Come Back, Charleston Blue is a 1972 American crime comedy film starring Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques, loosely based on Chester Himes' novel The Heat's On. It is a sequel to the 1970 film Cotton Comes to Harlem.
Plot Detectives Ed "Coffin Ed" Johnson and "Grave Digger" Jones are confounded by a string of strange murders in the neighborhood of Harlem, New York. The murders themselves are not nearly as bizarre as the calling card left by the murderer: a blue steel straight razor. Legend has it that this was the calling card of Charleston Blue, a vigilante who tried to rid the neighborhood of all criminal elements using a straight razor. Blue, having disappeared years ago after he went after Dutch Schultz (with his trusty straight razor), was considered dead by all except his girlfriend, who kept his razors locked away until his "comeback."
Soon after the murders start, it is discovered that the razors were missing, and all evidence points to Joe Painter, a local photographer, who has begun dating Carol, the beloved niece of mafia errand boy Caspar Brown. Joe and Brown are at odds over Caspar's refusal to help Joe kick the mafia out of the neighborhood, so Joe enlists the help of a group of brothers and the spirit of Charleston Blue. However, Johnson and Jones discover that Joe's plan does not seem to be exactly what he claimed it was.
Cast Godfrey Cambridge as Detective "Gravedigger" Jones Raymond St. Jacques as Detective Ed "Coffin Ed" Johnson Peter Deanda as Joe Painter/Charleston Blue Percy Rodriguez as Captain Frederick J. Bryce Jonelle Allen as Carol Maxwell Glanville as Caspar Minnie Gentry as "Her Majesty" Dick Sabol as Jarema Leonardo Cimino as Frank Mago Toney Brealond as Drag Queen Tim Pelt as Earl "Earl J" Marcia McBroom as Girl Barber Darryl Knibb as Douglas Joseph Ray as Bubba Adam Wade as Benjamin "Benjy" Dorothi Fox as Streetwalker Theodore Wilson as Cemetery Guard
Also appearing in a minor role is Philip Michael Thomas (as a Minister) in his film debut.
Production The film was shot in Harlem, which required producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr. to negotiate with CORE and other groups over their demands for "money, jobs and control."
Reception This film was a sequel to the film Cotton Comes to Harlem: appearing two years later, it opened to mixed reviews, with critics feeling it was decent, but not riotous like the original 1970 film.
In April 1972, less than three months before the film's release, Time magazine called the film "part of a new Hollywood wave of eminently commercial movies by blacks about the black experience," a wave that included Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Shaft, Shaft's Big Score, Cool Breeze, Buck and the Preacher, The Legend of Nigger Charley, Super Fly, and Blacula.
A.H. Weiler, reviewing the film for The New York Times, called it "only occasionally funny or incisive" with a "convoluted plot and dialogue that is often too 'in' for the uninitiated."
Soundtrack All tracks written by Donny Hathaway except "Little Ghetto Boy" (Earl DuRouen / Edward Howard) and "Come Back Charleston Blue" (Donny Hathaway / Al Cleveland / Quincy Jones).
Track Song Length1Main Theme02:202Basie03:533String Segue00:344Vegetable Wagon01:075Harlem Dawn01:386Scratchy Record03:097Explosion00:238Hearse to the Graveyard02:469Switch "Charleston Blue"00:3210Come Back Basie02:3611Detective's Goof00:2812Grave Digger Jones & Coffin Head Johnson's Funeral03:0213String Segue00:1714Little Ghetto Boy03:5015Hail to the Queen00:2116Drag Queen Chase00:4717Bossa Nova01:4718Tim's High01:3019Furniture Truck01:1820Liberation02:5221Come Back Charleston Blue02:04
In November 2007, Rhino Records released a remastered version of the soundtrack album, which included two new tracks, an alternate version and a live version of "Little Ghetto Boy."
See also List of American films of 1972
References
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