The Ritz - 1976

Loved this movie. Was it ahead of its time? It got mixed reviews with Roger Ebert giving it two stars. The performances, though, were first rate. Rita Morena was wonderful in it as were several of the other actors. Does anyone remember it?

I liked Tiger and Duff, the towel boys.

I saw this recently and thought it was dreadful. I guess Rita was the funniest bit if I had to choose something but even she was exhausting in this. The voice that treat Williams put on was tiring too. Why would this film be liked by gays, it’s pretty offensive in fact.

Prime example of something that worked like magic on Broadway and totally bombed as a film.

Shouldn't the part have been played by a real drag queen?

R5

No, Rita Moreno was perfect as the no talent chanteuse seeking to make it big by singing in a gay bath house.

In real life of course Bette Midler was performing at the Continental Baths

R3- FAR more offensive than this movie was the movie Partners (1982).

It was a good film for its day, but it became very dated very quickly.

Rita Morena, OP?

Did you mean Rita Morono?

Remember watching Theatre Talk on PBS when revival of The Ritz had just opened on Broadway. Reviews were not great and hosts didn't think much of it either.

Quite simply yes, that ship had just simply long sailed.

That The Ritz still stands up as funny today has everything to do with the cast.

There is a scene where F. Murray Abraham is running down a hallway and you can see him slam into a door. I don't find this offensive, it's a farce with a Treat.

These days it's Rita Morenx

Googie Gomez: Think of a tropical night. Think of a beetch.

Gaetano Proclo What bitch?

"Ebey'tings comin' up rho-ziz, por me and por chu."

One of dees days ju is going to see de name of Googie Gomez up in lights and you gonna ask to juself, [gasps]

Was dat her?' An den ju gonna answer to juself, [gasps]

'Jes, dat was her!' Well, let me tell you something, Mister: I was ALWAYS her, jus dat nobody knows it!"

Googie’s body was off the charts amazing in this.

The Ritz has others have observed has not aged very well, but if you were a sissy looking for validation (that you even existed), the film did its job.

Googie Gomez: Come on, my Mr. Big Producer. You're going to love my show. I got you the best seat. I seat you ringside. We save the hanky-pank for later, huh?

Gaetano Proclo: Hanky-pank, what?

Googie Gomez: Googie is going to straighten you out between shows!

Wait, Googie was supposed to be a man?

Michael Brick: Right now, I think he's casting "Oklahoma" for a dinner theater.

Googie Gomez: "Oklahoma", it's a stretch, but I can do that part.

Oh come on, it was no Gone With the Wind but a fun movie for the time, 1976. Maybe you hateful gurleens should stick with BOOM! or Kansas City Trucking.

Gaetano Proclo : Not so fast. What about slippers?

Duff : Slippers?

Gaetano Proclo : Slippers!

Duff : Well, where do you think you are, New York Athletic Club? Slippers?

Gaetano Proclo : Well, you could catch athlete's foot in a place like this.

Tiger : You're lucky if that's all you catch.

One of those transvestites is standing right next to me.

For R16 No rain! That fucking weatherman. That little maricon.

Rita Moreno is hilarious in this. Did she ever do other comedic roles? In her Netflix show she complains about how they wanted her to play Latin stereotypes in the movies and it looks like she finally gave it to them with this movie. I have to watch it again. F. Murray Abraham is funny as hell.

I can totally see why Marlon Brando was crazy about her.

Jelly roll baby. You're my jelly roll man.

I've never heard of this rare movie, OP. I love Morena. Pity we've never spoken of it here on DL.

Mmm R29. I'm picturing you typing this with pursed lips.

Rita at her best. Terence McNally wrote the play after watching her improv a Googie type character at a party. June Gable replaced Rita and was equally hilarious. Rosie Perez tanked in the revival.

I have a soft spot for Jack Weston - and of. OursecRita is hilarious in this movie.

I love it.

R9 the revival was charmless ave one performance. Badly directed, acted, costumed etc.

I love this film, its harmless fun, and a great time capsule as well. Of course its dated too, but now thats part of its charm

Rita and Jack Weston were reunited as a married couple in Alan Alda's The Four Seasons.

No one else could play Googie Gomez because Rita Moreno was or is "Googie".

Rita M. created the character and was doing it at parties and or for friends (way actors do), when someone got her to do "Googie" for Terrance McNally. He was so impressed that he wrote a part for Googie Gomez in play "The Ritz", which of course carried over into film version.

There was no question of any other actress or actor doing that 1976 film role of "Googie".

Another interview covering same topic...

Rosie Perez gave it her best in revival, but quite frankly it was just a piss poor reproduction

More from revival effort...

As many reviews of Broadway revival were less than kind...

The Advocate said....

"Unfortunately, the Roundabout Theater Company did McNally no favors in reviving The Ritz, first seen on Broadway in 1975. Set in a New York bathhouse – post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS -- where a garbageman from Cleveland (Kevin Chamberlin) hides out from the Mafia, the play is justifiably famous for its unapologetic display of gay male sexuality. (One character totes a tub of Crisco, and not for making cupcakes.) But the script is a lame attempt at French farce. To be funny, farce has to start plausibly and then seduce the audience into buying a string of improbabilities that build to delirious nonsense. The Ritz is far-fetched from the get-go so there’s no momentum, just a string of desperately unfunny sitcom gags about a fat straight guy’s fear of the half-naked gay men running around. "

Rita says her name isn't mor-RAY-no. It's mor-REN-o.

I saw the Broadway production. Martin Landau and Barbara Bain were in front of us. They were the only straights in the audience who got the gay jokes.

Revivals of The Ritz are doomed to a certain extent by fact book is very weak for a start.

However more importantly given the setting it forces gay community and others to deal with an uncomfortable fact, gay bathhouses and other places of promiscuous sex in 1970's were spreading HIV virus that by 1980's had become the "AIDS Crisis".

Indeed barely ten years after 1976 film New York City joined a large and growing number of places that shut down bathhouses, back rooms, etc....

Goggie Gomez spoke the truth when she said "I know what's going on in here, with all of you men going "Hee hee hee, boo boo boo, hah hah hah."

R20

Robert Ebert's review of "The Ritz" sums things up and answers your query.

Jack Weston's character goes to a bath house, but all he knows (and believes at first) is that the Ritz is a "male only" place. He doesn't catch on for some time into film just what sort of men visit the Ritz.

Having already met Googie on his way in, later Gaetano Proclo finally puts two and two together and thus believes Ms. Gomez has to be a drag queen, trans or whatever. It never dawns upon him that a straight female would be in a gay bathhouse.

Whole thing is supposed to be some sort of screwball comedy that gives rise to scene when Gaetano finally realizes "Mr. Googie" is actually a female..

Gaetano Proclo : This is not gonna work, Mr. Googie!

Googie Gomez : Mr. Googie?

Gaetano Proclo : There's just no way.

Googie Gomez : Mr. Googie? You thought I was a drag queen? No such luck, Chico.

Gaetano Proclo : You mean to tell me that you're really a Miss?

Googie Gomez : This is all real.

[puts Gaetano's hands on her breasts]

Gaetano Proclo : Yeah, they feel real.

Googie Gomez : I just hope I'm going to find me some huevitos.

Gaetano Proclo : What are huevitos?

Googie Gomez : These.

[Grabs Gaetano's crotch]

Gaetano Proclo : Oh!

Googie Gomez : Aye! Oh, Chico!

Gaetano Proclo : Oh! They're real too! They're real! They're real! They're real!

Googie Gomez : I know we're going to make such whoopee together, Chico.

The revival featured DL fave Seth Rudetsky!

Paul B, Price passed on back in 2012.

Crisco oil party, room 419. Pass it on...

Bring Joey, don't bring Chuck. You got that?

Always wondered what was wrong with Chuck....

Chris has the best lines:

Chris: Margaret Dumont! I thought you were dead!

Muscle Bound Patron: There's a reason people like me don't ride the subway. I'm looking right at him.

Chris: Is that supposed to mean me? Screw you, honey. You can die with your secret, piss-elegant fairy! If there's anything I can't stand, it's a queen without a sense of humor.

Weston: Who were you going to play in The Sound of Music?

Moreno: Oh, one of those fucking Trapp kids.

I'm sorry, I love this movie. Is it perfect? Far from it. But it's hilarious and lots of fun.

Oh, the fun had by my circle of high-school drama-geeks in the '70s, visiting and re-visiting revival-house screenings of "The Ritz," drunk as hell and yelling "Chubby Chasers"! . . .

R26

Don't know about another full movie, but yes, Rita Moreno did other comedy.

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