Features the policemen Coffin Ed and the Grave Digger, also seen in the previously released Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) and Come Back, Charleston Blue (1972), both from the 1970's. Those films took place in the then contemporary 1970's (despite adapting novels written in 1965 and 1966, respectively). However, A Rage in Harlem takes place in the 1950's (when the novel was published).