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List Price: $14.97 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 23876
Released: January 13, 2004 |
| Our Price: $5.95 |
| Used Price: $3.55 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Two small time hustlers loose a winning lottery ticket in a robbery. They scour the city and battle thugs to retrieve it.
DVD Features:
Featurette:Dynamite Duo: A Retrospective
Theatrical Trailer
Description of Uptown Saturday Night:
The first in a trio of very broad comedies from director Sidney Poitier features Poitier and Bill Cosby as two small-time hustlers always looking for an angle. During a robbery at a swanky nightclub, they are relieved of their wallets, only to find later that one of them had a lottery ticket that came up a winner. The chase is on as they scour the city to find their prize, along the way running up against Harry Belafonte as a sly and suave mob kingpin (with a nod to Don Corleone) with his eye on the ticket as well. Heavily influenced by the screwball comedies of the 1940s but with the thoroughly modern air of 1970s black culture, Uptown Saturday Night is a breezy affair with some old pros at the helm. --Robert Lane
Uptown Saturday Night Reviews:
uptown saturday night fever 
2009-04-29 - What a splendid film! Sidney Poitier and Bill Cosby are marvelous together, and the rest of the cast is equally good. It's such a fine exemplar of the 70s experience. It's a go-to movie for me.
Not as pleased as most reviewers 
2009-01-12 - I put this DVD on my wish list because of the many enthusuiastic reviews left by others. I was disappointed in the slow pace and the minimal humor. However, this is a good period piece of 1970s film-making.
Funny! Hilarious! Gut Busting! 
2008-04-15 - Is such a movie as this one. Bill and Sydney have always starred well as a duo. They're about the only two guys I know that can pull off roles as crooks, turn it into comedy and get away with it. But that takes nothing away from Calvin Lockhart and Harry Bellafonte. Everyone in this movie will have you busting your gut laughing. Bunch of fools (but in a funny way). I guess when you lose a lotto ticket, you go thru a lot trying to get it back. But if these clowns had been where they were supposed to be, instead of partying up at Zenobia's, they wouldn't have found themselves in such a mess. I guess they thought the wives wouldn't know they'd been up to no good.
They went from getting robbed, to get beaten up by a 4 foot 10 guy, to getting hooked up with some gangsters to ending up jumping into the river all because they were hard-headed. But it was all good. Nice clean comedy. Own this one. It's well worth being in your collection!
The weakest of the Cosby/Poitier trilogy; but fortunately, this means the best is yet to come... 
2008-02-07 - This is a kind of film that people like to keep around. It's not Shakespeare but it's fun and light and it features some pretty wonderful performances. In here we have Steve Jackson (Sidney Poitier) and Wardell Franklin (Bill Cosby) are two working stiffs looking to have a good time uptown. They tip out on wives Sarah Jackson (Rosalind Cash) and Irma Franklin (Ketty Lester) and go to Zenobia's, a joint - named after Madame Zenobia (Lee Chamberlin) - where the high fallutin' high rollers hang out for a little casino action.
Unfortunately, they lose their shirts (literally) when robbers force them and everyone else to strip and give up their valuables. Thugs Zenobia's not only take all the patron's money and jewels, but also Steve's wallet, which he later discovers held something more valuable than he ever imagined. Steve and Wardell seek the help of numerous neighborhood characters - including "Don" Geechie Dan Beauford (Harry Belafonte), The Don's rival Silky Slim (Calvin Lockhart), local hood Little Seymour (Harold Nicholas), inept private investigator Sharp Eye Washington (Richard Pryor), and a corrupt Congress-critter (Roscoe Lee Browne) - in retrieving the wallet.
Uptown Saturday Night is a special movie, capable of striking that delicate balance between not funny and not interesting. It is, however, not to be dismissed out-of-hand. The film is a visual treat, to be sure. Cosby parting his hair and his moustache for a big night out on the town is truly a sight to behold, as is the red piping on his dinner jacket. He's also pretty tough in this movie. Cosby's Wardell is a little less refined than his I Spy guy, and a lot less refined than his ugly sweater Huxtable. Comedic co-star, Sidney Poitier looked to be out of his field, especially compared to Bill "Shave And A Haircut?" Cosby and the rest of the crew. Much of the time, Poitier seemed to be barely hanging in there, trying to keep up with Cosby's antics, with a look of terror in his eyes whenever Cosby tore loose (though admittedly, that may have been Director Poitier, panicking over losing control of Cosby). But even Cosby himself took a back seat to Paula Kelly, Richard Pryor, and Roscoe Lee Browne. Kelly, who I loved in "Sweet Charity", was Large as Leggy Peggy without being unnecessarily Loud; Pryor was understated (for him), and had one of the best, spot-on, lines in the movie; and Browne wore his two-faced Afro [when it suited him]-American [when it didn't] politician role like a shining coat of armor. The real surprise for me was discovering that Harry Belafonte was one of the bad guys ("Geechie Dan"). One hopes he was wearing alot of makeup, because otherwise, he looks close to death. Overall it's a goo/decent film that I recommended to all Bill Cosby/Sidney Poitier fans, or anyone looking for a decent classic movie to watch, may want to pick "Uptown Saturday Night."
Great Nastalgic Movie
2007-11-28 - If you are stuck in the 70's as I am, this movie will take you back to where you want to be. The funny wardrobe, the out of sight lingo. It is all hilarious. Funny to see Bill Cosby in his younger days too.
