The Ritz (1976) Queer Film C+

DIRECTOR: RICHARD LESTER

Gaetano Proclo (Jack Weston), a mild-mannered man from Cleveland, is targeted by his mobster brother-in-law, Carmine Vespucci (Jerry Stiller). Fleeing for his life, Gaetano tells a cab driver to take him somewhere Carmine would never look. He ends up at The Ritz, a gay bathhouse in New York City. Unaware of its clientele, Gaetano stumbles into a flamboyant underworld of drag shows, steam rooms, and eccentric patrons.

Comic Encounters:

• Googie Gomez (Rita Moreno), a talentless but ambitious entertainer, mistakes Gaetano for a Broadway producer and relentlessly pursues him.
• Claude (Paul Price), a confessed “chubby chaser,” becomes infatuated with Gaetano.
• Various bathhouse regulars and staff add to the chaos, including a detective (Treat Williams), Gaetano’s suspicious wife (Kay Ballard) and a young F. Murray Abraham as a bathhouse regular.

Carmine and his henchmen eventually track Gaetano to the Ritz, but family secrets and absurd misunderstandings unravel in a comedic finale.

Part mob comedy and part drag review, this exhausting adaptation of Terence McNally’s hit play wears out its welcome in the first thirty minutes, but the laughs keep coming!

A real curiosity! Directed by Richard Lester, who had seen better days with the Beatles in “A Hard Day’s Night” and “The Three Musketeers.”. He keeps things moving at a frantic pace! Moreno, Weston, Stiller, Abraham, Ballard, Williams and Price, all of whom have their moments.

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