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HOODLUM

Starring Laurence Fishburne, Tim Roth, Andy Garcia, Vanessa Williams, Cicely Tyson, Clarence Williams III

Director Bill Duke

Opens Aug. 29

Laurence Fishburne may be heading for outer space in Event Horizon but he can't seem to outrun the pistol-packin' shadow of Depression-era gangster Ellsworth ''Bumpy'' Johnson. Fishburne first played a character based on the legendary numbers runner in Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club. But now Bumpy's been elevated from a bit Coppola character to the charismatic, pencil-mustachioed centerpiece of Bill Duke's $30 million period gangster flick, taking on legendary New York proto-mobsters Lucky Luciano (Andy Garcia) and Dutch Schultz (Tim Roth) in a rackets-and-dames turf war. ''If you go back in the annals of American crime, Bumpy's right up there with Lucky, Dutch, and all those guys,'' says Fishburne. Adds Duke, who also cast the Oscar-nominated actor in his 1992 drug-land saga Deep Cover: ''Bumpy really took on these guys and won. They called him the Robin Hood of Harlem.'' UPSIDE Flashy duds, flashy cars, flashy actors. DOWNSIDE The fizzling rerelease of The Godfather has put gangsters on the not-hot list.


Posted May 16, 1997 | Published in issue #379 May 16, 1997 | Order Article Reprints