Cinema: Honkies in the Woodpile

With Hollywood scrambling to exploit every current trend, "soul" movies were probably inevitable. Enter Cotton Comes to Harlem, a meretricious thriller that should offend the sensibilities of any audience—black or white.

For what little it's worth, a black cat of a preacher (Calvin Lockhart) collects $87,000 from Harlem residents for a back-to-Africa movement, then gets involved in a blood-spattered holdup while making off with the loot. Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques are the soul detectives that set about tracking him. It is at best a rickety track. Cambridge is a terribly funny comedian and a terribly unconvincing actor; St. Jacques is...