Harlem Nights - Plot

Plot

In Harlem, New York, 1918, Sugar Ray (Richard Pryor) has a dice game going in the back of his candy store. Many of his friends and associates are present, including his old friend Bennie (Redd Foxx). After nearly being killed by an angry man who lost money, Ray is saved when an 8-year-old errand boy shoots the man in the head. The orphan, who goes by the name "Quick," becomes the "good luck charm" for Ray, who raises him.

Twenty years later (1938), Ray and a grown-up Quick (Eddie Murphy) now run a highly successful nightclub called "Club Sugar Ray", a speakeasy with a brothel in back run by tough-talking madam Vera (Della Reese).

During a routine evening, Tommy Smalls (Thomas Mikal Ford), who works for the notorious gangster Bugsy Calhoun (Michael Lerner) at the Pitty Pat Club, along with beautiful Miss Dominique LaRue (Jasmine Guy) arrive at Club Sugar Ray. Smalls and LaRue have come to check out the club and report back to Calhoun, who has received word that Club Sugar Ray is outgrossing him on a nightly basis. Ray tells Quick not to mess with Miss LaRue as she is Calhoun's mistress.

That night, Quick accuses Vera and her "girls" of coming up short with profits. Enraged, Vera challenges Quick to a fight, which she maintains the upper hand on until being hit by a garbage can by Quick. Vera pulls a razor on him, which leads to Quick shooting Vera's pinky toe off. Later that evening, Calhoun sends corrupt police detective Phil Cantone (Danny Aiello) to threaten Ray, vowing to shut the club down unless Calhoun gets a huge cut of the action.

All but forced out of business, Ray refuses to go without first making sure he's provided for his friends and workers. An upcoming heavyweight championship fight between challenger Michael Kirkpatrick and defending champion (and loyal Club Sugar Ray patron) Jack Jenkins (Stan Shaw) will command a lot of money. Ray's plan is to place a bet on Kirkpatrick to make Calhoun think they have talked Jenkins into throwing the fight. The plan also is to rob Calhoun's booking houses. To facilitate this, a sexy callgirl named Sunshine (Lela Rochon), who works for Vera is used to distract Calhoun's bag man, Richie Vinto (Vic Polizos).

Smalls is accused by Calhoun of coming up short with the nightly receipts at the Pitty Pat Club. As a result, Calhoun sends Cantone to execute Smalls in his apartment. Later on that evening, Quick goes to Smalls' apartment only to find him dead. As he walks out of his apartment building, Smalls' brother (Arsenio Hall) notices him. Curious, he walks into Smalls' apartment, finds him dead and presumes that Quick must have killed him.

Earlier on, Quick had received an invitation to dinner from Dominique LaRue. It turns out to be a recruiting pitch from Calhoun to bring Quick in to run the Pitty Pat Club with Miss LaRue, since he had Smalls executed. Quick steadily refuses, which leads to Calhoun ordering LaRue to seduce and kill Quick. As Quick leaves the restaurant, he is chased by Smalls' brother and his two henchmen. They try to kill him as they believe he is responsible for Smalls murder. After being cornered, he kills all three of them effortlessly with three gunshots.

Later that night, LaRue phones Quick, who wants to see him at her apartment. He arrives there, but right before they have sex, he finds a small gun tucked under the pillow on her bed. He quickly realizes he is being set up, and after they have sex, LaRue attempts to kill Quick with the aforementioned gun. She is horrified to discover that the gun has no bullets (Quick took them all out) and is subsequently shot and killed by Quick.

Quick comes to Ray's home and explains what happened. Quick voices his intent to exact vengeance on Calhoun, but Ray orders him to lie low and hide. Cantone later arrives at Club Sugar Ray, has everyone there arrested and demands Ray to turn over Quick. Ray bails all of his customers out of jail.

Calhoun then orders that Club Sugar Ray be destroyed, and his men set fire to it in the middle of night. Ray arrives to assess the damage and takes one last look at his former nightclub.

Ray meets with his crew in a remote location. He asks Quick to apologize to Vera for shooting her in the foot, knowing that she views Quick like a son. Quick honors his request, and tells Vera he loves her. After leaving the room, Vera reciprocates the gesture in tears.

Meanwhile, Vera's girl Sunshine, successfully seduces Richie Vinto. She convinces him that she has a pickup to make the same night Richie has to make his pickup. Richie agrees to pick her up on the way to collect money for Calhoun. Richie gets into an accident, orchestrated by Ray's henchman Jimmy (Charlie Murphy) who had fixed the switch to the traffic light to change from green to red.

Ray and Quick, disguised as policemen, arrive on the scene and attempt to arrest Richie. They tell him that the woman he's riding around with is actually a notorious drug dealer known as Lady Heroin. Quick attempts to switch the bag that held Calhoun's money with the one Sunshine had placed in the car, but before he can, two white policemen arrive. Richie pulls one aside and explains that he's on a run for Bugsy Calhoun, so they let him go.

The championship fight begins. Meanwhile, at the Pitty Pat Club, Freddy and Willie, two of Ray's men, chase out the customers, plant a bomb and leave before it blows up. This serves a double purpose: to retaliate against Calhoun for destroying Club Sugar Ray and to provoke him. At the fight, Calhoun realizes it was not fixed as he originally thought, and receives word that his club has been destroyed.

Quick and Ray arrive at a closed bank and go inside. Cantone arrives shortly after, having followed them and pulls a gun on them. Ray's crew however hold Cantone at gunpoint, and reveal that they knew he was watching the exchange after the orchestrated accident and seal him inside the bank vault. Ray promises that he will be released in approximately two days. Quick advises Cantone to take small sips of air to last him this period, as bank vaults don't have a lot of air in them.

Calhoun returns to his home, furious. Richie arrives to deliver Calhoun's money, but discovers that the bags of money had indeed been switched with bags of heroin. Calhoun then discovers that the "heroin" is in fact powdered sugar, which infuriates him even more as he now knows who was behind the entire plot. Vera then pays Calhoun a surprise visit, who tells them (as part of an act) how she did not want to be mixed up in robbing him. She tells Bugsy where to find Ray and Quick. Believing her, Bugsy and his men arrive at Ray's house but find it empty. As they try to leave however, one of his men trips a bomb wired into the door, instantly killing Bugsy and his men.

Near the waterfront, by a sign that reads "Hoboken", Ray and Quick pay meet with two white men who are revealed to be working for Ray (they disguised themselves as the two white policemen earlier) and he pays them off. Ray and Quick take one last look at Harlem, acknowledge that they can never return and that there will never be another city like it. They then get into their car and depart for an unknown location as the credits roll.