The Ritz **** (1976, Jack Weston, Rita Moreno, Jerry Stiller, Treat Williams) – Classic Movie Review 1,950

The Ritz premiered on Broadway in 1975 with a cast including Jack Weston, Rita Moreno, Jerry Stiller and F Murray Abraham, all of whom reprise their roles in the 1976 film. Treat Williams is a treat as the undercover detective hunk with a squeaky voice.

Director Richard Lester’s wacky, crazy, fast-moving 1976 gay farce The Ritz started life in a New York City theatre as a Broadway show written by Terrence McNally, with the actors running round a gaudy split-level set representing a Seventies gay bathhouse.

To be more accurate, The Ritz started life at Yale Repertory Theatre in 1974 after playwright-in-residence at Yale University McNally wrote a play titled The Tubs, slang for the baths.

The Tubs was chosen for Broadway, but the title was changed because a play with a similar title, Tubstrip, was running. The Ritz premiered on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre on 20 January 1975 and closed after 398 performances and ten previews. Directed by Robert Drivas, the cast included Jack Weston (Gaetano), Rita Moreno (Googie Gomez), Jerry Stiller (Carmine Vespucci) and F Murray Abraham (Chris), all of whom reprised their stage roles in the film version. Moreno won the Tony Award.

Jack Weston in The Ritz.

Lester’s film version is, rather oddly, a British effort, shot at Twickenham studios. Lester gleefully and adroitly re-creates all the malevolent fun, and the lead performers pull out all the stops, as do the whole cast.

Jack Weston is hilarious as Gaetano Proclo, the tubby straight guy forced to hide from his brother-in-law at the baths, Jerry (father of Ben) Stiller is fun as the gangster Carmine Vespucci, Treat Williams is a treat as Michael Brick, the undercover detective hunk with a squeaky voice, and Rita Moreno is great in her Tony-award role as a talentless singer called Googie Gomez.

Vespucci’s dying mobster father (George Coulouris) tells him ‘get Proclo’. But Proclo tells a cabbie to take him where Vespucci can’t find him, which turns out to be a gay bathhouse called The Ritz. There he is also pursued lustily by chubby chaser Claude (Paul B Price) and by Googie, who mistakes him for a Broadway producer.

Obviously, it is a period piece, very much a thing of its time, and some might greatly disapprove of it, finding it objectionable rather than fun. Quite a few judged it lame and oppressive back then. But, if you want to get back into the snappy, inventive spirit of it, it’s funny, sometimes hilarious stuff, knocked out of the park by the cast.

Future Oscar-winner F Murray Abraham appears as bathhouse habitue Chris, John Everson and Christopher J Brown are bellhop/ go-go-boys Tiger and Duff, and Kaye Ballard plays Carmine’s wife Vivian. Bessie Love, Dave King (as doorkeeper Abe), Tony De Santiis, Peter Butterworth (getting all his laughs as customer in squeaky leather chaps!), Ben Aris, Hugh Fraser, Ronnie Brody, John Ratzenberger and Leon Greene also appear.

A Treat in a towel in The Ritz.

One of the rare winners in all four of the Emmys, Grammys, Oscars and Tonys, Rita Moreno accepted the Life Achievement honour at the 20th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on 18 January 2014. She turned 90 on 11 December 2021.

In 2021, Moreno starred in Steven Spielberg’s film of West Side Story, playing the new character of Valentina, after winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Anita in the 1961 original West Side Story.

RIP playwright Terrence McNally who died of complications from coronavirus on 24 March 2020, aged 81. His first big success was The Ritz (1976), while Frankie and Johnny (1991) and Love! Valour! Compassion! were other notable hits. Lin-Manuel Miranda called him ‘A giant in our world’.

Jerry Stiller plays Carmine Vespucci in The Ritz.

RIP the hilarious comedy legend Jerry Stiller, who died on 11 May 2020, aged 92. He is fondly remembered as Maury Ballstein in Zoolander (2001), as Carmine Vespucci in The Ritz, and Wilbur Turnblad in Hairspray (1988).

Treat Williams was involved in a motorcycle crash on Vermont Route 30, near Dorset, on 12 June 2023. He was airlifted to Albany Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, aged 71.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1,950

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/

The talented Rita Moreno plays talentless singer Googie Gomez in The Ritz.