Sadly Over-hyped

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Good movie but grossly overrated

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

I caught this on late-night television some time in the late seventies or early eighties, just before AIDS made the headlines. Later, I - in my teens - rather naively wondered why it never reappeared. Of course, the AIDS crisis made this film - with its references to anonymous gay sex as plot devices - "too much", and it was quickly forgotten. This kind of shrugging off of unpleasant memories happens all too often, and is unfortunate. One needs to acknowledge a few key facts with respect to The Ritz:First, that the setting was, to some degree incidental. As with any great farce, the story could have been transplanted with relative easy, only losing some bite and a few twists.Second, that the setting, which was very timely for the mid-seventies, was the very thing that provided the twists that made the movie so hilarious and unique. At the time of the Ritz's theatrical release gay bathhouses were the subject of much discussion, and drew a certain level of public disapproval and debate.Third, that good snapshots of a particular time do not necessarily seem all that appealing in retrospect - usually because they capture the warts-ridden realities. In the seventies this seemed understood, and a number of movies exploited this fact, having at their hearts a meanness about the times being portrayed. With the eighties there seemed to be a desperate need for unconditional nostalgia, and since then a number of great movies have lost their once-acknowledged significance (why do so few people, other than movie critics, fondly remember America Graffiti while the saccharine Grease is so celebrated?).Too bad, particularly for a movie like The Ritz; it may have been the last great farce, with its superb cast - Moreno and Williams both pull out all the stops - fantastic timing, and outrageous gags. And it could only have managed to be a great farce in the very jaded seventies by dealing with such timely subject matter.Hopefully the film will be rediscovered via a film festival, or a more serious Remember When television or radio show. However, I fear that popular culture has grown far too shallow, and, despite all the avenues for cultural archeology, films such as The Ritz have been buried way too deep by the sands of time.

I saw this film on it's release in the UK and thought it one of the funniest films I have ever seen. I don't understand why THE RITZ has not been released on DVD etc. Everyone in the whole movie was brilliantly funny especially Treat Williams , Rita Moreno and F Murray Abrahams.( It also seems to feature quite a few English actors and I wonder if it was actually made in the UK )? I finally found a DVD for offer on E BAY , goodness knows where it came from , it seems to be from a VHS tape for USA release. The movie has not lost any of its' hilarious charms and although the situations now seem dated it's still worthy for listing as one of the funniest films ever.

I can not understand why this classic comedy made back in 1976 has not been released on DVD, unless homophobic interests are holding it back. An all-star cast including Ritz Moreno, Jerry Stiller (dad of actor Ben), F. Murray Abraham and a young Treat Williams, bring Terrence McNally's play to the screen with laughs for all - gay or straight. Ms. Moreno won a Tony award for her stage performance as "Googie Gomez", an aspiring Broadway star entertaining in a Gay bathhouse. "Googie" is so bad...she's fantastic! Others in the cast are Jack Wesson, Kaye Ballard and pre-Cheers star - John Ratzenberger. IT'S OUT! Finally, Warner Brothers released it on DVD today (1/8/08) and while waiting this long is too long, I guess I would say it was worth the wait. Great widescreen transfer. I wish there had been more extras like cast commentary. Only extras are theatrical trailer and both English and French subtitles. Wonder why not Spanish?

It was 1976, Tehran Iran. Terry, also American, and I were bored at work and on the spur of the moment decided to skip out and check out the Tehran Film Festival. Boy, did we have no idea what we were getting in for.It just so happened that the next film on the bill was The Ritz. We knew nothing about it, but we hailed our driver, raced downtown to the theater, and made it in just in time.Before long, we were rolling on the floor. Truly, we couldn't hold on to our seats, I can't speak for Terry but the tears were just pouring down my face from laughter. And what made this worse was that, in a mostly packed theater, it seemed that most of the time the two of us near the back were the only ones laughing. Oh, every once and while the Farsi sub-titles would catch-up and the rest of the theater would let out a good laugh, I guess they were having a good time, but it was amazing to us how much was being missed, even some of the visual humor.I suppose we were both just overdo for some comic relief, but I've watched this film again through the years and it remains one of the funniest films I have ever seen. Jack Weston as the everyman-victim is perfect, as is Rita Morena as a never-quite-been, trying with varying degrees of success, to retain her dignity, her temper, and her dreams. And the rest of the cast -- who can you fault? Yes, from the dark opening deathbed scene, to all the madcap mistakes that follow, this is farce that at times sinks almost as low as the Three Stooges, but keeps sailing from floor to floor with surprise laughs at every turn.Some folks can't seem to get past the subject matter, I guess. But if you can find this movie, and you can open your mind beyond the lifestyle to just enjoy all the zaniness that happens, then hang on to your towel!