PREVIEW Andrea Stuart on Hollywood's streetwise screen success Murphy's Lore guile beats the system and in the meantime teaches those tight-asses in authority a thing or two about humanity and 'real' values. If Harlem Nights dies at the box-office, it will be vir- tually the first of Mr Mur- phy's projects to do so. From the moment he stole the show from veteran Hollywood lead- ing man, Nick Nolte, in his first film 48 Hours, Murphy has been the undisputed King of Comedy. His films have grossed more than a billion dollars and Beverly Hills Cop, the movie that launched his career into the stratosphere alongside Sly Stallone and Clint Eastwood, is the highest-earning come- dy of all time. With Eddie Murphy, other- wise known as 'Eddie Mo- ney', 'Big Money' or just plain 'Money' to his friends, it hasn't been just a case of everything he touches turn- ing to gold; more a case of turning to platinum (includ- ing his single Party All The Time, which got to No 2 in the American charts). Even his turkeys, like Golden Child - 'a piece of shit' is how Mur- phy described it - can't help making mullah, in that instance $100m-worth. This unprecedented cross- over appeal has meant in- evitably that his films have In Harlem Nights, Eddie Murphy plays alongside his idol Richard Pryor been heavily scrutinised. Black critics and right-on 'Eeeh-eeh-eeh-eeeh.' For a US for plagiarism over the moments play on the central white folk have often res- man whose laugh is arguably storyline of an earlier film. metaphor of a man who just ponded to his efforts with the most famous in Holly- Harlem Nights marks Ed- shouldn't be wherever the undisguised hostility. Apart wood, Eddie Murphy doesn't die's directorial debut, star- hell he is (a bit like being a from blanket criticisms about laugh very much. But if Ed- ring his idol Richard Pryor black man in white America, his misogyny and 'gay- die saves his smiles for the and his best friend and co- maybe). In Trading Places bashing', they have accused camera, his films usually star from Coming To Ameri- he is the poor black street- him of pandering to Holly- have his studio, Paramount, ca, Arsenio Hall. On paper, it hustler who changes places wood stereotypes; 'Making laughing all the way to the should be the proverbial with a rich white yuppie; the sorts of films about black bank. sure-fire hit. But it seems while in his most electrify- people that Hollywood loves It has yet to be seen, that American audiences ing scene in 48 Hours he pre- to sell,' the director Euzhan however, whether Harlem have had difficulty adjusting tends to be a black cop in a Palcy says. Nights, his latest offering, to a character somewhat racist white bar ('I'm your Others have been even will be blessed with the removed from the well-loved worst nightmare - a nigger less restrained. The Afro- Midas touch that has made persona Eddie has estab- with a badge!'). American journalist Armond his name a veritable mantra lished in past films. In Har- Murphy's screen image White described Murphy's for American movie execu- lem Nights, he plays for the plays on a universal and irre- film Coming To America as a tives. So far things haven't first time a kind of 'baddie' sistible transformation fan- 'betrayal of every instance been going well; the picture instead of the more familiar tasy updated with a funky of politics, history, sex and has been panned in the US, cheeky, irreverent but lov- soundtrack and some of the ethnic culture that black and in this country the film's able bad-boy of Beverly Hills bluest language in film. It is people have ever known'. distributor, UIP, is deter- Cop (I and II). a fantasy with particular res- Heavy shit. On the accusa- minedly downplaying its Eddie Murphy's screen per- onance in the context of the tions of his homophobia and launch in late May. And - sona, like Chaplin's tramp, is American dream - that of sexism Murphy is relatively perhaps this is an omen - the quintessential outsider/ the irrepressible 'little man', sanguine. It is clear that he Murphy has just lost a multi- underdog. And indeed, each albeit a black one, who doesn't have a lot of faith in million dollar lawsuit in the of his films' most memorable through sheer chutzpah and women ('My first reaction is 8 MARXISM TODAY MAY 1990 PREVIEW to be distrustful - especially black people to hear yet ano- of the first children of the have ever been. of women') and he has de- ther tale of the mega-talented, black tv generation whose As a child nurtured on tv's clared that of the rumours politically-cred, black comic/ style and aspirations are cross-over dreams, Eddie spread about him (which in- musician/actor who ends up culled from a racially amor- Murphy's lifelong ambition clude accusations of woma- drunk, lonely and impover- phous, if cliched, source; he to be Mr Entertainment, a nising, sexual harassment ished in some tenament is a black suburban boy who latter-day Sammy Davis Jr, and drug abuse), those he walk-up because he got spent his solitary childhood must have seemed simple - finds personally most of- shafted yet again by the in front of the tv dreaming even a little hackneyed. But fensive are the insinuations money-men. 'One of my maj- about being Elvis. as a grown-up these dreams that he might be gay. or fears,' Murphy told Rol- And he has been brought up in increasingly represent a But when it comes to be- ling Stone magazine, 'has al- an American society where, dilemma, one that keeps all traying 'his people' Murphy ways been that I'd get that for better or worse, black his mega black-pack buddies loses his cool. He points out, call: "Your accountant's gone lives, courtesy of The Cosby awake at nights, one for rightly, how popular his films with all your money!" That Show and any number of which there are no easy are with black audiences and kind of shit is spooky. So I other American sit-coms answers: how does one, as a that his studio is the most know where every dime of (those black lives that don't black artist, achieve the my money is and nobody can fall into the bottomless void autonomy and economic clout 'It is this talent in "the art of sign checks for me.' of America's ever-expanding that only the mainstream can In this sense Eddie repre- underclass, that is), are more offer, without compromising the deal" that underlies Mur- sents the new wave of black accessible now than they your community ?• phy's appeal. This boy knows entertainers like Bill Cosby, how to play the game. And he Oprah Winfrey or Michael Jackson whose names domi- wins in life just like he wins in nate the Forbes 100 Best- the movies.' Paid Entertainers List (Mi- chael Jackson topped the racially integrated of all the charts as the highest-paid Hollywood film factories. entertainer, of any colour, in He admirably restrains him- any part of the world). Hav- self from mentioning (as ing learned from the bitter others are fond of doing) that experiences of their prede- without his commercial suc- cessors that talent isn't nearly cess it is unlikely that fellow enough, they also recognise members of the 'black-pack', that Hollywood is colour- including film-makers Spike blind only if the colour in Lee, Robert Hollywood Shuf- question is green; the colour fle Townsend and Keenen of money. Ivory Wayans, would have But Murphy's success re- had a chance. presents more than just a But it is money, the filthy new mood among black en- lucre, that provides the key tertainers. His career also to understanding the Mur- reflects changes within the phy phenomenon. He has black community itself. Des- said of his profession that pite his wise-ass, street- 'we are all whores', but if this smart characters, Murphy is is the case, then Eddie is the no Richard Pryor. He wasn't whore with the highest price. born into a dead-end family Having renegotiated his ini- with a prostitute mother and tial deal with Paramount into an absent father. Though he a hugely lucrative package, has had his troubles - a pe- 'Big Money' Murphy is well riod of poverty after his on his way to becoming a father, a policeman, was multinational. murdered by one of his mis- What Murphy has been able tresses (hell hath no fury...) to do, up till now, is to merge - Eddie Murphy, brought up the luck of being the right in far-from-urban Long Is- man - the right black man - land, is a product of the in the right place at the right emerging black middle class. time, with an uncanny instinct This background permeates for a money-making for- his comedy. It isn't the angst- mula: he knows how to run a ridden urban cry of a ghetto business. child like Pryor. It isn't And it is this talent in 'the even the edgy, politically- art of the deal' that underlies conscious satire we asso- Murphy's appeal - at least ciate with the even more for many black people. This middle-class Spike Lee. No, boy knows how to play the Eddie's comedy is main- game.