The Night They Raided Minsky's
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The Night They Raided Minsky's | |
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1968 movie poster |
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Directed by | William Friedkin |
Produced by | Norman Lear |
Written by | Rowland Barber (book) Norman Lear Sidney Michaels Arnold Schulman |
Starring | Jason Robards Britt Ekland Norman Wisdom |
Music by | Charles Strouse |
Cinematography | Andrew Laszlo |
Editing by | Ralph Rosenblum Pablo Ferro (uncredited) |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date(s) | December 22, 1968 |
Running time | 99 min. |
Country | USA |
Language | English |
All Movie Guide profile | |
IMDb profile |
The Night They Raided Minsky's is a 1968 film directed by William Friedkin. This film tells the story of an innocent Amish girl (Britt Ekland) who, in a rebellious fit, leaves home to become a dancer and ends up inventing the striptease at Minsky's Burlesque circa 1927.
[edit] Plot
Rachel (Britt Ekland) is a rebellious Amish girl who goes to the big city. She is looking to make it as a dancer and auditions at Minsky's Burlesque. Her Biblical dances are not what they are looking for until the club manger decides to use it to trick the police into raiding them by billing her as the notorious Mme. Fifi. Raymond (Jason Robards), the club's main comedian, and his straight man Chick (Norman Wisdom) show her the ropes of basic burlesque, and they both fall for her in the process. Rachel's father takes the train in and begins looking for his daughter.
The film climaxes when Rachel is on stage. Raymond, Chick, her father, and the police are all watching and Rachel is nearly in tears after Raymond has revealed that they are just using her. Her father tries to pull her off stage but she pulls away and he is left holding her sleeve. She begins to strip at the insistence of the audience, and accidentally shows her breasts when she makes a pleading gesture toward her father. Then the police raid Minsky's.
[edit] Trivia
- Bert Lahr, most famous for his role as the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, was cast to appear in this nostalgic movie in one of his few non-Lion-esque roles, but his sudden death from a heart attack in 1967 with only a few scenes shot forced them to use a double in most scenes.
- The film is based on the book of the same title by Rowland Barber, published in 1960.
- A musical stage adaptation features a book by Evan Hunter, lyrics by Susan Birkenhead, and music by Charles Strouse.
[edit] External links
- The Night They Raided Minsky's at the Internet Movie Database
- The Night They Raided Minsky's at All Movie Guide
- The Night They Raided Minsky's at Rotten Tomatoes
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