Simply Perfect

Simply A Masterpiece

A lot of fun.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Lenny Bruce was a comedian, social critic, satirist, and screenwriter. His comedy was typically satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. Lenny Bruce wrote and starred in this film. The movie is a crime satire (comedy) and not meant to be taken seriously I believe.The film has been tagged on several places as Action and Adventure but I see no evidence of either... especially adventure. Where is the adventure in this film? Action? Very, very little action happens. It's a very talky crime film and that's really about it.It's a terrible film that has some humorous moments. Not a film I would care to watch again - was barely okay enough for a one time watch for me. The only humor I really found was the drunk Scotsman trying to get a drink.2/10

Taking a look at a poll being held on IMDbs Classic Film board for the best movies of 1963,I noticed a fellow IMDber mention that they were interested in seeing stand up comedian Lenny Bruce's one & only movie.Taking a look around online,I was pleased to discover that the flick had come out on DVD as a double bill with Joe Sarno's (surviving) debut,which led to me getting ready to see Bruce cause a racket.The plot:Talking to a newspaper reporter,a police captain begins giving details on a case that they are currently investigating-Learning that a gangster who has kept his mouth shut (partly thanks to his tongue getting chopped off!) over where he has hidden a stash of stolen diamonds,is to be released,local leading gangster/dance hall owner Umberto Scalli tells all of his workers that they must put on a special show,so that he can find out where the diamonds are hidden.Following every order given by his boss,"Ice-Pick" Vincent keeps the girls in line whilst killing any clients who try and steal cash from the dance hall.Expecting Scalli to stick by his side,Vincent soon finds out that it is murder on the dance floor.View on the film:Filmed before he had settled on the stand up stage,the screenplay by writer/co-star Lenny Bruce (whose wife & mum also appear!) takes a sharp satirical shot at the dead end pit stops that he was working at,and also gives the title a Film Noir sheen.Sliding the title close to reality,Bruce paints a blunt picture of the dance hall as a place where everyone from the gangsters to the strippers can get pushed aside for some cold hard cash,which gives the title a chance to go down a very good Film Noir route,as Vincent discovers that loyalty means nothing.Despite the print sadly jumping when moments where the strippers show some skin have been cut,director Phil Tucker does very well at building a seedy atmosphere,where every killing that Vincent makes for Scalli ending in a raw short,sharp,shot,as "Ice Pick" Vincent chills the dance.

Dance Hall Racket (1953) * (out of 4) Before turning to stand up comedy, legendary Lenny Bruce wrote and starred in this film from director Phil Tucker who is best known for the infamous Robot Monster. Vic (Bruce) tries to rise from a small town racket to a higher up gangster but there's a price to pay. The viewer pays a price as well because this is quite dreadful but thankfully it's bad enough to where you can laugh at it. The acting, including Bruce, is beyond awful. Bruce is so bad killing people that this gets the biggest laughs but the death scenes are also hilarious. Timothy Farrell of Glen or Glenda? fame co-stars.

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.