UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT

Steve Jackson is a factory worker. One evening, when boredom gets the best of him, Steve and his pal Wardell decide to go to an underground gambling club to have some fun. While they are there the place is held-up and Steve’s wallet is stolen. When Steve and Wardell learn that the wallet contains a winning lottery ticket, the friends go on a desperate search to find it. Shape Eye Washington, an incompetent private eye, is enlisted to aid them in their search through the criminal underworld where they come up against Geechie Dan Beauford, the mobster who runs the town. Belafonte, in a hilarious parody of Marlon Brando in The Godfather, steals the show. The movie was a huge success and led to two sequels, Let’s Do It Again and A Piece of the Action, both also directed by Poitier. (Linda Rasmussen)