How bad do you want to see Lenny Bruce in a movie?
Steven Hellerstedt | 06/18/2005
(1 out of 5 stars)
"An aging stripper wields great powers over others with the aid of a mysterious amulet in SIN, YOU SINNERS.
The word `aging' seems a kind way to put it. By the look of things, Mama's 30-year-lease on middle age is about to expire soon, although that fact doesn't seem to threaten her hold over manager Dave and her daughter. Nor, saints preserve us, does it stop her from grinding and bumping every 15 minutes or so.
Dave, Mama's bought and paid for boy toy, is her manager and bongo drum accompanist when she's plying her second trade as an amulet waving spiritualist who specializes in bilking the rich. Dave also has the hots for the daughter, and the 20-something daughter has the hots for Dave, but neither can unrage a hormone whilst Mama wears the amulet. Even though Mama, saints preserve us, gets to shimmy and shake in her skimpy bikini with the fringe on top, this isn't really a blue movie. Beyond awful, I don't know what it is or how to explain it.
The second howler on this dvd, the reason I picked it up in the first place, is the Lenny Bruce scripted and starring vehicle (the only real movie he was ever in) DANCE HALL RACKET. This one is about a dance hall bilking its customer and the hall's dancing girls bilking the management. Bruce is a revered by stand up comedians as an edgy, topical, pioneering genius of the first order. That may all be so, but his first scripting credited movie doesn't bear it out. No stand up, no jokes, no ha-ha in this one. It stinks.
It doesn't help that the transfer print was in pretty bad shape, and at some point between 1953 and today someone clipped out all the brief nudie shots in the girls' dressing room. Losing the quick peeks is no big deal, but it fouls up the soundtrack and dialogue and renders some conversations even more ridiculous than I imagine they'd be otherwise.
Two stinkers for the price of one. Not recommended as entertainment, although this is probably the best chance you have to see a walking and talking Lenny Bruce. If that doesn't do it for you, avoid this dvd like the plague.
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