Harlem Nights | Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling

Eddie Murphy wrote, produced, directed, and starred in Harlem Nights, a comedic drama about running a prohibition-era nightclub while surrounded by gangsters and corrupt cops. Hancock provides a jazzy score that mixes big band, electronics, and orchestral music, including new arrangements of some Duke Ellington standards. The film provides Murphy a chance to direct and act alongside some of his comedy idols, including Richard Pryor and Redd Foxx. The supporting cast runneth over with the talents of Danny Aiello, Jasmine Guy, Arsenio Hall, Robin Harris, Michael Lerner, Charlie Murphy, Della Reese, and Lela Rochon. (116 mins., 35mm)

The only film Richard Pryor directed, the tragicomic Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling is an underseen and lightly fictionalized warts-and-all spin on the autobiographical film. It traces a comedian’s rise from a childhood in an Ohio brothel through a successful career in show business to a hellish addiction. The result is far from the usual biopic as Pryor (who cowrote the film with Paul Mooney) draws on a deep well of personal pain to make laughter through the darkest moments life has to offer. Hancock’s score is augmented powerfully with songs by the likes of Mahalia Jackson and Muddy Waters, along with performances by the jazz greats Billy Eckstine and Carmen McRae. When the late filmmaker Jonathan Demme invited Toni Morrison to introduce any film she wanted at his film series at the Jacob Burns Film Center, she selected Jo Jo Dancer. The screening ultimately never happened but it’s fascinating to imagine what Morrison would have to say about this singular movie. With Diahnne Abbott and Debbie Allen. (97 mins., 35mm)

• See the complete Soundtrack by Herbie Hancock lineup.