Based on the 1957 crime-noir novel by Chester Himes, this 1991 film adaptation is a strange beast, a sort of R-rated BUGSY MALONE. While I wasn’t expecting Native Son, I wasn’t anticipating so much slapstick which I think tries to reflect the darkly comic absurdity of its source material (which I’ve yet to read), if anything it did succeed in making me want to pick up the book, which I suppose in itself is a success. Maybe this is a faithful adaptation of pulpy fun. I’ll find out soon. But for now, thoughts on the film only.

Unlike the book series on which the film is based, viewers are not introduced to detectives Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones as they patrol the mean streets of Harlem, A RAGE IN HARLEM looks to Jackson (Forest Whitaker) a kind-heated, God-fearing but hapless young man who falls for the seductive Imabelle (Robyn Givens). Unbeknownst to Johnson, Imabelle is a con-woman on the run with a trunk of stolen gold begot from a violent shootout back in Mississippi that she had hoped had left her gang leader boyfriend Slim (Badja Djola) dead. When the not-quite-dead-as-hoped Slim and his mobster friends eventually find Imabelle, she is forced by Slim to enlist Johnson in a scheme that loses him his savings and forces him to steal from his work at a funeral home. With everything seemingly lost – including his girl – Johnson enlists the help of his savvy trickster half-brother Goldy (Gregory Hines) in seeking revenge and rescuing Imabelle.

The film has a pace and feel to it that is briskly entertaining. There is great costuming on display, some very well designed sets. But there is a demonstrable lack of depth to the story and characterization that does the film a disservice. As mentioned previously this feels like Bugsy Malone for grown-ups. Replace pie guns with ‘real bullets’, cut throats and profanity galore, you still have the same level stakes as the aforementioned kid’s film, i.e. very low bordering on none.

There’s no tension or emotional recompense even when  the film demands it of its audience. Its hard to feel anything when Johnson and Goldy are having an ’emotional’ heart to heart about their deceased mother and their five-year feud when, even before the scene is done, some slapstick or flat joke  is peeking round the corner.

The closest one can have to any kind of visceral reaction is when Goldy’s close friend Big Kathy (Zakes Mokae) has an unfortunate end . My reaction may possibly be based on the fact the interesting (and celebratory) inclusion of a possibly gay character in a hyper-masculine, historically homophobic world invariably has to be killed off. It all plays to the sacrificial lamb token role, like when the black person in an all white film is the one that invariably dies. The anomaly has to die so that harmony and hetero-normativity can be restored is the takeaway.

Regardless of all the visual and auditory gags thrown, I laughed only a couple of times, in particular (despite myself) at the running joke about the portrait of Johnson’s mother above his bed, next to a picture of Jesus. I think I laughed (again against my will – why are there so many swipes at older women? Why are ugly mothers such a thing in Hollywood) because there was a level of consistency that is found wanting in much of the film. Characters, while thinly drawn are also erratically written. At almost no fault of the actors – their commitment is evident – bar, Danny Glover who was tried to take camp to a whole new level of ‘meh’ (was he trying to audition for Blofeld like role?). On the whole; actors are asked to veer from comedic to sincere sometimes between line readings, sometimes when other actors are playing opposite all resulting in a wild unevenness that makes it a struggle to stay engaged.

Maybe the unevenness, muckiness works because I don’t actually mind A Rage. I don’t mind it at all. Could it be, that A Rage in Harlem is an incisive reflection of the muckiness of the human condition? I think I’m reading more into it than the filmmakers ever intended.  It’s a fun watch that makes it all the more enjoyable if you’re accepting of its idiosyncratic goofiness. If pure entertainment is what you seek, you’ve found it in Harlem And it definitely helped to push the book to the top of the ‘next to read’ book list.

A Rage in Harlem is available on Netflix UK.