Dance Hall Racket (1953)

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

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.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

****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!

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.

This has to be one of the worst films ever committed to the cinema, its so bad its a fabulous treat for bad movie buffs, never in the history of Ed Wood could he come up with this beauty, in fact i'd guess he saw this and went on to fame on his own. there is tough slangy talk and a hilarious cat fight and a performance by the late great Lenny Bruce that verges on the impossible, his Jerry Lewis like take just has to be seen to be believed!, I would recommend this movie to anyone who is a bad movie buff, my personal worst ever movie was Mesa of the Lost Women but this has replaced it, its available now on DVD so rush out to your local store and demand it!.

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".