Spidersecu Don't Believe the Hype

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

dougdoepke Only reason to catch this soft-core sleaze is Lenny Bruce in a tough guy role. No effort here for the controversial comedian to be funny. Instead, he's sort of a third-rate George Raft. The dreadful effort at laughs comes instead from a guy mugging it up like Jerry Lewis's brain dead brother. I expect this barrel bottom showed in a grind house or two on the coasts, and may have made back it's dollar-seventy budget. It's like three unadorned sets and a dirty alley are there to confine viewers, along with the bare backs of well-fed "dance hall" girls. Just as skimpy is a plot having something to do with diamond smuggling run by the dance hall owner. But don't expect anything like suspense or even interest. No need to keep beating a dead horse. People don't watch such a title for artistic excellence. Apparently, this is what passed for skid-row titillation, 1953 style. So where was Ed Wood when we needed him.

sol1218 ****SPOILERS**** Worth watching only for the film having the legendary stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce as the knife wielding wise cracking and cold blooded hood Vinny in what was to be Bruce's only movie role. And what a part it is! Bruce plays sleazy dance-hall operator Umberto Scalli's right-hand man whom as "Vince the Knife" keeps things in line in his joint by slicing up anyone, man woman and even pet, with his trusty switch-blade who gets out of line. Bruce for his part has trouble keeping a straight face even though he was the one who wrote the screenplay to this turkey that his utterly brainless unintentionally funny dialogue,"So I killed a guy! Does that makes me a criminal!" comes from.The movie has to do with Scalli using his dance-hall as a cover in smuggling stolen goods, mostly uncut diamonds, into the country by seamen who come there to get plastered and friendly with the young women who work there. There's the usual rivalry between Bruce or Vinny with his boss Umberto over who's running the place that leads to the enviable explosion at the very end of the film. Bruce does his best to stay focused on his part as Vinny by knifing a couple of customers who get out of line in demanding their money back, that was lifted from them by their dance partners, that's so outrageous that it takes a while for you to realize, in how phony them being murdered was, that they actually were killed!Knowing that there's no good going on in Scalli's dance-hall the US Customs Department has undercover Agent Edson go there looking for action as a seaman trying to get contraband into the country and using Scalli to fence it. It doesn't take much for Edson to get invited to this exclusive party being thrown by Scalli for just released hood Victor Pappas who spent 11 years in the can and hid $250,000.00 in gold before he was arrested. At the party we get to be entertained by Lenny Bruce's real life mom Sally Marr as dance-hall hostess Maxine who does a great version of the "Charleston". There's also at the party this really drunk and obnoxious looking character Punchy, with a phony combination Swedish and Irish accent, doing something called the "Tahitian Love Dance" that's interrupted when Bruce, or Vinny, spots Pappas getting a little friendly with his wife in real life and in the movie Honey, Honey Friedman Bruce. It's then that the action in the movie that up to that point was almost non-existent really starts to picks up with the you know what finally hitting the fan at full blast! This gives Bruce the chance he's been waiting for throughout the entire movie to get himself killed off so he can finally get himself out of being in it before it destroys his acting career!P.S As things turned out "Dance Hall Racket" was the only film Lenny Bruce was ever in which convinced him that acting wasn't exactly his cup of tea. Going into doing stand-up comedy Bruce ended up being busted by the police and court system for his off color jokes and dialogue that despite his popularity he ended up broke and in debt living off the charity of his friends and admirers and becoming hooked on hard drugs. The end of the road for Lenny Bruce came on the evening of August 3, 1966 when he was found dead in his motel bathroom from an overdose of heroin that seemed to be more suicidal then accidental on Lenny's part!

MartinHafer This film is an extra on the Alpha Video release of "Sin You Sinners". I am actually surprised, as "Dance Hall Racket" isn't even mentioned on the DVD cover--though it is clearly the better film ("Sin You Sinners" is REEEALLY bad). And, unlike "Sin You Sinners", a few of the 'dames' in "Dance Hall Racket" are actually nice looking ladies--whereas the ones in "Sin You Sinners" are enough to kill anyone's sex drive...permanently! Both films clearly earn scores of 1--though if I could give one lower to "Sin You Sinners", I would! Considering that this film stars Timothy Farrell, you can safely assume the film is crap. This 'actor' has the distinction of having appeared in such classics of dreck cinema as "Test Tube Babies", "The Violent Years" and Ed Wood's masterpieces "Jail Bait" and "Glen Or Glenda"! Surely this is a record for awfulness that few, if any, actors can match! And, watching his smooth yet sleazy character is pretty entertaining, as I am a bad movie aficionado.On top of Farrell, the film also is pretty weird because it was written by Lenny Bruce...and he even is one of the stars of this ultra-low budget movie! His wife, Honey, even got a starring role as a sexy B-girl. There is also a character named 'Punky' (Bernie Jones)--who might be one of the most obnoxious characters I've seen in many years. His routine is pretty sad--with a terrible fake Swedish accent, a goofy Pinky Lee-style hat and no discernible talent. He is meant as comic relief, but he's about as funny as watching a cat coughing up a hairball! He and most of the rest of the male actors are supposed to be sailors, but not a one of them looks or acts anything like you'd expect from such characters.The film is about a dance hall that is run by Farrell. It's a clip-joint where drunks are routinely robbed and drugs are sold by this mobster who is cleverly called 'Boss' throughout the film! Along the way, you see a bit of skin--hot stuff for 1953 but very, very, very tame when seen today.So with all these terrible actors and no budget whatsoever, is this movie any good? Well, no...but at least it's not 100% terrible--though this is hardly a glowing endorsement! The film was clearly meant as an exploitation movie--with cat-fights, skin, sleaze galore and dames...lots and lots of dames! And, if you like very bad exploitation films, it IS worth seeing--it IS fascinating viewing--sort of like a train wreck! However, for the average viewer, it's best to steer clear of this grade-z monstrosity--it's a real turkey.By the way, although I really have seen very, very little of Lenny Bruce on screen, this film and his short "Thank You Mask Man" are enough to make me doubt those who have proclaimed him as a misunderstood genius. I certainly haven't yet seen anything resembling genius from his films. Perhaps you just had to catch his infamous stand-up act.

dbborroughs Watching this movie is a very bizarre experience. This movie was written by the comedian Lenny Bruce and if you listen to the delivery of every actor, it seems as though everyone is using Lenny's style of delivery for their performance. It becomes very surreal, especially if you're a fan of Bruce and his comedy. This notion of everyone using a similar style of delivery makes me wonder if the film is suppose to be drama or a comedy. Allowing for the lack of production values, questionable actors and Phil Tucker's direction this film seems to be more comedy or satire than drama. The situations and dialog are very close to some of Bruce's longer comedy routines where he spun out bizarre tales from Hollywood movies or from stereotypical situations. Could Dance Hall Racket have been intended as a send up of gangster films that instead was taken seriously by its director? (Then again maybe Lenny couldn't write anything that wasn't funny).For the record this movie is about a smuggling ring run out of a dance hall. Its also a better movie if you take it as a comedy rather than as a drama, though it cheapness of manufacture diminishes the experience.