Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
The Night They Raided Minsky's
Collapse
X
Collapse
-
The Night They Raided Minsky's
Released by: Olive Films
Released on: February 24th, 2015
Director: William Friedkin
Cast: Jason Robards, Britt Eklund, Norman Wisdom, Elliot Gould
Year: 1968
Purchase on Amazon
The Movie
The Night They Raided Minsky's is a light and breezy comedy of repressed passion and deceiving appearance; an early effort from director William Friedkin which may surprise those who know the man primarily for his work on The Exorcist, Sorcerer and The French Connection.
Indeed, the story behind The Night They Raided Minsky's instead follows one Rachel Schpitendavel-played with wide eyed sex appeal by Britt Eklund-an innocent and naive Amish girl who arrives at Minsky's Burlesque Club in New York's Lower East Side with the desire to dance. The only catch here is that Rachel's idea of dancing involves interpretive themes from the Bible, which clashes greatly with Minsky's reputation as a bawdy vaudeville and burlesque comedy club.
Schpitendavel's arrival is fortuitous, however, in that owner Billy Minsky (Elliot Gould) is having trouble saving the club's lease from his father, who frowns upon Minsky's growing reputation with the police, and fears a raid. Quickly, Rachel's Bible dancing performance is set up as a front to mislead police suspicion, just as Minsky's number one comedy duo of Raymond Paine (Jason Robards) and Chick Williams (Norman Wisdom) begin to vie for the Amish lass' affections, with her disapproving father not far behind...
The success of Friedkin's film here lies within the strength of its cast, all of whom deliver crack performances of deeply nuanced characters. Robards is particularly devilish as the charismatic and charming Raymond Paine, while Norman Wisdom's Chick is the quintessential shy violet when it comes to getting over on the good foot with Rachel. Eklund, of course, jumps off the screen with her natural and earthy sex appeal, while the supporting cast of Elliot Gould as Billy Minsky and The Wizard of Oz's own Cowardly Lion Bert Lehr do a great job at lifting the background scenery. This would sadly be Lehr's final film, as the legendary actor actually died during its production.
The vaudeville and burlesque acts take up a good chunk of the film, but they're great fun to watch and never bog things down, or take the viewer out of the story at hand. There's an old school Hollywood charm to Friedkin's picture, with only the tiniest bit of nudity pushing this any further than it has to in terms of salacious material. The film's sexual nature instead relies heavily upon subtext and insinuation, thanks to a fine screenplay which was written, in part, by Maude and All in the Family producer Norman Lear.
Lear's characters are well defined, personable and memorable, while the ensemble cast does a great job at bringing everything together here on The Night They Raided Minsky's, resulting in a solid early effort from Friedkin and Co.
Audio/Visual/Extras
Olive Films' Blu-Ray of The Night They Raided Minsky's is a 25 GB disc encoded with DTS Master Audio 1.0, and arrives with the gorgeous print quality indicative of most Olive releases, while the sound is of equally solid measure, with the musical numbers sounding particularly great. Both blacks and bright colors pop nicely-the film goes from black and white to color quite often-with plenty of great character definition throughout. Unfortunately, there are no extras, apart from the film's original theatrical trailer, as it would have been nice to have a Friedkin commentary, or some stories from the cast about working with Bert Lehr before his passing. Still, this Blu-Ray looks pretty fantastic on the whole.
The Final Word
The Night They Raided Minsky's is a fun and easy watch, perfect for a Sunday afternoon or family movie night with the in-laws or parents. Younger folks might get a kick out of the roaring twenties fashions, while at the same time getting a real sense of just where Friedkin was heading as a film maker early on during this time. This is simply a well made, well shot film with a real sense of comedic timing, personality and heart.
Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (272)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4165)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2514)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (391)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (300)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (497)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: February 22nd, 2022.
Director: Gianfranco Parolini
Cast: Lee Van Cleef, Jack Palance
Year: 1976
Purchase From Amazon
God’s Gun – Movie Review:
Directed by Gianfranco Parolini in 1976, quite late in the spaghetti western boom years, God's Gun (Diamante Lobo in Italy) introduces us to a bad, bad man named Sam Clayton (Jack Palance) who, along with his gang of equally bad, bad men, start wreaking...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 12:10 PM -
-
Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: October 8th, 2019.
Director: Mario Bava
Cast: Christopher Lee, Reg Park, Leonora Ruffo, Gaia Germani
Year: 1968
Purchase From Amazon
Hercules In The Haunted World – Movie Review:
Directed by Mario Bava in 1961 and featuring a screenplay by Bava (and Sandro Continenza, Francesco Prosperi and Duccio Tessari), Hercules In The Haunted World (also known as Hercules At The Center Of The Earth and...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 12:08 PM -
-
Released by: Cinématographe
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jack Nicholson
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Mary Steenburgen, Christopher Lloyd, John Belushi
Year: 1978
Purchase From Amazon
Goin’ South – Movie Review:
Made at the height of his career as an actor, 1978’s ‘Goin’ South’ sees Jack Nicholson once again in the director’s chair, seven years after his directorial debut, ‘Drive, He Said,’ failed to set the...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:29 AM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: April 20th, 2024.
Director: Noburo Nakamura
Cast: Miyuki Kuwano, Mikijiro Hira
Year: 1964
Purchase From Amazon
The Shape Of Night – Movie Review:
Directed by Noburo Nakamura for Shochiko in 1964, ‘The Shape Of Night’ follows a young woman named Yoshie Nomoto (Miyuki Kuwano). In the opening scene, she’s working as a streetwalker on the outskirts of town and soon enough, she’s picked...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:26 AM -
-
Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: April 22nd, 2024.
Director: Bryce McGuire
Cast: Wyatt Russell, Kerry Condon, Amélie Hoeferle
Year: 2024
Purchase From Amazon
Night Swim – Movie Review:
The feature length directorial debut of Bryce McGuire, a collaboration between James Wan's Atomic Monster and Blumhouse, 2024’s Night Swim opens with a scene set in 1992 where a young girl looks out her window and sees a toy boat floating...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:24 AM -
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: May 28th, 2024.
Director: Lucio Fulci
Cast: Brett Halsey, Corinne Cléry, Blanca Marsillach, Stefano Madia, Bernard Seray, Lucio Fulci, Stefano Madia
Year: 1986
Purchase From Amazon
The Devil’s Honey – Movie Review:
A beautiful but spoiled young woman named Jessica (Blanca Marsillach) indulges her every whim with her beau, a professional saxophone player named Johnny (Stefano Madia). Their...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:22 AM -