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Released by: Olive Films
Released on: February 24th, 2015
Director: William Friedkin
Cast: Jason Robards, Britt Eklund, Norman Wisdom, Elliot Gould
Year: 1968
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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.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
