Dolemite Is My Name

Unable to get his 1950’s-style tunes radio airplay in the 70’s, Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) sets about creating a comedy routine out of black culture in the iconic figure, Dolemite.  The 1975 motion picture spawned several sequels and the character remains a cult favorite alongside Richard Roundtree’s Shaft and Melvin van Peebles’ Sweetback.

Born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Moore borrowed money from his aunt to make comedy records inspired by Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor.  Like his mentors (and Murphy’s for that matter), Moore’s routine assembled slice-of-life stories from the street—pimps, prostitutes, and hustlers.  After seeing THE FRONT PAGE starring Lemmon and Matthau at a corner theater full of white people, Moore, who’s been selling records out of his trunk, realizes that movies will get his act everywhere at once.  He borrows $30,000 from the Bihari brothers, owners of Kent Records, wrangles together a crew, and begins production in the Dunbar Hotel.

Having signed away future royalties on his comedy albums, Rudy debates the risk with his record shop employee-turned-production accountant, Tony (Tituss Burgess), who warns, “We all had shitty childhoods.  That don’t mean you can just will yourself into being a movie star.”

Moore wisely recruits a local star D’Urville Martin (Wesley Snipes) to play the film’s villain, Willie Green.  Unlike most of Rudy’s friends, D’Urville brings on set experience—there’s an amusing clapback when Rudy’s friends point out that it was a bit part in ROSEMARY’S BABY.  But they need him, so Rudy throws in the directing gig to sweeten the deal.  Failing to secure a distributor, they rent out a theater on their own and show the picture on their own.  After a successful premiere, one of the distributors who previously rejected them, Dimension Pictures, turns around and negotiates with Moore to get the movie in urban showcase theaters across the country.

Directed by Craig Brewer, and written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, DOLEMITE IS MY NAME delivers a love letter to Richard Roundtree and Melvin Van Peebles.  It’s arguably Murphy’s best work since the 1999 meta-film, BOWFINGER, co-starring Steve Martin, in which the former plays dual roles as the guileless, aspiring gopher/actor, Jiff, and belligerent action star Kit Ramsey.  Murphy’s Moore recalls the vibrance of the earliest of the comedic prodigy’s inventive performances—at once badass and endearing, particularly in the friendship forged between Moore and his comedic partner, Lady Reed (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

The spirit of BOWFINGER remains very much alive in a scene where, uncertain of what they’ve gotten themselves into, the crew of UCLA film school students siphons electricity from a neighboring tenant’s power lines.  As if a punchline to Tony’s earlier skepticism, the Dunbar’s signage and chandeliers come to life—briefly stunning the aspiring actors and crew.  It recalls the spirit of the premiere in BOWFINGER, in which the actors and crew look up at the screen in awe at what they’ve willed into existence.  Likewise DOLEMITE may well breathe new fire into Eddie Murphy’s career.