Uptown Saturday Night

A few weeks back in the Thursday Movie Picks blogathon I mentioned the movie Uptown Saturday Night. I had it on my DVR from the last time TCM showed it, and having watched it, now I can do a review on it, just by sheer coincidence on Martin Luther King Day here in the States..

Sidney Poitier directed, and also stars, playing Steve Jackson, a blue collar metalworker who is happily married to Sarah (Rosalind Cash) living in a smallish apartment in the city, although the two of them dream of moving out to the country permanently. This is a couple that clearly loves each other. When relatively conservative Steve isn't spending time at home with his wife, he's spending time with his somewhat more adventurous best friend, taxi driver Wardell Franklin (Bill Cosby). Steve has an upcoming vacation, and Wardell suggests they start it off by going to Zenobia's, the elegant if not quite legal gambling house. Steve has never been there, largely because he's too straight-arrow to spend that kind of money.

The two eventually do go to Zenobia's dressed to the nines since that's the dress code, and look like they're enjoying themselves, at least the gambling part of it. Steve would never be seen with a woman of ill repute. Everything goes well, until... a bunch of masked men come in, guns blazing, demanding everyone empty their pockets and even strip down to their undies to show that they're not hiding anything. The thieves then take all the valuables, including Steve's wallet, which is quite a bummer.

If that's a bummer, things are about to get even worse for Steve. The next day, he's reading the newspaper, and sees an announcement of the winning lottery number. Not too long ago, Sarah had taken his coat to the cleaners, and found the lottery ticket. And wouldn't you know, Steve's ticket is the winning ticket, worth $50,000, which is a reasonably nice sum for 1974, at least two or three years' income. Certainly enough to seed moving out to the country. Just produce the ticket. Unfortunately, Steve put the ticket in his wallet for safekeeping.

So Steve accosts Wardell, and insists that the two go looking for that lottery ticket. This leads them to a lot of places, starting with a private detective (Richard Pryor) who turns out to be quite the crook himself. Then they hope they can get help from their local congressman (Roscoe Lee Browne), who is an utter hypocrite. There are also a pair of gang leaders who might know something about the theft, Geechie Dan (Harry Belafonte) and his rival Silky Slim (Calvin Lockhart). Eventually, everybody and the ticket wind up at a church social hosted by the local reverend (Flip Wilson), leading to the car chase.

Uptown Saturday Night is a movie that has a premise that holds the potential for a lot of fun. And the film really has a fine cast of people who mostly can do comedy. Poitier isn't exactly what you'd think of as a comic actor, although like Gregory Peck in Captain Newman MD, he's more than good enough at letting everybody around him be funny. However....

Poitier, as the director, clearly came to the project wanting to give a whole lot of black actors who never got good roles under the studio system the sort of meaty part and a chance to shine that they wouldn't get otherwise. Poitier's direction, however, tends to give each of these actors their cameo at the expense of the story working as well as it otherwise could. The result is a movie that definitely has its share of hits, but is also decidedly uneven.

Uptown Saturday Night is definitely worth a watch, although it really could have been a much better movie.