Should you see it? Sure.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds."
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Dance Hall Racket (1953)
How bad is it? It's a mess.
Should you see it? Sure.
Timothy Farrell, who appeared in some Ed Wood films, starred as gangster Umberto Scali in three films, of which this was the last. This one was directed by Phil Tucker, most noted for "Robot Monster." The film stars Lenny Bruce, who appears to have also financed the film, and has his wife Honey (as pretty Rose) and his mother (who at one point does a very good, and extremely unneeded, Charleston dance number!) to fill out the cast. Until the last two minutes, the film is shot entirely indoors and looks like it was all done on a single sound stage. Just what the "racket" is isn't explained well; smuggled diamonds are shown and never mentioned again, white slavery also gets mentioned, but mostly it's just dime a dance taxi dancing. Bruce kills a guy and no one notices - including me; the guy just sort of collapses at the table for no reason - and they have to cover it up while the police are trying to unravel the racket.
Should you see it? Sure.
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