[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_cotton_club.jpg]]

''The Cotton Club'' is a 1984 American crime-drama film directed by Creator/FrancisFordCoppola, and starring Creator/RichardGere, and Creator/DianeLane. The supporting cast included Creator/GregoryHines, Lonette [=McKee=], Creator/BobHoskins, Creator/JamesRemar, Creator/NicolasCage, Creator/LaurenceFishburne, Gwen Verdon and Creator/FredGwynne.

The film is centered on a Harlem jazz club of the 1930s, the Cotton Club. Musician Dixie Dwyer (Gere) begins working in the club, run by mobster Owney Madden (Hoskins), to advance his career, but falls in love with Vera Cicero (Lane), the girlfriend of violent kingpin Dutch Schultz (Remar). In the meantime, Dixie's ambitious younger brother Vincent (Cage) becomes a gangster in Schultz's mob and eventually a public enemy.

At the 2017 Telluride Film Festival, Francis Ford Coppola revealed ''The Cotton Club Encore'', a ReCut version that incorporates scenes from Coppola's original cut which he discovered in a Betamax. Digitally restored and longer than the previous version, ''Encore'' is stated to be Coppola's true version of his film.
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!!This film provides examples of:
* AffablyEvil: Owney Madden is the most powerful gangster in Harlem and ruthlessly eliminates anyone who gets in his way, but he's quite friendly towards everybody else and does his best to keep the peace among warring bootleggers.
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Both Dutch Schultz and Owney Madden are dangerous and powerful gangsters, but Madden comes across more sympathetically. Unlike the loose cannon Schultz, Madden's actions are usually rational because he's capable of controlling his emotions, so he doesn't kill people over (imagined) petty personal slights or engage in cruelty for its own sake. Furthermore, unlike Schultz, Madden has several PetTheDog moments with Dixie and other individuals.
* AxCrazy: A number of characters are this, most notably Dutch Schultz and Vincent Dwyer.
* BerserkButton: Dutch Schultz appears to have made a grudging peace with a rival gangster, but the rival won't stop needling him, casually remarking while grazing the buffet, "Aw, what's a Jew but a nigger turned inside out, anyway?" Schultz goes berserk and stabs him to death. Then again, it was never difficult to rile Schultz, in film or real life.
* CopyProtection: It was the first movie to have a home video release to be Copy-Protected.
* DisconnectedByDeath: After Vincent becomes a gangster in Schultz's mob, he captures rival gangster Owney Madden's right-hand man, Frenchy and extracts a $35,000 ransom for the hostage's release. In retaliation, Madden pretends to arrange a peace deal that Vince must finalize over the phone, at a certain phone booth[[spoiler: - near which a man with a tommy gun is waiting.]]
* TheDragon: Sol Weinstein, who's Dutch Schultz's most loyal and psychopathic enforcer.
** Frenchy is this to Owney Madden, but is also a true friend and confidant - as much of a {{Consiglieri}} as an enforcer.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Owney Madden may be a brutal gangster, but he sincerely cherishes his friendship with Frenchy, paying $15,000 extra in ransom for him because he thought Frenchy was worth more than $35,000.
* GorgeousPeriodDress: A lot of this, of the 1920s-30s variety.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Dutch Schultz seems grateful and friendly towards Dixie at first, but it quickly becomes obvious that Schultz just wants another lackey and errand boy to push around, and his violent psychopathy is always just under the surface.
* HidingYourHeritage: Lila Rose Oliver (born to a white mother and a black father) chooses to work at other clubs where she passes as white, as opposed to the Cotton Club where her options as a perceived black woman are more limited.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Quite a lot, including (but not limited to) Dutch Schultz, Owney Madden, Lucky Luciano, Stephanie St. Clair, Music/CabCalloway, Creator/GloriaSwanson, [[Theatre/FunnyGirl Fanny Brice]], and Music/DukeEllington.
* InLoveWithTheGangstersGirl: Dixie Dwyer falls for Vera, the girlfriend of gangster Dutch Schultz.
* KosherNostra: Dutch Schultz was a notorious Jewish gangster.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** Somewhat with Vincent Dwyer, who is real-life gangster Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll in all but surname, but who is clearly renamed in accordance with being made [[AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul protagonist Dixie]] [[RelatedInTheAdaptation Dwyer's brother]] in order to give him a closer connection to the main plot.
** Played straight with Bumpy Rhodes, based on real-life gangster Bumpy Johnson.
* ReCut: In 2015, Coppola found an old Betamax video copy of his original cut that ran 25 minutes longer. When originally editing the picture, he acquiesced to distributors who wanted a shorter film with different structure. Between 2015 and 2017 Coppola spent over $500,000 of his own money to restore the film to the original cut. This version, titled ''The Cotton Club Encore'' and running 139 minutes, debuted at the Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2017.
%%* TheRoaringTwenties
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