Skip to Content
Poster for Harlem Nights
Watch trailer for Harlem Nights Watch trailer

Harlem Nights

Director: Eddie Murphy Run Time: 116 min. Format: Digital Rating: R Release Year: 1989

Starring:  Danny Aiello,  Jasmine Guy,  Michael Lerner, Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor

New York Comedian Perry Strong introduces a special COMEDIANS IN FILM screening of HARLEM NIGHTS.

Screening before the film is the short film, STICK, by Perry Strong, John Orphan, Greg Wayne.

Richard said, “The next time the motherfucker call, tell him I said, “Suck *my* dick.” I don’t give a fuck. Whatever the fuck make the people laugh, say that shit. Do the people laugh when you say what you say?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Do you get paid?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Well, tell Bill I said have a Coke and a smile and shut the fuck up. Jello pudding-eating motherfucker.” – Eddie Murphy

Harlem Nights is a dark comedy one-two punch with the greats, Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor. In the waning days of Prohibition, Sugar Ray and his adopted son, Quick, run the speakeasy Sugar Ray’s Harlem nightclub in late-1930s Harlem, New York. Things are great: the drinks are strong, the women are beautiful and the money is a-flowing but a gangster is about to get in the way. When gangster Bugsy Calhoune learns that Sugar Ray’s place is pulling in more money than his own establishment, the Pitty Pat Club, he pays a corrupt cop to close Club Sugar Ray down. Quick doesn’t exactly help the situation when he falls for Calhoune’s gun moll, Miss Dominique La Rue. Eddie Murphy wrote, executive produced, and directed Harlem Nights. It’s also Red Foxx’s last film.

Trailer