Recently I watched the 1976 film version of The Ritz, Terrence McNally’s mob farce set in a gay bathhouse – a goofy and dated gay comedy. It is worth buying or renting just for the cast.

I will admit that I had a past crush on Treat Williams, especially watching him in the 1984 movie Once Upon A Time In America and the television movie A Streetcar Named Desire. The young 25-year-old Treat Williams parading around in a towel at The Ritz is a fuck-fantasy to behold.

Rita Moreno is a hoot as the divine Googie Gomez. Throw in a humorous Jack Weston who takes forever to figure out it’s THAT kind of bathhouse and F. Murray Abraham as a Read Queen (my knowing him more as Antonio Salieri in the movie Amadeus). Jerry Stiller is a straight mobster, with his wife Kaye Ballard. There is also “Cheers’” John “Cliff” Ratzenberger, and Paul B. Price, hilarious as the chubby chaser after the straight Weston. The Ritz has plenty of bathhouse slamming doors and mistaken identities. It is also very interesting to see what passed for gay cheesecake thirty years ago – in his day, Treat Williams was nice eye candy.

If you haven’t seen The Ritz, you will have no idea why this is hysterically funny.

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