Uptown Saturday Night
| Uptown Saturday Night | |
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| Directed by | Sir Sidney Poitier |
| Produced by | Melville Tucker |
| Written by | Richard Wesley |
| Starring |
Sir Sidney Poitier Bill Cosby Harry Belafonte |
| Edited by | Pembroke J. Herring |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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104 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3,000,000 (approx.) |
| Box office | $6.7 million (US/Canada rentals) |
Uptown Saturday Night is a 1974 action–comedy crime film written by Richard Wesley, and directed by Sir Sidney Poitier, who also stars in this film, along with Bill Cosby and Harry Belafonte. Cosby and Poitier teamed up again for Let's Do It Again (1975) and A Piece of the Action (1977). Although their characters have different names in each film, the three films are considered to be a trilogy. Uptown Saturday Night premiered June 15, 1974 at the Criterion Theatre in New York, and opened to positive reviews.
While enjoying themselves at Madame Zenobia's club on Saturday Night, Steve Jackson (Poitier) and Wardell Franklin (Cosby) are held up by robbers who raid the club, taking Steve's wallet as a result. Upon realizing that a winning lottery ticket worth $50,000 is in the wallet, they set out to find the crooks themselves. Determined to retrieve the ticket, they search for it using the help of gangster Geechie Dan Beauford (Belafonte), who wants to defeat his rival Silky Slim (Lockhart). Using their wit, perseverance, and fearlessness, Steve and Wardell devise a plan to get the ticket using the help of both gangsters, in the hopes that it will pay off for them.
Main cast
Supporting cast
Uptown Saturday Night was made my Warner Bros. in the midst of the blaxploitation film era. Movies such as Cleopatra Jones and the Shaft series had been released by the same company.
Poitier had reached the height of his career during the 1960s. He and Harry Belafonte were considered to be the biggest black male entertainers of the time period. Poitier became the first African-American man to win an Academy Award for his role in Lilies of the Field. He also starred in In the Heat of the Night, which won Oscar awards for Best Picture and Best Director.
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Wikipedia