Sharp Eye is now played by the guy who originally was set to star in this picture, Richard Pryor. This is the role Cosby auditioned for, and when you see it, just think of what might have happened if he’d gotten it. This leads them to Sharp Eye Washington, Private Eye.
Steve.Īfter Steve bails out Wardell, Wardell has a conniption and demands they leave this investigation stuff to the professionals. “Why you hit me?!!” he asks, his Bahamian accent creeping back into his astonished voice. Holding his face in shock after leaping 20 feet off the chair, he looks at his wife in shock. Poitier’s reaction remains for me the film’s biggest laugh. His wife hauls off and slaps the everlasting gobstopper shit out of him. “Are you dreaming about a woman?” she asks. Steve gets into bigger trouble after church. Wardell passes the collection plate back to him, Wardell puts a bigger handful of air into it. The duo had been cleaned of their cash the night before, so when the collection plate comes around, Wardell puts a handful of air in it. The next day at church, as Reverend Flip Wilson preaches a sermon about not bringing “ joy juice” to the upcoming church picnic, Steve and Wardell try to stay awake and out of suspicion. Maybe I’ll miraculously like that latter picture by then. I’ll be covering that next week, and the second "sequel," A Piece of the Action, in two weeks. Their offscreen friendship translates to their onscreen characters, which is why it works here and works even better in the first "sequel," Let’s Do It Again. Cosby picks Poitier’s pocket and walks off with the picture, but Sidney purposely telegraphs where his wallet is.
Bill cosby name in uptown saturday night movie movie#
The movie we are left with for posterity benefits from the fine work by Sidney and Bill. Uptown Saturday Night is perfectly fine as cast. Alas, like Diana Sands in Claudine, we must relegate these notions to our imaginations rather than reality.ĭon’t get me wrong. Imagining scenes with them makes me giddy. I would have loved to see Pryor as the suave Sidney straight man and Foxx as the bullshitting Cos. I’m not sure who would have played which part, but in either roles, both Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx would have been Black movie dynamite. We should bow our heads in silent reverence for the movie that Uptown Saturday Night would have been had Warners not been so gaat-damn greedy. Let me briefly stop here for a moment of mourning. The resulting film spawned two pseudo-sequels and changed the way we looked at Sidney Poitier. Out went Redd and Rich, in came Sidney and the Cos, and the rest is history. Bill Cosby was a famous stand-up comedian with three Emmys for his dramatic work with Robert Culp on the 60’s classic I Spy. By comparison, Poitier was an Oscar winning superstar and had been the number one box office draw in 1967, with his triumvirate of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night, and To Sir, With Love. Foxx had just started on Sanford and Son, and Pryor had been in the moderately successful Wattstax and the wildly successful Lady Sings the Blues. But Warner Bros., Poitier’s studio for this new film, didn’t believe Foxx or Pryor were appropriately sized box office draws. In fact, Cosby’s audition for this part is the stuff of legend. Bill Cosby blew away the executives during his tryout for the small part of a shifty private eye. Attached to the story of two men trying to retrieve a stolen wallet containing a $50,000 lottery ticket were Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx. In 1973, writer Richard Wesley brought a screenplay to Poitier, who intended to direct but not star in it. A shirtless, early 70’s era Poitier is definitely not objectionable, but you could make a drinking game out of how many times he loses his shirt. The latter I affectionately refer to as the “Put Your Shirt Back On, Sidney!” movie. He started with the wildly entertaining 1972 Western, Buck and the Preacher, then helmed the romantic drama A Warm December. Sharing a production company with Paul Newman and Babs Streisand, Poitier started directing the kinds of movies he wanted to be in, changes of pace from his norm. Outright funny he could not be, at least not before he took control of his own career by directing and producing his films in the early 70’s. Sidney could be charismatic, charming, and even easy-going. He was held to a higher ideal, noble beyond any reasonable request. Sidney was our distinguished Black actor, carrying the weight of the “Good Negro” on his capable shoulders. In old Hollywood, when you said “comedy” and “Negro,” you meant COON. Before 1973, Sidney Poitier was hardly known for comedy.
0 kommentar(er)
