Black Deth 101 — Come Back Charleston Blue Episode Notes

This week on Black Deth 101, Nubius Black and Johnny Deth head back to Harlem with Come Back Charleston Blue, the 1972 sequel to Cotton Comes to Harlem.

Godfrey Cambridge returns as Gravedigger Jones, Raymond St. Jacques is back as Coffin Ed Johnson, and this time the boys are chasing a mystery wrapped in Harlem legend, gangland trouble, ghost-story flavor, and one nasty blue straight razor.

The story starts with bodies dropping, rumors flying, and folks whispering that Charleston Blue — a dead old-time gangster/vigilante — has come back from the grave to clean up Harlem his own bloody way. But in true Chester Himes fashion, nothing is ever that simple. There are hustlers, cops, crooks, community politics, white mob influence, Black resistance, comedy, chaos, and enough sharp dialogue to cut deeper than the razor.

We talk about how this film compares to Cotton Comes to Harlem, whether Coffin Ed and Gravedigger should have gotten more movies, and why this one feels like a strange cocktail of blaxploitation, detective comedy, ghost story, Harlem crime picture, and old-school pulp madness.

We also get into the mighty Donny Hathaway soundtrack, supervised by Quincy Jones, including the haunting power of “Little Ghetto Boy” and the cool, mournful groove that gives the movie more soul than the script sometimes knows what to do with.

Plus:
Who really is Charleston Blue?
Is this a ghost story or a hustle?
Does the movie waste a killer premise?
And why does Harlem look so alive even when the plot gets tangled?

Grab your razors, your wide collars, and your detective badge — because Coffin Ed and Gravedigger are back on the case.

Black Deth 101: where the films are funky, the streets are mean, and the cool cats never stay buried.