardell decide to take to the streets to find a way to get the lottery ticket back. They split up and we see Steve standing on a street corner and he is giving everyone a dirty look. Several nice dressed men and pimps walk by and they just shake their heads at him like he has no business giving them a look. Then a half bald nice dressed man walks by and he looks back at Steve and sticks his tongue out and moves it around his lips. Steve is shocked and we cut to Wardell. Wardell is standing around in a bad area of town and a cop drives up. The cop notices that the wanted poster he has looks similar to Wardell and he arrests him. The next day we find out that this was a mistake and the cop arrested Wardell because he looked like the guy that was wanted.

The writing for this film may not be funny all of the time but I did find myself laughing and chuckling a few times. There were several scenes where the story slows down but not to slow to make you bored. The movie becomes silly near the end but it knows how to keep you in suspense and then turn into an action film because of a car chase scene.

This was just as good as I remembered it from so many years ago. I highly recommend this movie and I would like to point out that this is a trilogy. Not in a sense of a trilogy story wise but as actor wise. Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier team up in two more movies and we will be trying to review both this month. This is one of the better blaxploitation movies and has so many good actors in it. This is a do not miss.

Overall Thoughts

I think I enjoyed it more this time than I did nine years ago and I think that is because I have seen a lot of blaxploitation movies. While this may not be a movie for everyone I do highly recommend it. This movie has everything that makes a comedy entertaining. It was funny when it needed to be, it had good actors and acting and the story kept you entertained. While I did find some parts silly I was able to look past it because I knew this was an exploitation film.

I highly recommend this movie and I would like to point out that this is a trilogy. Not in a sense of a story trilogy, but an actor trilogy. Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier team up in two more movies and we will be trying to review them both this month. If you are interested in buying these movies you can buy Uptown Saturday Night for $5 on Amazon or you can spend $10 and get a set (which I highly recommend) that is the Richard Pryor Collection containing; Uptown Saturday Night, Greased Lightning, Moving, The Mack. All four are great movies.

Overall- Buy