Come Back Charleston Blue (Warner Bros.) (1972)

Godfrey Cambridge Astonishing Man The warm and fulfilling presence of Godfrey Cambridge is an event that makes some movies more worth going to than other movies. In the last few years he has created an.unerasable impression on audiences who are beginning to find him an irresistible entertainment force. Although he has been moving around on stage and in nightclubs, on the big screen and the little, Godfrey’s best foot went forward a few years ago when he starred with Raymond St. Jacques in ‘‘Cotton Comes to Harlem.’’ Today he is doing it again in a continuation of the wonderful adventures of Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, the New York cops, in ‘*Come Back Charleston Blue,’’ opening at the Theatre. This is a Samuel Goldwyn Jr. production for Warner Bros. based on the characters created by Chester Himes. Despite his joyful approach to life, Godfrey takes his screen work seriously. Before beginning ‘‘Charleston Blue,’’ he took a course in the 28th Precint’s prowl cars to get into the feeling that made his character ring true. He really saw how New York’s ‘‘finest’’ survive in the jungle. Godfrey Cambridge is an astonishing man, an_ unbelieveable man. He honestly does believe in the efficacy of laughter, just as he honestly believes in the goodness of people and what he can personally do about the poor, the addicted, the imprisoned and all the unfortunates of the world. Besides this everworking compassion, he has more things going than a country carnival. His show business activities reach all the way around the circle; then he is also a writer, a photographer, a master chef; he has his own production company and is currently writing two screen plays with different collaborators; he is making a documentary on dope for the N.Y. Police Department; he has_ soaring ideas on prison rehabilitation; he is part of a three-year-old corporation called Feelings, Inc., which offers consultation services to individuals and companies teaching people how to ‘‘feel’’ and how to live again; he works with aspiring actors at the Mafundi Institute; and he is, of all things, a dedicated gun collector. Godfrey was born in New York City on Feb. 26, the son of Alexander and Sarah Cambridge who migrated from British Guiana to Nova Scotia and eventually to New York. Godfrey went to grammar school in Nova Scotia, then returned to graduate from high school in Queens, winning a scholarship to Hofstra University. He also studied at the College of the City of New York. Besides his entertainmentoriented career, Godfrey has held many other jobs, including popcorn-bunny maker, airplane wing cleaner for American Airlines, maternity hospital ambulance driver, gardener, judo instructor, special policeman, newspaper circulation manager, hot rod racer, theatrical critic, and New York City cab driver. But none of those things has made him as happy, nor certainly as famous, as his portrayal of the wondrous Gravedigger Jones in “Come Back Charleston Blue,” a Harlem cop who does all the wrong things for the right reasons, and sometimes the right thing for the wrong reason. Fencing Teacher to Harlem Cop For a man who was born in Connecticut and learned to fence before he fired a gun, the role of a Harlem police detective in ‘*Come Back Charleston Blue,’’ which opens at the Theatre, may seem out of the credibility field. But in the case of Raymond St. Jacques, his unerring ear for life and his thorough understanding of his profession make the role of Coffin Ed Johnson in the Samuel Goldwyn Jr. production a natural. His workmate is Godfrey Cambridge as Gravedigger Jones, and they both starred three years ago in ‘‘Cotton Comes to Harlem,’’ the forerunner of the new film. St. Jacques is six feet three, has a deep voice that shows a lot of training, and he is black and impressive, and even a little bit overwhelming. ‘‘Come Back Charleston Blue’’ is his 13th motion picture. He was born in Hartford and raised and educated in New Haven, Ct., where he was graduated from Hillhouse High School, and quickly, thereafter, became an actor, assistant director and fencing instructor with the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ct. In this latter job he was responsible for staging the fights, duels and battle scenes which Shakespeare wrote about so colorfully. Fencing continues to be one of his hobbies, and he sometimes teaches it. St. Jacques’ professional acting debut came in the off Broadway play, ‘‘High Name Today,’’ dealing with the Korean War. This was the first of many off-Broadway productions in which St. Jacques appeared, playing roles of increasing importance. One of the best known, ‘‘The Blacks,’’ also was an introduction for Cicely Tyson, Godfrey Cambridge and Lou Gossett. Later St. Jacques appeared on Broadway in ‘“‘Night Life,’’ ‘‘The Cool World’’ and the musical revival of ‘‘Seventh Heaven.”’ His first motion picture role was with James Whitmore in “Black Like: Me.”’ Then he drew attention for his role in ‘*The Pawnbroker.’’ Followed by such films as ‘‘The Comedians’’ with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton; ‘‘Madigan’’ with Henry Fonda; ‘‘The Green Berets’’ with John Wayne; ‘‘Uptight’’ for Jules Dassin and ‘Mr. Buddwing.’’ A recent film was ‘‘Cool Breeze,’’ in which he played a 60-year-old hood. His next project is the filming of “The Book of Numbers,” in which he will star and which he will also direct and produce. St. Jacques is a whiz in the kitchen. He reads a great deal, is an enthusiastic horseback rider and amateur photographer. Lovely Jonelle Allen portrays a fashion model in trouble with the law in Warner Bros.’ ‘‘Come Back Charleston Blue,’’ now at Theatre in Technicolor. Mat 1-A the Jonelle Allen Bit Part to Star The rise and rise of Jonelle Allen began 20 years ago when she was three and tap dancing in the bathroom. It reached fulfillment in 1972 when Jonelle was signed by Samuel Goldwyn Jr. for the principal feminine role in ‘‘Come Back Charleston Blue,’’ which opens at the Theatre, while she was still reading the glowing notices of her stage performance in the musical version of ‘‘Two Gentlemen of Verona.’’ It is a small won that her buoyant good humor seems boundless, that her future looms evermore rewarding, and that she considers herself a lucky ‘*Sugar Hill’”’ child. Her appearance in ‘‘Come Back Charleston Blue’’ is more than a logical result of her stage success. Three years ago Jonelle played the bit role of a wide-eyed secretary in ‘‘Cotton Comes to Harlem,’’ the precursor to ‘‘Charleston /Blue, and Goldwyn and everyone else remembered Jonelle and wanted her back, this time to star with Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques and to play the romantic lead opposite Peter DeAnda. “play Carol? ‘fa naive girl who she says, is easily fooled but still strong enough to get back on the right track.’’ DeAnda Peter is a_ fashion photographer involved with narcotics in Warner’ Bros.’ ‘*Come Back Charleston Blue,’’ sequel to ‘‘Cotton Comes to Harlem,’’ now at the.___ Theatre with Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques starring. Mat 1-B Gravedigger and Coffin Ed Rise Again The Harlem adventures of an unmatched pair of exuberent police detectives, found in the tough roundness of Godfrey Cambridge and the decisive slimness of Raymond St. Jacques, attain new excitement in ‘‘Come Back Charleston Blue,’’ which opens at the Theatre, the second chapter in the astonishing lives of Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson. These two black buccaneers were originally introduced to the screen in‘‘Cotton Comes to Harlem,’’ based on the stories by Chester Himes and produced by Samuel Goldwyn Jr., who has done it again with many of the same people in the new Warner Bros. release. Following filming in Harlem and environs, ‘‘Come Back Charleston Blue’’ is on the nation’s screens with Digger and Ed plunged deeply into new and fearsome aspects of the criminal life, even mixing it up in a bi-racial gang war. They may be cracking jokes along the way, but their intent is as deadly serious as the bullets in their guns. For director of the new project, Goldwyn put his finger on Mark Warren, a young newcomer whose experience directing 72 hours of ‘‘Laugh-In’’ gives him a good grasp of speed and time, while he has been able to add his own sympathetic view of the Harlem background and a crisp way of getting things done. The leading lady in “*Come Back Charleston Blue’’ may or may not be remembered for the bit of the wide-eyed secretary who blinked four times and read two lines in ‘‘Cotton Comes to Harlem.’’ Since then Jonelle Allen has become the showstopper of the Broadway musical, “Two Gentlemen of Verona.” The villain is as unregenerate as he is handsome and as lethal as he is romantic. Peter DeAnda is his name, and he recently appeared in ‘“‘The New Centurions’’ and was the first black hero of a continuing soap opera. He has also appeared in 40 or more plays, countless TV shows, and now plays the role of Joe, the man with the deadly blue-steel razors. One of the most intriguing aspects of ‘‘Charleston Blue’’ is the title character himself, supposedly slain in 1932 by Dutch Schultz, the notorious gangster. However, his trade mark razors keep showing up beside slit throats, and why does the Queen of the Numbers keep saying that he’s coming back for her in a 1932 Lincoln? Godfrey Cambridge (left) and Raymond St. Jacques portray Harlem detectives, Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, in Warner Bros.’ ‘‘Come Back Charleston Blue,’’ now at the Theatre. Film is a sequel to the popular ‘‘Cotton Comes to Harlem’’ and features the hilarious pair fighting the black underworld. Mat 2-A Peter DeAnda Not the Villain Type Peter DeAnda, a _ smoothskinned, shiny-eyed fellow of 34 years with a notable background in the world of acting, is making a slick art of villainy in the role of Joe Paynter, a sweet-talking crook in ‘‘Come Back Charleston Blue,’’ which opens___ at the Theatre. This is Samuel Goldwyn Jr.’s sequel to ‘‘Cotton Comes to Harlem’’ for Warner Bros. release. In it, Peter DeAnda’s mission is to thwart the honorable but frenzied activities of Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson as played by Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques. Peter does it with guns, with dope and with nice shiny blue razors. On the theory that a motion picture like this is only as strong as its villain, Mark Warren, the director, has turned Peter into what appears to be a romantic leading man, a personable fashion photographer, but who is really a first-class heel anda very unsavory citizen. The leading lady who has a misplaced crush on him, is Jonelle Allen, of current attention in the New York musical version of ‘‘Two Gentlemen of Verona.’’ ‘“Tt’s the kind of villainy that shows up best,’’ Peter says. ‘“‘I hope it works.’’ Villainy isn’t the only type of role for De Anda who has a wide and varied background in films and theatre. Among his recent roles is the title character in a two-hour television feature which had him starring as a private detective in Chicago. COPYRIGHT © 1972 BY WARNER BROS. INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.