Producer Stephen Woolley intended it to be a comedy film,[3] and several reviewers have described it as such,[4][5][6] but this categorization has been disputed by director Bill Duke.
Slim and his crew, Hank and Jodie, are negotiating with Lester, a fence; they are trying to sell the gold they stole in a mining robbery.
The deal goes south, and under duress Lester discloses that the only other person capable of fencing the gold is Easy Money in Harlem, New York.
The Sheriff shows up, and in the confusion Imabelle, Slim's gun moll, drives off with the gold in a trunk, and travels to New York City.
In Harlem, Jackson is a devout and naive young man, working as a bookkeeper for H. Exodus Clay at his funeral parlor.
His estranged step brother, Goldy, is a small-time hoodlum and also impersonates a priest in order sell fake "tickets to heaven."
Jackson learns that Slim has "arrested" Imabelle and taken her away, so he approaches Goldy to help find her, due to his knowledge of Harlem's criminal underworld.
Jackson, Goldy and Big Kathy acquire the hearse from Mr. Clay's funeral parlor, in order to transport the gold.
In the novel, Goldy is Jackson's overweight twin brother who begs for alms and sells bogus "tickets to heaven" while cross dressing as a nun.
In the movie, Goldy is Jackson's step-brother, a trim and dapper numbers runner and occasional bogus priest who does sell "tickets to heaven," but does not solicit donations, cross-dress, or take drugs.
Grave Digger and Coffin Ed are feared for their ability to dish out sudden death in the novel, while the movie shows them to be buffoons.
[1] Whitaker among others, was consulted as Boyle and Woolley sought an African American to direct the film, doing so because they believed "maintaining the cultural integrity of the novel demanded a black director"; they also wanted "someone who was older and secure enough to collaborate and make a picture that we could distribute widely, but who still had a passion for the material.
[11] The film was shot in the Cincinnati, Ohio, neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine, whose "un-gentrified area of the old downtown lower depths stood in quite nicely for ... 1950s Harlem.
The website's consensus reads: "If it can't quite live up to its source material, A Rage in Harlem still proves a stylishly effective period thriller.
"[4] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 3 out of 4 and wrote: "What's best in the movie is the chemistry between Whitaker and Givens, who is surprisingly effective in her first feature role.
"[13] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly was positive about the atmosphere, comedy, and raw acting talent, but critical of the plot which he called "a complete shambles".