The Cotton Club Encore [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray/DVD]

Director: Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola

Overview

There are those who insist that the backstage intrigues which occurred during the production of Cotton Club would make a better film than Cotton Club itself. Essentially, this "dream" project of director Francis Ford Coppola was intended to reflect the passing parade of New York in the 1930s, using Harlem's famed Cotton Club nitery as a metaphor of the era. After innumerable in-progress script changes were made and countless post-production "improvements" were imposed, what emerged was a crazy quilt of varying styles, divergent acting techniques and stop-and-start plotlines. Occasionally, Cotton Club is well up to the standards established by Coppola in his earlier, more successful films. The central character, loosely based on George Raft and played by Richard Gere, is a jazz cornet player at the Cotton Club. Gere saves the life of gangster Dutch Schultz (James Remar), who in gratitude takes Gere under his wing, engaging the young man's services as escort for Schultz's girl friend Diane Lane (guess where this leads?) Meanwhile, Gere's overambitious hoodlum brother Nicolas Cage (playing a character inspired by mobster Mad Dog Coll) kills two innocent children during a mob hit and is forced to go into hiding. Cage holds gangster Frenchy Demarge (Fred Gwynne) as a hostage, but Demarge's safety is negotiated by Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins), the mob owner of the Cotton Club (the touching friendship between Demarge and Madden is one of the few subplots to remain intact in the film's release version). Cage is killed, followed in death shortly afterward by Schultz, who is put "on the spot" by Lucky Luciano (Joe Dallesandro). Gere wins a Hollywood movie contract and heads off to Tinseltown with Diane Lane. These plot convolutions tend to diminish the importance of the black characters who work as Cotton Club entertainers. The intriguing fact that blacks were permitted to perform at the club but were denied access as patrons should have been given as much emphasis as Richard Gere's story; instead, we are left with tantalizingly brief snatches of a romance between Gregory Hines and Lonette McKee, and a few scattered musical numbers involving Hines, his brother Maurice, Charles "Honi" Coles, and a staggeringly good Cab Calloway imitator (Larry T. Marshall). Cotton Club tends to leave the viewer feeling as though several vital ingredients are missing from the recipe, but there is still a lot left over to please the ear and eye.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/10/2019
UPC:	0031398312925
Original Release:	1984
Rating:	NR
Source:	LIONS GATE
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:19:00

Special Features

Introduction to The Cotton Club Encore by Francis Ford Coppola ; The Cotton Club Encore Q&A

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Richard Gere	Dixie Dwyer
Gregory Hines	Sandman Williams,Clay Williams
Diane Lane	Vera Cicero
Lonette McKee	Lila Rose Oliver
James Remar	Dutch Schultz
Nicolas Cage	Vincent Dwyer
Allen Garfield	Abbadabba Berman
Bob Hoskins	Owney Madden
Fred Gwynne	Frenchy Demange
Gwen Verdon	Tish Dwyer
Lisa Jane Persky	Frances Flegenheimer
Julian Beck	Sol Weinstein
Novella Nelson	Mme. St. Clair
Laurence Fishburne	Bumpy Rhodes
John P. Ryan	Joe Flynn
Tom Waits	Irving Stark
Ron Karabatsos	Mike Best
Glen Witherow	Ed Popke
Jennifer Grey	Patsy Dwyer
Wynonna Smith	Winnie Williams
Thelma Carpenter	Norma Williams
Charles 'Honi' Coles	Sugar Coates
Larry Marshall	Cab Calloway
Joe Dallesandro	Charles `Lucky' Luciano
Ed O'Ross	Monk
Frederic Downs Jr.	Sullen Man
Diane Venora	Gloria Swanson
Tucker Smallwood	Kid Griffin
Woody Strode	Holmes
Bill Graham	J.W.
Kim Chan	Ling
Ed Rowan	Messiah
Leonard Termo	Danny
Rony Clanton	Caspar Holstein
Damien Leake	Bub Jewett
Bill Cobbs	Bib Joe Ison
Joe Lynn	Marcial Flores
Sandra Beall	Myrtle Fay
Zane Mark	Duke Ellington
Tom Signorelli	Butch Murdock
Steve Vignari	Trigger Mike Coppola
Susan Meschner	Gypsy
Gregory Rozakis	Charlie Chaplin
Marc Coppola	Ted Husing
Norma Jean Darden	Elida Webb
Robert Earl Jones	Stage-Door Joe
Vincent Jerosa	James Cagney
Rosalind Harris	Fanny Brice
Bruce MacVittie	Vince Hood
Brian Tarantina	Vince Hood
George Cantero	Vince Hood
James Russo	Vince Hood
Giancarlo Esposito	Bumpy Hood
Bruce Hubbard	Bumpy Hood
Ed Zang	Clerk
Paul Herman	Cop
Randle Mell	Cop
Jsu Garcia	Actor
Glenn Withrow	Ed Popke
Dayton Allen	Solly,Dancer
Bruce Howard	Bumpy Hood
Susan Mechsner	Gypsie
Christopher Lewis	Child in Street
Ralph Brown	Hoofer
Henry Le Tang	Hoofer
Tracey Bass	Dancer
Jacquelyn Bird	Dancer
Carla Earle	Dancer
Wendy Edmead	Dancer
Sonya Hensley	Dancer
Mario Van Peebles	Dancer
Nicholas Giangiulio	Screen Test Thug
Jordan Derwin	Actor
John Barry	Composer

Technical Credits

Francis Ford Coppola

William Kennedy

Mario Puzo

Francis Ford Coppola	Director,Screenwriter
William Kennedy	Screenwriter
Connie Brink	Special Effects
Robert Evans	Producer
Dyson Lovell	Executive Producer
Jack Jacobsen	Sound Mixer
Mario Puzo	Screenwriter
Fred Roos	Producer
Sylvio Tabet	Producer