Harlem Nights

Harlem Nights, written, directed and starring Eddie Murphy, was a film released in 1989. Quick (Eddie Murphy), is the son of Sugar Ray (Richard Pryor), a 1930's proprietor of a gambling-house in Harlem, NY. Quick and Sugar Ray work together to prevent gangster Bugsy Calhoune (Michael Lerner) from taking over their business.MSN Movies: Harlem Nights] Overview]

In February 2009, the Los Angeles Times reported that Eddie Murphy would star as his Harlem Nights co-star, Richard Pryor, in a feature film. Writer-director Bill Condon and Eddie Murphy will explore the drug and alcohol abuse, broken marriages and illnesses that plagued Pryor until his death in 2005.LA Times: Eddie Murphy as Richard Pryor in Bill Condon's Biopic (February 27, 2009)

• "Though Harlem Nights may be an ego trip, it is a generous one. The only problem is that it's seldom as funny as it should be. The gangster comedy, set in Harlem in the 1930's, is a self-designed star-vehicle that is also a tribute to Mr. Murphy's great co-stars: Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx and Della Reese. It's Mr. Murphy's apparently genuine enjoyment of his associates that keeps one amiable throughout Harlem Nights, even while waiting for the belly laughs that erupt no more than once or twice."—NY TimesNY Times: Harlem Nights Review (November 17, 1989)

• "Harlem Nights, which Murphy starred in, wrote, directed and executive produced, may not waddle its way to box office infamy, but it deserves to. Harlem Nights is Murphy's folly. It's a vanity production if ever there was one, launched on behalf of a star with vast amounts of vanity to soothe. And it's hard to imagine a more wrong-headed, aggressively off-putting exercise in star ego."—Washington PostWashington Post: Harlem Nights Review (November 17, 1989)

• Eddie Murphy as Quick
• Richard Pryor as Sugar Ray
• Redd Foxx as Bennie Wilson
• Danny Aiello as Phil Cantone
• Della Reese as Vera
• Michael Lerner as Bugsy Calhoune