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The Night They Raided Minsky's
1968's The Night They Raided Minsky's is a madcap and sweetly nostalgic musical comedy that looks at a forgotten era of show business, that has become a minor classic due to surprisingly detailed direction, a period appropriate story, and an incredible cast of professionals working at the top of their game.
It's New York in the roaring 20's where a young Amish girl named Rachel is observed fresh off the bus from Pennsylvania arriving in the Big Apple wanting to be a dancer. She finds herself at the stage door of the legendary burlesque house, Minsky's, which is going through its own myriad crises at the time, including a threatened raid by the police, the father and son owners of the theater trying to save the theater from closing and financial reunion, and Raymond and Chick, the baggy-pants comic headliners who find their friendship and careers threatened when they both for Rachel.
Future television legend Norman Lear was one of the screenwriters for this nearly brilliant look at the genesis of show business that ends up going through an important transition that we really don't see coming. My only quibble with the story would be that it seemed a little unbelievable that an Amish girl would be so quickly seduced into this show business madness, even if she is offered a chance to save the theater in an eye-opening finale that anyone who has seen the musical Gypsy will recognize.\
Director William Friedkin, with a solid assist from his editing team, puts loving care in bringing the roaring 20's to life, even with an overabundance of archival footage from the 20's, that really wasn't necessary. Friedkin's interpretation of concepts like vaudeville, burlesque, and farce is on the money here, perfectly combined with larger than life characters that are still human and flawed. I even loved the difference between the movie makeup and the stage makeup applied here...whenever the actors were onstage, the had enough rouge and eye liner on to choke a horse.
The film features a handful of cute songs by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse, who wrote the score for Bye Bye Birdie, that fit the setting for the story perfectly.
The incredible cast is headlined by Jason Robards, doing another slick turn as Raymond, Norman Wisdom, who brings a Charlie Chaplin quality to Chick, and the appropriately wide-eyed Britt Ekland as Rachel. A deliciously entertaining classic that has never gotten the attention it deserved.
1968's The Night They Raided Minsky's is a madcap and sweetly nostalgic musical comedy that looks at a forgotten era of show business, that has become a minor classic due to surprisingly detailed direction, a period appropriate story, and an incredible cast of professionals working at the top of their game.
It's New York in the roaring 20's where a young Amish girl named Rachel is observed fresh off the bus from Pennsylvania arriving in the Big Apple wanting to be a dancer. She finds herself at the stage door of the legendary burlesque house, Minsky's, which is going through its own myriad crises at the time, including a threatened raid by the police, the father and son owners of the theater trying to save the theater from closing and financial reunion, and Raymond and Chick, the baggy-pants comic headliners who find their friendship and careers threatened when they both for Rachel.
Future television legend Norman Lear was one of the screenwriters for this nearly brilliant look at the genesis of show business that ends up going through an important transition that we really don't see coming. My only quibble with the story would be that it seemed a little unbelievable that an Amish girl would be so quickly seduced into this show business madness, even if she is offered a chance to save the theater in an eye-opening finale that anyone who has seen the musical Gypsy will recognize.\
Director William Friedkin, with a solid assist from his editing team, puts loving care in bringing the roaring 20's to life, even with an overabundance of archival footage from the 20's, that really wasn't necessary. Friedkin's interpretation of concepts like vaudeville, burlesque, and farce is on the money here, perfectly combined with larger than life characters that are still human and flawed. I even loved the difference between the movie makeup and the stage makeup applied here...whenever the actors were onstage, the had enough rouge and eye liner on to choke a horse.
The film features a handful of cute songs by Lee Adams and Charles Strouse, who wrote the score for Bye Bye Birdie, that fit the setting for the story perfectly.
The incredible cast is headlined by Jason Robards, doing another slick turn as Raymond, Norman Wisdom, who brings a Charlie Chaplin quality to Chick, and the appropriately wide-eyed Britt Ekland as Rachel. A deliciously entertaining classic that has never gotten the attention it deserved.