The Ritz (1976)

Director:

Richard Lester

Writers:

Terrence McNally (play)
Terrence McNally (writer)

Release Date:

26 December 1976 (Denmark)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

...your key to hilarity.

Plot:

On his deathbed Carmine Vespucci's father tells him to "get Proclo". With "the hit" on, Gaetano tells...

Plot Keywords:

Bathhouse | Gay Bathhouse | Lip Synching | Rain | Amateur Night

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Golden Globes. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Jack Weston	...	Gaetano Proclo
Rita Moreno	...	Googie Gomez
Jerry Stiller	...	Carmine Vespucci
Kaye Ballard	...	Vivian Proclo
F. Murray Abraham	...	Chris
Paul B. Price	...	Claude Perkins
Treat Williams	...	Michael Brick
John Everson	...	Tiger
Christopher J. Brown	...	Duff
Dave King	...	Abe Lefkowitz
Bessie Love	...	Maurine
Tony De Santis	...	Balloon Man
Ben Aris	...	Patron With Bicycle
Peter Butterworth	...	Patron In Chaps
Ronnie Brody	...	Small Patron

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Sweden:11 | Finland:K-16 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Twickenham Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK

Company:

Courtyard Films

Trivia:

F. Murray Abraham, Rita Moreno, Jerry Stiller, Jack Weston and Paul B. Price play the roles they created in the original Broadway production.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Carmine first calls Claude from backstage, Claude's wig is pulled forward. When he says, "Fashionable," the wig is far back on his head in the close-up. When it returns to the long shot, the wig is forward again.

Quotes:

Googie Gomez: [In a thick accent] One of dees days ju is going to see de name of Googie Gomez up in lights and you gonna ask to juself,
[gasps]
Googie Gomez: 'Gwas dat her?' An den ju gonna answer to juself,
[gasps]
Googie Gomez: 'Jes, dat gwas her!' Well, let me tell you something, Mister: I gwas ALWAYS her, jus dat nobody knows it!"

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Unknown Peter Sellers (2000) (TV)

Soundtrack:

The Three Caballeros

Zany.

THE RITZ is a zany and broadly played little farce directed by Richard Lester. It is an adaptation of a Broadway play by Terrence McNally, later acclaimed for MASTER CLASS and the hit musical THE FULL MONTY. It is set in a New York club-bath for gays. Dying gang leader George Coulouris tells his son Jerry Stiller and daughter Kaye Ballard that he wants Ballard's husband, Jack Weston, a Cleveland sanitation company owner, to be killed. That's the only plot there is. Weston tells a cabbie to take him to a place where no one will suspect he is hiding. Enter "The Ritz," a seedily elegant gay paradise with its clients that include self-mocking F.Murray Abraham, and chubby-chaser Paul B. Price. The cast is uniformly amusing, especially Rita Moreno as Google Gomez, an untalented Latin singer whom Weston mistakes for a drag queen. She frequently steals the show from everyone. Moreno got a Tony Award for her Broadway portrayal of that role. Also good is the improbably squeaky-voiced detective played by Treat Williams. Some of the resulting mayhem is very funny indeed; some stretches are more ho-hum. Nevertheless, it is a generally successful piece of entertainment regardless of one's sexual orientation.