THE RITZ

UK, 1976, 91 minutes, Colour.
Jack Weston, Rita Moreno, F. Murray Abraham, Treat Williams, Jerry Stiller, Kay Ballard, George
Colouris. Directed by Richard Lester.

Director Richard Lester is noted for his fast pace and zany inventiveness. His material this time is basic farce material of mistaken identities and situation mix-ups. It has been done so often before but Lester still gets a reasonable number of laughs out of it. However, the location is not usual, the
hero threatened by gangsters and death, hides unwittingly in a New York 'gay' baths. Humour is as expected, although Jack Weston as Proclo is a highly entertaining victim of the inmates as well as his would-be assassins. However, the main comic bonus, and a really excellent one, is Rita Moreno's hilarious malapropistic performance as an off-key would-be singer.

1. How enjoyable was this film, the serious overtones, the light subject and treatment?

2. Was it evident that the film was based on a play? The nature of the dialogue and repartee, the confinement of the sets, the confined action,, the farcical situations, the short period of time? Was the play well adapted to the screen?

3. Audience enjoyment of this kind of farce? Contrived and mistaken identities, rooms, stock situations? The nature of the humour and its appeal, the necessity of pace and timing? Success in this regard?

4. The humour and wit of the dialogue? The deadpan nature of the dialogue? The humour out of identities?

5. The Mafia background and the satire, the old nun's death, the Mafia kind of vengeance, the desperate nature of the pursuit, the threat to Proclo? The skittish nature of the death and the setting of scene?

6. The atmosphere of the gay baths? The name of The Ritz, the seediness of the place and its look, Abe and his deafness at the entry, the irony of the camp decor of the place, the variety of the rooms and the parody, the parody of the types of inmates the play on 'gay' situations and characters the ambiguity of the jokes? Well done, in good taste?

7. How well did the film use the gay situation merely for jokes any insight humanity?

8. The satire on detectives via Brick? His appearance, his voice, his presence in the gay baths,, his stupidity, his mistaken identities and saving the person he was sent to kill? The happy romantic ending for him? What conventions of the American detective were parodied?

9. Comment on the inmates of the gay baths. The types presented, Chris, Claude and the background with Proclo and his obsession with fat men? The humour of this and its giving rise to so many situations? The conventional characters in the baths?

10. How well drawn was the character of Proclo? Seeing things through his eyes? His predicament, his trying to stay alive, being pursued by Claude, Brick, the arrival of Vivian, the humour about Google and her theatrical career?

11. The satire on Vivian and Vespucci? Vivian's disguise as a nun and being pursued by Claude etc.? Vespucci having to escape like a woman? The satire in the reversal of male-female roles? The irony that The Ritz was owned by Vespucci?

12. How important was the character of Googie, her humour? The fact that she was mistaken for a transvestite? The badness and humour of her songs? The malapropisms in her dialogue? A more developed character and her role with Proclo, with Brick? Her ambition?

13. How well did the film handle the ambiguities of homosexuality and heterosexuality. in the light vein?

14. The importance for impact of the various set pieces: the farcical situations, the ambiguous violence, the songs, the parody of the Andrew Sisters, the parody in the ending?

15. The final barb in the satire about the ownership?

16. Did the film make sufficient of its basic material?