Review: Hoodlum

Set in the 1930s, Laurence Fishburne is ambitious African-American gangster Ellsworth ‘Bumpy’ Johnson, whose control of the Harlem numbers racket is being threatened by white mobster Dutch Schultz (Tim Roth), and he’s utterly ruthless in that pursuit. This is in somewhat contrast to Lucky Luciano (Andy Garcia), a more business-like crime boss who doesn’t much care for Schultz. Cicely Tyson plays a powerful gangster monikered ‘Queen’, who was once Bumpy’s employer. Vanessa Williams is the nice girl Francine, who falls for Bumpy, despite his criminal misdeeds, whilst Chi McBride plays Bumpy’s loyal cousin and best friend. William Atherton turns up as DA Thomas Dewey.

 

Laurence Fishburne played gangster ‘Bumpy’ Johnson in Francis Ford Coppola’s rather dull “The Cotton Club” back in 1984. Here he was playing the role once again in this 1997 film from director Bill Duke (Best known by me as an actor in 80s action films like “Commando” and “Predator”). Scripted by Chris Brancato (Creator of TV’s “Godfather of Harlem”, concerning ‘Bumpy’ Johnson, who was also the inspiration for Bumpy Jonas in 1971’s “Shaft”), Fishburne’s Bumpy is front and centre this time, and Fishburne was a much better actor in 1997 than he was in 1984. He’s a terrific, charismatic anchor for this solid, and frankly quite underrated film. It took quite a while for Fishburne’s talent to really emerge (he was in shit like “Death Wish II”, after all), but in the right role his talent, charisma, and presence are undeniable and dominating. Just look at “Boyz N’ the Hood”, “Deep Cover”, “Higher Learning”, and “The Matrix”. He certainly dominates here, in the meaty lead role. The majority of the very large cast (which includes a strangely uncredited Lincoln Kilpatrick – it’s clearly him but neither he nor his character Cecil are credited in the film or on IMDb.com. Weird) do very fine work here. We get a genuinely ferocious, chilling performance by Clarence Williams III as a black gangster, whilst Ed O’Ross is also excellent and mean as Dutch Schultz’s henchman. Veteran character actor Richard Bradford, so solid in “The Untouchables”, gets to do a nasty, racist cop role this time and nails it. It’s easily one of the best roles and performances of his career. Even more impressive are a perfectly cast Andy Garcia (one of his best), a slimy William Atherton (perfect typecasting), the late Paul Benjamin, and especially Chi McBride and a startling Cicely Tyson. Garcia isn’t in the film as much as I would’ve liked, but is an easy and immediate sell as Lucky Luciano. William Atherton’s corrupt portrayal of DA Thomas Dewey apparently wildly and perhaps slanderously differs from historical record. However, all I can say as a film reviewer is that Atherton plays the role - as written - absolutely pitch-perfectly. Paul Benjamin, who died fairly recently is all class as usual, but also surprisingly creepy, if perhaps slightly too old for his role. He’s certainly effective though. Cicely Tyson was the real surprise package for me here, playing a powerful Harlem underworld figure. I had no idea Tyson was capable of such a commanding performance. Chi McBride, who was a perfect anchor on TV’s “Boston Public”, combines with the lovely Loretta Devine and Vanessa Williams (who is a better singer, but a solid enough actress) to provide flavour and a slight levity to a pretty dark, nasty crime story. I suppose these characters serve the purpose of being the standard ‘loved ones who get threatened by the villains’, but I liked that they give us a bit of a break from the gangster stuff for the most part (Even though they’re still a part of Bumpy’s world). There is one slight issue with Williams’ character, however. She seems to believe that Bumpy has changed during the course of their relationship, become nastier and more criminal. He was a crook when she met him though, so that seems a bit of a stupid complaint to me, and one of the few false moments in the film. Look out for a fun goon double act from brothers Mike and (lesser-known) Beau Starr, they’re not in the film long but they’re great creepy fun.

 

Unfortunately there is one dud performance in the film, and it comes from the one guy who seems to get the most good reviews here: Tim Roth. Playing nasty gangster Dutch Schultz, he mugs his way through a blatant – yet unconvincing – Al Pacino circa “Dick Tracy” pantomime performance. He’s cartoony and highly ineffectual, a real disappointment. He was far more threatening as an ape in Tim Burton’s underrated “Planet of the Apes” re-jig. Since Schultz is the film’s main antagonist, it is a pretty fair problem for the film to have to tackle. Thankfully, there’s so many other good performances that Roth’s unwarranted hambone special doesn’t torpedo the whole thing.  

 

It’s not “The Untouchables”, but this gangster drama ain’t no “Mobsters” or “Public Enemies” either, thankfully. Solid stuff, with Laurence Fishburne getting an excellent showing. What a shame that Tim Roth goes the cartoon Pacino-imitation route as Dutch Schultz, everything else here works pretty damn well. Duke has mostly confined his directorial skills to documentaries and TV gigs, which is a shame as with “Deep Cover” and this film, he shows himself to be a solid feature director. Rock-solid music score by the late, great Elmer Bernstein (“The Magnificent Seven”, “The Great Escape”), too.

 

Rating: B-