Customer Reviews

Saturday Night at the Baths

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

First off, let me say that the people who criticize the movie's shoddy editing, acting and writing are being bad sports. It's very much an independent movie but that's part of its charm. Did they really expect a Hollywood studio to sink a ton of money into the production of a New York City bathhouse movie?!? Circa 1975?!?

I have often said (after a few too many drinks at a piano bar) that the 1970s were self-destructive and completely out of control -- and I desperately wish I had been a part of it!

From what I can tell, the movie is an extremely accurate depiction of the 1970s gay bathhouse scene. What it also has is a liberating sort of gentleness, a "delicate hardness", as someone once described Vergil's bucolic poetry. The movie doesn't shy away from the screaming queens and the overall sordid quality of that world. Rather, its brutal realism enlarges the dignity of its characters, all of whom are looking for love in whatever way they can find it, heterosexual or homosexual.

As I said, view the movie with an open mind. It may make you a better person!

I guess the best thing you can say about this film is that it gives the audience a sense of what gay life must have been like prior to the aids epedemic.
The acting is not very good, the editing is terrible, the film quality is poor and the sound is bad.
The best aspect of the film is the feature debut of Jane Olivor who sings a great rendition of "Pretty Girl" It is great to see her in performance from her early days in the business. Sometimes, however, the movement of her mouth and the sound of the film do not match.
I also enjoyed the drag show with Diana Ross and Judy Garland.

All in all, not a great movie, but its less than 90 minutes long so its worth a viewing....

When I was living is Sydney, Australia, I met my friend Steve Ostrow, who once told me all about his life in NYC and of the Continental Baths he ran, the famous celebrities who had their beginnings there and of the scandals that took place in the good ol' bad ol' days of sex in the 70's.

At the time I heard his stories, I was young and I found them hard to imagine. It all seemed like a good pitch for the play and movie "The Ritz", which he told me was actually based on the Continental Baths.

Two decades later, with the advent of the internet, Amazon.com and DVDs, I now have the pleasure of actually watching this movie and seeing it as it all happened so long ago.

I was thrilled to relive those heady, Bohemian, sexy, free, Studio 54 days, filled with fashion, perfume, sex, drugs and Disco, when big cities were populated with the jetset, the young, hip and the beautiful.

Younger, modern audiences may not be able to fully appreciate the nuances of this wonderfully nostalgic memoir, but older audiences who lived through the 70's will appreciate this moment in our social history.

I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed 'The Ritz', '54', 'The last Days of Disco' and films set in that era.

Relive your youth!

Released in 1975, SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE BATHS was little seen outside New York and a handful of other major metro areas--after which it vanished from view until the advent of the home market. Unfortunately, the film does not live up to its reputation as a ground breaker: it is badly directed, written, filmed, and acted and all too often just down-right silly.

The story, such as it is, concerns pianist Michael (Robert Aberdeen), a straight guy with a live in girlfriend named Tracy (Ellen Sheppard) who finds his sexuality tested when he gets a job playing piano at The Continental Baths, New York City's most notorious gay bath house. The test in question comes in the form of Scotti (Don Scotti), the club manager, and most of the film consists of Michael and Scotti romping around together while Tracy wonders if just maybe Michael is thinking about getting it on with guys. There are plenty of shots of New York sidewalks, a truly silly football game, two sex scenes (one hetrosexual and fairly steamy, one homosexual and very careful), and then there is what the movie is famous for: a peek inside the legendary Continental Baths.

The trouble is that what we get to see of the Continental Baths isn't greatly impressive. There are some fairly unattractive men, some of them fully dressed, some of them wearing towels, and most of the nudity is female, with naked women jumping into the swimming pool. The whole thing is about as exotic as your great-aunt Gussie's Sunday-Go-To-Meeting hat, and when all is done the single most memorable moment goes to an expert Judy Garland impersonator. SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE BATHS is tame, tame, tame stuff and badly done as well, so it really is best left to cinema historians and gay film buffs. Everyone else should give it a miss.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

other than that this movie is quite awful. The lead actor, in particular, creeped me out. His grilfriend here looks like a buck-toothed Mia Farrow and was just too liberal and giggly. Not much to the story and really dull as well. Cool to get a glimpse of the Continental, but turn the sound off and FF as much as possible.

The acting was horrible,the men were ugly the plot thers is none .There is not really much more to say about this movie other than it sucks.........Avoid by all means.