The Ritz

A comedy set in New York. Gaetano Proclo is in the rubbish business. His father-in-law is on his deathbed and his last word is an order: this man is to be killed. His brother-in-law Carmine takes the job on. Proclo runs. He gets into a taxi and asks for somewhere to hide; somewhere nobody would look for him. The building he is dropped at is a bathhouse. Men only, and entirely gay. He does not work out where he is for some time. From there the film takes place in one building. Corridors, cubicles, a steam room and a stage. Googie Gomez is on the stage. A singer who considers herself a great star; she sings in English with a Spanish accent and waits for a Broadway producer to discover her. She takes Proclo for that producer. From here the narrative is a chain of mistaken identities. Everyone takes everyone else for someone else and nobody stops to explain. Carmine gets into the building. He understands the place not at all, and that incomprehension is the film's funniest thing. What the narrative is interested in is not sexuality but panic: all its humour comes from the man from outside knowing none of the rules while everyone assumes he does. The structure is boulevard comedy. Doors, hiding, disguises and walking into the wrong room. The source is Terrence McNally's Broadway play. Rita Moreno had played the same part on stage and won a Tony for it in 1975; she plays it here too. Richard Lester directed and keeps the tempo on stage logic: little cutting, long takes, and actors constantly in motion. Jack Weston, Rita Moreno, Jerry Stiller, Kaye Ballard and F. Murray Abraham are in the cast. Who it is for: anyone who likes 1970s boulevard comedy and single-location farce. Who it is not for: anyone measuring by present standards; some of its jokes belong to their period and run on types.