A delightful rendering of a Chester Himes novel with a 50s setting, adapted by costar John Toles-Bey and Bobby Crawford, directed by the adroit and resourceful TV director (The Killing Floor) and actor (Predator) Bill Duke, and featuring the gifts of coproducer Forest Whitakerwho plays a sort of bemused Jerry Lewis to Robin Givens’s sizzling Marilyn Monroein a funny, sexy, and violent crime comedy teeming with colorful Harlem types. Danny Glover is especially good as a kingpin named Easy Money, and Gregory Hines, Zakes Mokae, and Badja Djola are also lively in important roles. The characters may be more memorable than the plot, which involves the fate of some gold stolen in Mississippi, but they’re more than enough to carry this happy ride. Elmer Bernstein composed the score (1991). (JR)