A Rage in Harlem
| A Rage in Harlem | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Bill Duke |
| Produced by | Kerry Rock Stephen Woolley |
| Written by | John Toles-Bey |
| Screenplay by | Bobby Crawford |
| Story by | Chester Himes |
| Starring | |
| Music by |
Elmer Bernstein Jeff Vincent |
| Cinematography | Toyomichi Kurita |
| Edited by | Curtiss Clayton |
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Production
company |
Palace Productions
|
| Distributed by | Miramax Films |
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Release date
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Running time
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115 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8 million |
| Box office | $10.4 million (USA) |
A Rage in Harlem is a 1991 American film starring Forest Whitaker, Danny Glover, Badja Djola, Robin Givens and Gregory Hines and loosely based on Chester Himes' novel of the same name.
A beautiful black gangster's moll flees to Harlem with a trunkload of gold after a shootout, unaware that the rest of the gang, and a few other unsavoury characters, are on her trail.
William Horberg, eventually credited as an executive producer, got the project started when he optioned the rights to Himes' novel. Hornberg, a first-time producer approached John Toles-Bey, a Chicago-based actor with no screenwriting credits, to draft the film's first script; the development effort gained steam after Hornberg met Kerry Boyle of Palace Productions, and through the efforts of Boyle and Stephen Woolley, the film was sold to Miramax Films and given the green-light.
According to publicity leading up to the start of principal photography, Forest Whitaker was the first of the two lead actors to commit to the film, described as an action-comedy with "very dark" comedy. Whitaker among others, was consulted as Boyle and Woolley sought an African American to direct the film, doing so because they believed "maintaining the cultural integrity of the novel demanded a black director"; they also wanted "someone who was older and secure enough to collaborate and make a picture that we could distribute widely, but who still had a passion for the material." They chose Duke in part for his experience directing Hill Street Blues, experience that was key "because of the way that series mixed humor and violence." Duke later cast Robin Givens to play the female lead after considering 300 women for the part.
The film was shot in the Cincinnati, Ohio neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine, whose "un-gentrified area of the old downtown lower depths stood in quite nicely for ... 1950s Harlem." About midway during production, it turned out that Duke and Woolley had undiscussed differences about the tone the film was going to take:
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