The Ritz (1976)

Nice effects though.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

A man (Jack Weston} discovers his brother-in-law (Jerry Stiller)is trying to kill him. He gets into a cab and tells the cabdriver to take him where he won't be discovered. He's taken to the Ritz-a gay bathhouse.This is an adaptation of a successful Broadway play. Most of the cast from the play recreate their parts in the movie including Rita Moreno who won a Tony for the play.It's well-done with the cast going full force. The play was a slamming door farce that almost never works in movies but here it does. Also the movie is refreshingly non-homophobic. And Moreno and Treat Williams (as a detective) are hysterical. Worth watching.

For anyone who has seen the umpteen productions of "Gypsy" on Broadway, I dare you to not hear the song "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and think of Rita Moreno's hysterical performance as Googie Gomez, singing the song "fresh from her appearance in a bus and truck production of "Fiddler on the Roof".", deserving a second Oscar to go with hers from "West Side Story". Anita was a good hearted spitfire who provided spark yet understanding to the doomed love story in "West Side Story", but Moreno deliciously spoofs the Hispanic stereotypes she has faced by joyously jumping into the film version of a play she had done on Broadway. "Ju thought I vas a drag quin?", Moreno lusciously asks the straight Jack Weston, hiding in a gay bath house from his mobster brother-in-law (Jerry Stiller) and fighting off passes from a balding, hairy chubby chaser. There's the extremely effeminate F. Murray Abraham who also quotes "Gypsy" by squealing as he enters a sauna, "Hello everybody, My name's June! What's yours?" and desperately inviting people to an orgy in his private room, and squeaky, soprano voiced Treat Williams as the straight private investigator hired by Stiller to trap Weston. Add on the fantastically funny Kaye Ballard as Weston's wife who disguises herself as a man to enter the bathhouse, and you've got one of the most delicious farces ever to transfer from stage to screen.While there's plenty of bare male upper torsos, there's nothing offensive in this gay comedy of errors where something dirty might be going on behind closed doors, but none of it is shown on-screen. It's certainly better than the same year's horrible adaption of "Norman, Is That You?", and a far cry from the sometimes funny but ultimate tragic screen version of "The Boys in the Band", but certainly, any gay themed movie in the mid 1970's was ahead of its time, even if it did have some stereotypical characters. Yes, these types of characters do exist, and there are the archetypes of all of them, from effeminate Abraham to the various macho, butch men who have their noses in the air anytime something less than their type approaches them. Veteran early sound actress Bessie Love has a late career appearance, ironically as a receptionist in the front lobby of the bathhouse. Another highlight is when three of the men gather together for a talent show to sing "Three Caballeros" (after another contestant has just done a wretched rendition of "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries"), making this just truly a gay old time that is truly irresistible.

I've always loved the film; I even went to the premier in NYC. I fell in love with, as many of us did, with the Rita Moreno's character of Googie Gomez. She is still in 2005 as fresh as she was almost 30 years ago. HOWEVER...when I heard that Ms. Moreno was going to be appearing in my favorite little 100 seat cabaret in San Francisco, just a few days after 09/11/2001, I jumped on Delta to San Francisco just to see her. I mean-just to see her. I arrived at 5PM and flew back at midnight. This was the first day that the planes were flying after 09/11 and people were not yet comfortable and having fun yet. In fact, during her show to only about 40 of us, she commented on "those bastards" not getting us down and she put on a fantastic show. Then after the show, she came out and spoke with everyone and was well received. However (as I said) when I mentioned to her how much I loved "her" Googie Gomez, her entire body language, tone and attitude changed to me. She immediately changed the subject and when I brought up Googie again, she really seemed "pissed off."Does anyone have any thoughts about this or have they encounter Ms. Moreno, who is still tops in my book.

It was 1976, Tehran Iran. Terry, also American, and I were bored at work and on the spur of the moment decided to skip out and check out the Tehran Film Festival. Boy, did we have no idea what we were getting in for.It just so happened that the next film on the bill was The Ritz. We knew nothing about it, but we hailed our driver, raced downtown to the theater, and made it in just in time.Before long, we were rolling on the floor. Truly, we couldn't hold on to our seats, I can't speak for Terry but the tears were just pouring down my face from laughter. And what made this worse was that, in a mostly packed theater, it seemed that most of the time the two of us near the back were the only ones laughing. Oh, every once and while the Farsi sub-titles would catch-up and the rest of the theater would let out a good laugh, I guess they were having a good time, but it was amazing to us how much was being missed, even some of the visual humor.I suppose we were both just overdo for some comic relief, but I've watched this film again through the years and it remains one of the funniest films I have ever seen. Jack Weston as the everyman-victim is perfect, as is Rita Morena as a never-quite-been, trying with varying degrees of success, to retain her dignity, her temper, and her dreams. And the rest of the cast -- who can you fault? Yes, from the dark opening deathbed scene, to all the madcap mistakes that follow, this is farce that at times sinks almost as low as the Three Stooges, but keeps sailing from floor to floor with surprise laughs at every turn.Some folks can't seem to get past the subject matter, I guess. But if you can find this movie, and you can open your mind beyond the lifestyle to just enjoy all the zaniness that happens, then hang on to your towel!