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The Cotton Club
original film poster
Directed by	Francis Ford Coppola
Produced by	Robert Evans Sylvio Tabet Fred Roos
Written by	William Kennedy (story) Mario Puzo (story) William Kennedy (screenplay) Francis Ford Coppola (screenplay
Starring	Richard Gere Diane Lane Gregory Hines
Distributed by	Orion Pictures
Release date(s)	December 10, 1984 (USA)
Running time	127 min
Language	English
Budget	$47,000,000 USD (estimated)
IMDb profile

The Cotton Club is a movie, released in 1984, centered on a popular real-life Harlem jazz club in the 1930s, the Cotton Club.

The movie was co-written (with William Kennedy) and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, choreographed by Henry LeTang, and starred Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and Gregory Hines. Other notable actors that appeared included Nicolas Cage, Bob Hoskins, Laurence Fishburne, Fred Gwynne, Maurice Hines, James Remar and Gwen Verdon as Tish Dwyer. Despite performing poorly at the box office, the film was nominated for several awards, including Golden Globes for Best Director and Best Picture (Drama) and the Oscar for best Film Editing.

Gere plays a musician named Dixie Dwyer who begins working with mobsters to advance his career but falls in love with the girlfriend (Lane) of gangland kingpin Dutch Schultz. Hines and Lonette McKee play dancers at the Cotton Club in a sub-plot of the movie. The movie features many song and dance numbers including fictional performances by Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. Nicolas Cage plays Dixie's brother Vincent, who also becomes a gangster. Cage's character is based on real-life gangster Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll. Gregory Hines's real-life brother Maurice plays his brother in the film.

Laurence Fishburne would reprise his role as the Harlem gangster, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, in 1997's Hoodlum. In this film, he is named "Bumpy" Rhodes.

The character of Dixie Dwyer is loosely based on the famous 1920s hot jazz coronetist, Bix Beiderbecke, right down to the alliterative name, and everyone simply calling him "Dix." The character "Lila" is loosely based on Lena Horne.

"Cotton Club" was the first privately financed major motion picture. It was paid for almost entirely by brothers Fred and Ed Doumani of Las Vegas.

The movie was a huge flop grossing only $25,928,721 on a budget estimated to be US$47 to 58 million, depending on the source.

The Cotton Club (film) at the Internet Movie Database