By 1953, Himes grew tired of the racial climate and his inability to garner great success with American audiences, and landed in France. Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones were a couple of mean and nasty guys, that read incredibly likable, probably because we never had to see them in person. Next thing you know, the DA's office is coming in grabbing Deke to take him Downtown for questioning. But something ain't right. Ed and Grave Digger are going to find out it is and when they do, Hell's coming to Harlem.
Cotton Comes to Harlem is a schizo-comedy.
Something happens to offset the comedy for about 10 minutes until you start laughing again. Some of what happens is pretty scary, and some of it will cause you to think, but all of it makes for a pretty darn good film, that's actually aged very well. But Cotton 's a little more deep than all of that. Because it's a Himes story, it's also a serious meditation on race relations, social anxieties and what it means to be the law on both sides of the fence. And the answers are never easily digested.