Movie · Crime · Thriller

Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson (Laurence Fishburne) is a Black ex-con who returns to Harlem at the height of its renaissance before World War II. Just out of prison and with no marketable skills, he begins working for Stephanie St. Clair (Cicely Tyson), the queen of Harlem's numbers racket. Bumpy's old friend Illinois Gordon (Chi McBride) is concerned about Bumpy's job, and social worker Francine Hughes (Vanessa L. Williams) suggests he should be doing something more positive with his life. However, Bumpy stays with the numbers game because he claims it's the only profitable business that Blacks control themselves. And profitable it is…enough to get the attention of mob boss "Lucky" Luciano (Andy Garcia), who wants a piece of the action. He assigns his right-hand man "Dutch" Schultz (Tim Roth) to make a deal with Stephanie, but Dutch is far better at murder and mayhem than negotiation.

1997 · 2h 10m
Director Bill Duke

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Crime

Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson (Laurence Fishburne) is a Black ex-con who returns to Harlem at the height of its renaissance before World War II. Just out of prison and with no marketable skills, he begins working for Stephanie St. Clair (Cicely Tyson), the queen of Harlem's numbers racket. Bumpy's old friend Illinois Gordon (Chi McBride) is concerned about Bumpy's job, and social worker Francine Hughes (Vanessa L. Williams) suggests he should be doing something more positive with his life. However, Bumpy stays with the numbers game because he claims it's the only profitable business that Blacks control themselves. And profitable it is…enough to get the attention of mob boss "Lucky" Luciano (Andy Garcia), who wants a piece of the action. He assigns his right-hand man "Dutch" Schultz (Tim Roth) to make a deal with Stephanie, but Dutch is far better at murder and mayhem than negotiation.

TOMATOMETER
Average 5.8
Reviews 21
Fresh 9
Rotten 12

Information

Studio
MGM
Released
1997
Run Time
2 hr 10 min
Rated
R For graphic ganster violence, strong language, a scene of sexuality and some nudity.
Region of Origin
United States
© 1997 UNITED ARTISTS PICTURES INC.

Languages

Original Audio
English
Audio

English (United States) (⁨Dolby 5.1⁩, AAC), French (France) (AAC), Spanish (Latin America) (AAC)

Subtitles

English (CC), English (United States) , Arabic , Danish , Dutch , Finnish , French (France) , German (Germany) , Hebrew , Italian (Italy) , Korean , Norwegian , Portuguese (Portugal) , Spanish (Latin America) , Spanish (Spain) , Swedish , Thai

Accessibility

Closed captions (CC) refer to subtitles in the available language with the addition of relevant non-dialogue information.