One of the funniest, most entertaining movies-you-never-heard-of. Jason Robards shines as the well-meaning but manipulative comedian and Britt Ekland is the lovably innocent Amish girl in this affectionately, poignant but lighthearted view of Burlesque and a time gone by.
Before The French Connection made him a household name, William Friedkin drafted this love letter to the burlesque era. In 1925, Amish redhead Rachel (Swedish bombshell Britt Ekland) travels from Pennsylvania to New York to dance. On the advice of Professor Spats (The Wizard of Oz's Bert Lahr, who died during filming), she catches the variety show at Minsky's, which is run by the proprietor's son, Billy (Elliot Gould). Comic duo Raymond (Jason Robards) and Chick (Oscar nominee Norman Wisdom) enlist Rachel to perform her Bible routine, billed as the scandalous Madamoiselle Fifi, to make a fool out of moral guardian Vance Fowler (Denholm Elliot), who threatens to sic the vice squad on the theater if they don't tone things down. While helping her prepare, both men fall for "this real religious girl," but Chick, as Raymond puts it, "suffers from "the curse of the three Ds." He's "decent, devoted and dependable," while his partner is "a BFC," i.e. "Bastard First Class." Rachel gets the last word when she accidentally invents the striptease. Adapted from the novel by Rowland Barber (Somebody up There Likes Me) and produced by Norman Lear (All in the Family), Minsky's zips between comedy and drama through the rapid-fire editing of Ralph Rosenblum (The Producers), who inter-cut the newsreel footage in post-production. If the film feels like a battle between opposing sensibilities, i.e. art vs. commerce, warm-hearted entertainment wins out in the end. The only real crime is that this long-awaited title arrives without any extras. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Fine Early Effort From Friedkin:
"The Night They Raided Minsky's" is what I would call a qualified success. It offers some insight into burlesque circa 1925 New York. The dialogue, delivered in rat-a-tat fashion, is hit or miss but gets the bullseye most of the time. What distinguishes the film is the direction of William Friedkin who fluorished in the Seventies only to peter out somewhere around "Cruising". Here, Friedkin is surehanded delivering a film of both style and substance. This is a crisply edited film that delivers eyedropping... more info
There was this real religious girl. . .:
At last THE NIGHT THEY RAIDED MINSKY'S has come to DVD! An early effort from William Friedkin (who, despite his protestations, shows a fine comedy hand), this Norman (ALL IN THE FAMILY, THE JEFFERSONS) Lear production is a loving tribute to the bygone era of Vaudeville. Morton Minsky himself was the technical adviser to the film, so even though it's a pastiche of events and concocted drama and comedy, the flavor of the period and of Minsky's is excellent. Right down to the deli where businessmen and... more info
A Cracked Seltzer Bottle:
This movie is a great big flawed bundle of fun, fun enough to make it worthwhile in spite of itself. As theater history, it's oversimplified and just short of coy. Nudity didn't come to the popular stage by way of Minsky's, and there were far worse shows for raunchiness (Earl Carroll's, anyone?). As for the movie itself, I suspect its inner unity suffered a permanent blow with the unexpected death of Bert Lahr during production. "Professor Spats" was obviously supposed to have a bigger role in the... more info
Robards and Wisdom, jiggles and bumps, great songs...and how the strip tease was born:
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... more info
