Uptown Saturday Night (1974)

"I get mean when you mess with my green!"

Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby star in this 1974 comedy about two working stiffs looking for a good time. Wardell (Cosby) convinces Steve (Poitier) to cut loose for a night of his vacation and pay a visit to Zenobia's, an illegal night club. While there, the place is held-up and everyone's money, jewelry and personal effects are stolen by masked men. The next morning Steve recognizes his winning lottery numbers in the newspaper, but remembers his ticket is in his wallet that was stolen the night before. The rest of the movie is one madcap adventure after another in an attempt to get his wallet back from the thieves who stole it. 

Poitier isn't known for his comedic skills, but he had a lot of support in this movie by way of Richard Pryor, Flip Wilson, Harry Belafonte, and of course, Bill Cosby. Cosby steals the show, not surprisingly, but the single scene with Richard Pryor was the stand-out of the movie for me. Poitier directed and produced this movie as well, and at a time when most black movies were mostly low budget blaxploitation affairs that did more harm than good to the people involved. It was because of Poitier's success he was able to make a movie like this, though, and the roles could have easily been switched out for an all-white cast with similar results. This isn't a comedy for black people, it's just a comedy with black people in it. There were a lot of funny scenes, but it also felt really "clean". A little more grit would have made this more enjoyable for me, but then we'd be moving right into the stereotypes Poitier was trying to avoid. In general, PG rated movies aren't my thing.

I liked this, but it's probably not something I'll ever want to see again. As a result of watching this, I'd be keen to see more of Cosby's work from the 70s, though. With the exception of "Mother, Jugs & Speed", this is the only pre-"Cosby Show" movie I've seen.

2/5