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The Night They Raided Minsky's | 
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Director: William Friedkin
Actors: Jason Robards, Britt Ekland, Norman Wisdom, Forrest Tucker, Harry Andrews
Studio: United Artists
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $10.13
You Save: $9.85 (49%)
New (32) Used (4) from $9.59
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 9325
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 99
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.5
MPN: M110681
UPC: 883904106814
EAN: 0883904106814
ASIN: B0014BJ1AY
Theatrical Release Date: December 22, 1968
Release Date: May 20, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW, Factory Sealed items direct from the Studios. 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee. Quick International Airmail!
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Product Description
Britt Ekland portrays a young Amish girl who becomes the toast of New York after she inadvertently invents the striptease in this tantalizing burlesque comedy that co-stars Jason Robards.System Requirements:Running Time: 99 minutes Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/CLASSICS Rating: PG UPC: 883904106814 Manufacturer No: M110681
Amazon.com
Before The French Connection made him a household name, William Friedkin drafted this love letter to the burlesque era. In 1925, Amish redhead Rachel (Swedish bombshell Britt Ekland) travels from Pennsylvania to New York to dance. On the advice of Professor Spats (The Wizard of Oz's Bert Lahr, who died during filming), she catches the variety show at Minsky's, which is run by the proprietor's son, Billy (Elliot Gould). Comic duo Raymond (Jason Robards) and Chick (Oscar nominee Norman Wisdom) enlist Rachel to perform her Bible routine, billed as the scandalous Madamoiselle Fifi, to make a fool out of moral guardian Vance Fowler (Denholm Elliot), who threatens to sic the vice squad on the theater if they don't tone things down. While helping her prepare, both men fall for "this real religious girl," but Chick, as Raymond puts it, "suffers from "the curse of the three Ds." He's "decent, devoted and dependable," while his partner is "a BFC," i.e. "Bastard First Class." Rachel gets the last word when she accidentally invents the striptease. Adapted from the novel by Rowland Barber (Somebody up There Likes Me) and produced by Norman Lear (All in the Family), Minsky's zips between comedy and drama through the rapid-fire editing of Ralph Rosenblum (The Producers), who inter-cut the newsreel footage in post-production. If the film feels like a battle between opposing sensibilities, i.e. art vs. commerce, warm-hearted entertainment wins out in the end. The only real crime is that this long-awaited title arrives without any extras. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Seltzer Bottle with a Hole in It August 4, 2008
This movie is a great big flawed bundle of fun, fun enough to make it worthwhile in spite of itself.
As theater history, it's oversimplified and just short of coy. Nudity didn't come to the popular stage by way of Minsky's, and there were far worse shows for raunchiness (Earl Carroll's, anyone?). As for the movie itself, I suspect its inner unity suffered a permanent blow with the unexpected death of Bert Lahr during production. "Professor Spats" was obviously supposed to have a bigger role in the story, and Lahr all but steals the show anyway, even if he's only symbolically present in the final heart-tugging scene.
Lahr is certainly more watchable than a miscast Jason Robards, who is just too old to be sympathetic or even acceptable as naive Britt Ekland's love interest. Robards seems more like a predator than a suitor, making his sudden change-of-heart unconvincing.
The movie totters back and forth from farce comedy to human drama, while its take on history has to be taken with as much salt as those "Genuine Belgian chocolates--with the nuts inside!" However, in what other movie are you going to find Britt Ekland, Norman Wisdom, Elliot Gould, Denholm Elliot, Forrest Tucker, Bert Lahr, Jack Burns (a riot as the candy butcher), dear old Judith Lowry as dear old Mother Annie, a very young Richard Libertini, the voice of Rudy Vallee, and the jovial Dexter Maitland (doing what he did at Minsky's), reviving the shadow of burlesque and doing so with contagious joy? The music itself is worth the cost of this very basic, no-extras disk. And for added fun, try counting how many studio names appear in the packaging and credits.
The only major complaint I can make about this movie is that it didn't include more than a few lines from classic burlesque comedy routines (thank burlesque the next time you enjoy Abbott and Costello, the Three Stooges, and even "The Wizard of Oz"). However, some of these may still have been under copyright protection. Overall, this movie still packs some bellylaughs and pulchritude (there is a fleeting glimpse of breasts, so beware if kids are in the room). Whaddya waiting for--go get it.
 Robards and Wisdom, jiggles and bumps, great songs...and how the strip tease was born July 23, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The lights dim. The curtain goes up. The girls are on stage. The spot hits the tux-wearing tenor, silver haired and a little plump.
"I have a secret recipe
Concocted with much skill
And once you've tried my special dish
You'll never get your fill...
"Take ten terrific girls, but only nine costumes, and you're cooking up something grand..."
The Night They Raided Minsky's is a valentine to the long-gone burlesque houses of the Twenties. Naughty, bawdy and surprisingly innocent, filled with chorus girls who might generously be called a little past their prime, with plenty of belly work, with comedians and their second bananas, with pratfalls, seltzer bottles and song and dance acts. This Norman Lear/William Friedkin/Ralph Rosenblum movie has it all. It even has a story. Most of all, it has some great songs by Charles Strouse and Lee Adams, wonderful performances by Jason Robards and Norman Wisdom, and a collection of pungent characters played by the likes of Elliot Gould, Forrest Tucker, Bert Lahr, Harry Andrews, Joseph Wiseman, Jack Burns, Denholm Elliot and Dexter Maitland. And we're there when history is made, as Britt Ekland playing an innocent Amish girl from Smoketown, Pennsylvania, who longs to perform her Bible dances on stage, inadvertently invents the strip tease.
Billy Minsky runs Minsky's Burlesque. Vance Fowler, secretary of New York's Society for the Suppression of Vice, is determined to close it down. Then Rachel Elizabeth Schpitendavel shows up. She's young. She's innocent. She's built. She catches the eye of headliner Raymond Paine (Jason Robards), a song, dance and straight man who works with his second banana, the small, mild and fall-down physical Chick Williams (Norman Wisdom). Paine wants Rachel to fall into his bed. Chick just falls for Rachel. Minsky's, however, is on the verge of closing. Then Raymond has an idea. They'll advertise a midnight show featuring Mademoiselle Fifi, "the hottest little cooch artist in the world." When Fowler shows up with the cops, Fifi will be Rachel doing her Bible dances. Fowler will be a laughing stock and Minsky's will be saved.
Now forget all that. What's important is the sweet nature of this burlesque gift. Most of the movie takes place backstage, on stage and in a near-by deli. It's a great, true deli, where we have bowls of half sours on the table and plenty of chunks of rye bread. (In that deli we'll watch Raymond nearly sweet talk a good looking woman at the next table into his bed, and then sweet talk her husband, who suddenly appears, into agreeing Raymond just gave them both a great compliment. Robards is as smooth as warm chicken fat.)
Backstage is packed with sets, lights and half dressed chorus girls, but it's on stage where the goods are delivered...chorus girls who can barely dance but can jiggle with vigor and bump with oomph. Jason Robards and Norman Wisdom do wonderful work together. Robards is the wise-guy straight man to Wisdom's eternally innocent optimist. Their song and dance numbers really work. We'd expect this of Wisdom, who got started in English music halls and became one of Britain's great clowns. Robards, who was one of America's great stage actors, is almost as skilled. Their "Perfect Gentleman" number by rights should be a remembered classic. I don't know how Friedkin managed it, but the people in the audience look authentic, right down to their delighted reactions.
The Night They Raided Minsky's also has a clever script. Says Raymond to Chick when the little guy wants some reassurance after meeting Rachel. "You met a girl!" says Raymond with a big smile. "Ah, Chick, my boy, when it comes to girls you have three qualities that are far worse than being short and funny looking. You have the curse of the three D's. You are decent, devoted and dependable...good qualities in a dog, disastrous in a man!"
Charles Strouse scored the movie and, with Lee Adams, provided great songs. "The Night They Raided Minsky's," "Take Ten Terrific Girls" and "Perfect Gentleman" establish more than anything else the good-natured, fast, harmlessly bawdy style of the movie. The Night They Raided Minsky's had a troubled parentage, with director William Friedkin disliking it and film editor Ralph Rosenblum claiming credit for everything good about it. There's more jump cutting than we need and perhaps a few too many historical clips. Still, we have potent nostalgia for things past that no one now is alive to remember. The movie carries Norman Lear's imprint at his best, and if Rosenblum and Friedkin want to arm wrestle over the movie, that's all right with me. Who cares who cut the paper lace for the valentine? I'm just happy we've got it.
I'm ready for Dexter Maitland as the tenor to see us home...
"I have a secret recipe
Concocted with much skill
And once you've tried my special dish
You'll never get your fill...
"Take ten terrific girls, but only nine costumes, and you're cooking up something grand.
Mix in some amber lights and elegant scenery, then stir in a fine jazz band.
Then add some funny men
And pepper with laughter.
It's hot and tasty I know.
Then serve it piping hot and what have you got...
A burlesque show!"
The DVD is bare bones and looks fine.
Good fun July 19, 2008
I've very fond memories of this film and delighted now to own a copy. The film I believe, had some production problems at the time, but the end result is hugely enjoyable and Norman Wisdom is a treat in a role that he is perfect for.The Embroidered Corpse
 Altogether Bad July 17, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I don't know what everyone else saw in this. I watched it through to the end and then threw it in the trash.
 The Night They Raided Minski's July 10, 2008
I had an old VHS copy of THE NIGHT THEY RAIDED MINSKI'S
which I had recorded off TV years ago. It was a good recording back then and was one of my MOST WATCHED MOVIES.While surfing AMAZON's vast list of DVD'S, I discovered and purchased AMAZON'S DVD of THE NIGHT THEY RAIDED MINSKI'S. The reproduction of COLOR, PICTURE and SOUND of this DVD was FLAWLESS. I highly recommend it to MOVIE BUFFS and LOVERS OF OLD TIME BURLESQUE.
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