Dance Hall Racket

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.

I saw this film solely because Lenny Bruce was in it.

The whole story takes place on a three wall set made from cardboard which is meant to look like a dance hall, and pretty much everyone in this hall has their crooked fingers in pies.

Lenny Bruce plays Vinnie, a hard man, and takes centre stage as he is clearly the best actor in this film. The other actors stand around, bump into each other and chew scenery while Lenny does his thing of being the star.

Phil Tucker does nothing in the way of original directing often opting to cover scenes with a single master shot and letting the action play out in front of the camera.

The print of this film that I saw (on DVD) was terrible, scratched with a constant blemish on the picture, the sound would often pop in and out and there where large jump cuts where someone has clearly edited out the nudity for some reason.

All this is a shame because in spite of all its faults the movie isn't that bad, yes the plot seems rather padded and some of the rolls could do with better casting (the drunk with the hat stands out in my mind) but i have seen worse, much much worse than this. I would like to see someone buy this film and clean it up, get the print nice and crisp, film some extra insert shots that it feels like its missing and dub over some of those bad actors and then we'll see how really bad this film is.

As a devoted fan of Lenny Bruce, I've wanted to see this film for years and if, like me, you're prepared to experience a level of filmmaking that makes Ed Wood look like Orson Wells, you will not be disappointed.

This jaw dropping bit of cinematic excrement features Lenny's stripper wife, Honey Bruce (whose over-the-top make up suggests that she was preparing to audition for Susan Cabot's role in "The Wasp Woman") as a B-Girl and Lenny as the tough guy enforcer for the gangster bar owner. Watch for the scene where Lenny "kills" a guy who pulls Honey's hair by delivering the lamest looking judo chop in cinema history. Watch Lenny hitch up his collar and snap his fingers like a juvenile delinquent in a Jerry Lewis movie.

Timothy Farrel recreates his role as Umberto Scalli from the infamous "Pin-Down Girls" (aka "Racket Girls") and the scene where he and Bruce (who gets the blame/credit for the screenplay, as well) "rough up" a B-girl who's stealing from them will split your sides.

Among the great psychotronic films of all time. Every bit as bad/good as "Robot Monster".

Timothy Farrell runs a waterfront clip joint, using half-witted hoods and b-girls to take the fuddled customers. Meanwhile, he has a few other rackets on the side. Lenny Bruce (who also wrote the script) is his enforcer. He also kills a diamond smuggler whom Farrell is having one of his girls roll to recover the money he just paid him. The sucker is outraged at the unethical behavior, and Bruce has to clumsily shove a knife into him.

It's a very bad movie where Farrell is the best actor. Certainly the awful dialogue, filled with non sequiturs and dully offered observations of the obvious don't help. Given the script, Phil Tucker runs a surprisingly competent visual work, but the only reason to watch this is because of Bruce. And even that offers no particular pleasure.

Ultra-cheap flick from the Ed Wood school of film-making, this campy little gem will grow on you with repeated viewings. In addition to Lenny's wife Honey (the two of them get into a heated clinch at one point) the film also features Lenny's mother Sally Marr as the streetwise dance-hall veteran Maxine, who breaks out in a spirited Charleston dance at the climactic party scene. From the period when Lenny was working within the confines of traditional show biz, the film is sprinkled with funny ideas and characters (Icepick and Punchy). From the legendary Screen Classics production firm, which also gave the world Glen or Glenda, Test Tube Babies, and The Devil's Sleep. Well worth seeking out.