Richard Gere

Gregory Hines

Diane Lane

Lonette McKee

Bob Hoskins

James Remar

Nicolas Cage

Allen Garfield

Fred Gwynne

Gwen Verdon

Lisa Jane Persky

Maurice Hines

Julian Beck

Novella Nelson

Laurence Fishburne

John P. Ryan

Tom Waits

Ron Karabatsos

Glenn Withrow

Jennifer Grey

Wynonna Smith

Thelma Carpenter

Charles "Honi" Coles

Larry Marshall

Joe Dallesandro

Diane Venora

Tucker Smallwood

Marc Coppola

Robert Earl Jones

Sofia Coppola

Tracey Ross

Mario Van Peebles

Ed O'Ross

Frederick Downs Jr.

Woody Strode

Bill Graham

Dayton Allen

Kim Chan

Ed Rowan

Leonard Termo

Brian Tarantina

Bruce MacVittie

James Russo

Giancarlo Esposito

Rony Clanton

Damien Leake

Bill Cobbs

Joe Lynn

Oscar Barnes

Ed Zang

Sandra Beall

Zane Mark

Paul Herman

Randle Mell

Gregory Rozakis

Vincent Jerman-Jerosa

Rosalind Harris

Jackée Harry

Sonya Hensley

Valarie Pettiford

Kimberly Dorsey

Anton Evangelista

Nicholas J. Giangiulio

Suzanne Kaaren

Robin Karfo

Mark Margolis

Naylon Mitchell

Ray Negron

Kirk Taylor

Rick Washburn

Linda Gillen

Rima Vetter

Francis Ford Coppola

William Kennedy

Robert Evans

Stephen Goldblatt

Robert Q. Lovett

Lois Planco

Gretchen Rennell

Richard Sylbert

Gregory Bolton

Leslie Bloom

George Gaines

Milena Canonero

John Barry

David Chapman

Barry Malkin

Michael Haley

David Carroll

Norman Hollyn

David Golden

Christopher Cronyn

Margaret B. Hunnewell

Robert V. Girolami

Henry J. Bronchtein

Louis D'Esposito

Kerry Orent

Donald Sweeney

Jimmy Raitt

Michael Stone

David Wagreich

Lynn Lewis Lovett

Lyndell Quiyou

Craig Lyman

Nathan Boxer

Jack C. Jacobsen

Adger W. Cowans

Edward Swanson

Victor Magnotta

Mario Puzo

Jim Haskins

Crime

Drama

The Cotton Club

Totally Independent

American Zoetrope

Robert Evans Company

United States of America

And all - that - jazz!

Far better than its iffy reputation suggests, The Cotton Club is guilty of being stuffed to the gills, but it also contains mighty fine film making that shows craft both behind and in front of the camera.

Set in late 1920s Harlem, the pitch is an area of New York rife with swinging jazz, racism, crooks and gangsters. Prohibition and the depression fill the air just as the talkie movie bursts out of the silver screen. The Cotton Club of the title is the focal point for many of the key character's lives, so Francis Coppola, who stepped in at the eleventh hour of the troubled production, has many threads to juggle. He drops the odd one, but never to the detriment of the verve and swagger of the pic. Violence comes and goes, song and dance often dazzles the eyes and ears, and a cast of hundreds induces that good old game of spot the stars - past, present and future.

The narrative has strength via the observations of a major part of America in great transition, with the art design ops and tech crew beavers aiding him considerably via some superb period flavourings There is no getting away from the slightness of some character strands, the director and co choosing to insert another, all be it delightful, dance or song number to fill the void, but the core of the story remains strong throughout. The underworld always looms large, the seedy side of the era pulses away continuously, while the cast enjoy the dressage and frontage of a key time in America's history.

Flaws for sure but made with skill and passion and it never bores. Bravo! 7.5/10