edwagreen
Asinine film where an Amish girl comes to New York to do biblical dancing and winds up at Minsky's Burlesque instead. She is put to the test so that her bible dancing will not lead to a raid; yet, her father shows up and has it out with her causing her to literally bare all.This is a very inane production with a ridiculous plot. Unfortunately, Bert Lahr's part had to be cut as he died suddenly during the production of the film.Jason Robards tries real hard as a king-pin of burlesque, but he is no leading man and his routines are quite stale at best.Britt Ekland is that Amish girl, Elliot Gould runs the club, but is at odds with his orthodox Jewish father, Joseph Wiseman.What's really the point of this total farce?
Lechuguilla
Noisy, chaotic, and irreverent, it's one comedy skit after another in this story, based on historical facts, of the night in 1925 when the New York City cops raided Minsky's Burlesque House. The story centers on a naive, religious girl named Rachel (Britt Ekland) who wonders into the joint, and whose dancing seems to fill an immediate need of the joint's operator, Raymond Paine (Jason Robards).What I had hoped to find was a period film with some great 1920s songs. But "The Night They Raided Minsky's" seemed more like an expanded version of the 1960s television show, "Laugh-In" than a cinematic trip back to the roaring twenties. The songs in this film were not especially memorable. Dance numbers seemed flat and uninspired. The slapstick routines and jokes were totally not funny. And instead of historically real, characters seemed more like phantoms from the mind of a script writer. Only the outlandish costumes seemed authentic.The film's cinematography was mostly in color. But there were periods of B&W. And near the beginning, visual effects create the impression that viewers are looking at images through some sort of strange wire mesh.The best scenes in the film were those that included the wonderful Bert Lahr. Unfortunately, he died during filming, so his presence in the film is minimal.Otherwise, the casting and acting were not impressive. Jason Robards was not cut out to be a comedian. His performance here seems forced. But much worse was the casting of Britt Ekland, who helps the film not at all. Her European accent is inconsistent with a small town girl from Pennsylvania. And she is totally not convincing as someone who is naive or religious. Indeed, I found her presence to be both implausible and very, very distracting.For me, this film was a disappointment. But I am glad that it is available on DVD. There are no doubt many viewers who would enjoy the film's bawdiness and the various entertainers, despite the film's weaknesses.
Terrell-4
The lights dim. The curtain goes up. The girls are on stage. The spot hits the tux-wearing tenor, silver haired and a little plump."I have a secret recipe / Concocted with much skill / And once you've tried my special dish / You'll never get your fill... "Take ten terrific girls, but only nine costumes, and you're cooking up something grand..." The Night They Raided Minsky's is a valentine to the long-gone burlesque houses of the Twenties. Naughty, bawdy and surprisingly innocent, filled with chorus girls who might generously be called a little past their prime, with plenty of belly work, with comedians and their second bananas, with pratfalls, seltzer bottles and song and dance acts. This Norman Lear/William Friedkin/Ralph Rosenblum movie has it all. It even has a story. Most of all, it has some great songs by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, wonderful performances by Jason Robards and Norman Wisdom, and a collection of pungent characters played by the likes of Elliot Gould, Forrest Tucker, Bert Lahr, Harry Andrews, Joseph Wiseman, Jack Burns, Denholm Elliot and Dexter Maitland. And we're there when history is made, as Britt Ekland playing an innocent Amish girl from Smoketown, Pennsylvania, who longs to perform her Bible dances on stage, inadvertently invents the strip tease. Billy Minsky runs Minsky's Burlesque. Vance Fowler, secretary of New York's Society for the Suppression of Vice, is determined to close it down. Then Rachel Elizabeth Schpitendavel shows up. She's young. She's innocent. She's built. She catches the eye of headliner Raymond Paine (Jason Robards), a song, dance and straight man who works with his second banana, the small, mild and fall-down physical Chick Williams (Norman Wisdom). Paine wants Rachel to fall into his bed. Chick just falls for Rachel. Minsky's, however, is on the verge of closing. Then Raymond has an idea. They'll advertise a midnight show featuring Mademoiselle Fifi, "the hottest little cooch artist in the world." When Fowler shows up with the cops, Fifi will be Rachel doing her Bible dances. Fowler will be a laughing stock and Minsky's will be saved. Now forget all that. What's important is the sweet nature of this burlesque gift. Most of the movie takes place backstage, on stage and in a near-by deli. It's a great, true deli, where we have bowls of half sours on the table and plenty of chunks of rye bread. (In that deli we'll watch Raymond nearly sweet talk a good looking woman at the next table into his bed, and then sweet talk her husband, who suddenly appears, into agreeing Raymond just gave them both a great compliment. Robards is as smooth as warm chicken fat.) Backstage is packed with sets, lights and half dressed chorus girls, but it's on stage where the goods are delivered...chorus girls who can barely dance but can jiggle with vigor and bump with oomph. Jason Robards and Norman Wisdom do wonderful work together. Robards is the wise-guy straight man to Wisdom's eternally innocent optimist. Their song and dance numbers really work. We'd expect this of Wisdom, who got started in English music halls and became one of Britain's great clowns. Robards, who was one of America's great stage actors, is almost as skilled. Their "Perfect Gentleman" number by rights should be a remembered classic. I don't know how Friedkin managed it, but the people in the audience look authentic, right down to their delighted reactions. The Night They Raided Minsky's also has a clever script. Says Raymond to Chick when the little guy wants some reassurance after meeting Rachel. "You met a girl!" says Raymond with a big smile. "Ah, Chick, my boy, when it comes to girls you have three qualities that are far worse than being short and funny looking. You have the curse of the three D's. You are decent, devoted and dependable...good qualities in a dog, disastrous in a man!" Charles Strouse scored the movie and, with Lee Adams, provided great songs. "The Night They Raided Minsky's," "Take Ten Terrific Girls" and "Perfect Gentleman" establish more than anything else the good-natured, fast, harmlessly bawdy style of the movie. The Night They Raided Minsky's had a troubled parentage, with director William Friedkin disliking it and film editor Ralph Rosenblum claiming credit for everything good about it. There's more jump cutting than we need and perhaps a few too many historical clips. Still, we have potent nostalgia for things past that no one now is alive to remember. The movie carries Norman Lear's imprint at his best, and if Rosenblum and Friedkin want to arm wrestle over the movie, that's all right with me. Who cares who cut the paper lace for the valentine? I'm just happy we've got it. I'm ready for Dexter Maitland as the tenor to see us home... "I have a secret recipe / Concocted with much skill / And once you've tried my special dish / You'll never get your fill... "Take ten terrific girls, but only nine costumes, and you're cooking up something grand. "Then add some funny men / And pepper with laughter./ It's hot and tasty I know. "Then serve it piping hot and what have you got... A burlesque show!"
