The Cotton Club was a famous night club in Harlem. The story follows the people who visited the club, those who ran it, and is peppered with the Jazz music that made it so famous.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Stars: Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, Diane Lane, Lonette McKee, Bob Hoskins, Nicolas Cage.
Claudia Asbury ... choreographer
George Faison ... choreographer
Gregory Hines ... tap improvography
Henry LeTang ... tap choreographer
Arthur Mitchell ... choreographer
Michael Smuin ... principal choreographer
Ellie LeTang ... assistant choreographer (uncredited)
46 songs in the Soundtracks. And, yes, that's RG blowing his own horn... cornet, that is.
3rd and last (so far) music/al film directed by Coppola (b. '39), the others being Finian's Rainbow ('68) and One from the Heart ('81). This is much more a gangster film than anything else. I haven't seen any of The Godfather ('72), Part II ('74), Part III ('90), but this is already too violent for me.
Even more aggravating than the violence is the choppy dance scenes. We get pretty good head-to-toe coverage when GH dances with brother Maurice (twice or more), but the bigger production numbers are spliced with non-dance action, and/or close-ups on feet. Even with the veterans challenge dance, it's too damn much cutting. FC did a re-edit in 2017 (which will hopefully come out on dvd) shown at the Telluride film festival, but if you didn't have control over the final edit, why would you even film those feet closeups? Gwen Verdon plays RG's mother, and taps a tiny bit in the RR station near the end of the film.
One of the diced production numbers is GH and 5 chorus girls with 4-step double staircases doing a routine ala Bill Robinson. Also diced, GH solo without music.
IMDb trivia: FC "made this film to pay off his debts from One from the Heart (1981)." He co-wrote the screenplay and resisted directing it, then had problems with producer Evans, banishing him from the set.
Zoetrope & more, distr. Orion, dir. Coppola; 7-
