Cinema Sunday: The Ritz

Since June is Pride Month, today's Cinema Sunday posts looks at a movie from 1976, a comedic farce that takes place in a gay men's bathhouse.  

Directed by Richard Lester, The Ritz is based on the 1975 play of the same name by Terrence McNally. 

Rita Moreno won a Tony Award for her performance as Googie Gomez in the Broadway production and reprises her role for the film version.  Others from the 1975 original cast, such as Jack Weston, Jerry Stiller, and F. Murray Abraham are also on hand for the movie as well.  

Somewhere in Manhattan....

Businessman Gaetano Proclo is looking to hide from his homicidal brother-in-law, mobster Carmine Vespucci. Looking for a super cheap out of the way hotel to hide in, the very straight Gaetano winds up at a gay bathhouse.   

He doesn't know he's in a gay bathhouse but the clues do start to add up as various oddball characters express their interest in this newcomer to there little corner of paradise. 

The oddest of them all perhaps is Googie Gomez, an entertainer of questionable talents who thinks she is ready for the bright lights of Broadway glory.

Googie thinks Gaetano is a big time Broadway producer.

Gaetano thinks Googie is a man in drag.  

Anyway, Carmine tracks Gaetano to the bathhouse, still intent on murdering him. With a little help (sometimes inadvertent and other times on purpose) from his new found gay friends, Gaetano's life is saved and the plot behind why Carmine was out to kill him is exposed.  

You know how in every stage musical, there's that one supporting character who is over the top and threatens to steal the show? Googie Gomez is that character and Rita Moreno carries out the theft of the show. Whatever Moreno gave for the stage show, she does not dial back her performance for her time on screen. 

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department 

• That's Jerry Stiller as Carmine Vespucci, as bold and brash and loud as George Costanza's dad on Seinfeld.  
• F. Murray Abraham as Chris would go on play Salieri in Amadeus.  
• There's a blink and you'll miss it cameo from John Ratzenberger, Cliff Clavin from Cheers and frequent Pixar voice actor.  

I think that even making allowances for it was the 1970s and people didn't know any better, The Ritz isn't an especially good movie. Yes, some of the gay men in the bathhouse play into the worst stereotypes. And some of the humor seems forced. 

But the fact that a mainstream film directed by a mainstream director with predominately gay characters even got made in 1976 marks The Ritz as a milestone for LGBTQ+ representation in cinema. 

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Andrea and I saw Spider-Man - Across the Spider-Verse last weekend and the Cinema Sunday post about that will appear next week.