- Year
- 1970
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 97 min
- Director
- Ossie Davis
- Updated
- 9 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (41/100)
Cotton Comes to Harlem
Two Harlem detectives chase a stolen fortune hidden in a bale of cotton. The one that opened the door.
Ossie Davis directed this adaptation of Chester Himes's novel, and its box-office success helped prove the audience for Black-led films that the whole blaxploitation cycle then exploited. Two street-smart Harlem detectives, Coffin Ed and Gravedigger Jones, chase a fortune hidden in a bale of cotton amid a fake back-to-Africa scheme.
It is funnier and more grounded in real Harlem than the crime pictures that followed, closer to a caper comedy than an action film. Its success at the box office is a genuine turning point in the commercial history of Black American cinema.
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