- Evading a mob contract on his life, a heterosexual man winds up hiding out at a homosexual bathhouse.
- On his deathbed, Carmine Vespucci's mobster father tells him to "get Proclo" - Carmine's brother-in-law Gaetano. With "the hit" on, Gaetano tells a cab driver to take him where Carmine can't find him. He arrives at The Ritz, a gay bathhouse where he is pursued amorously by "chubby chaser" Claude and by entertainer Googie Gomez, who believes him to be a Broadway producer. His guides and protectors through The Ritz are gatekeeper Abe, habitue Chris, and bellhop/go-go boys Tiger and Duff. Squeaky-voiced detective Michael Brick and his employer Carmine do locate Gaetano at the Ritz, as does his wife Vivian, but family secrets come out.—Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
- Slightly rotund Gaetano Proclo of Cleveland, Ohio long ago married Vivian Vespucci of the New York mob-tied Vespuccis - a marriage which has never sat well with Vivian's father, the controlling patriarch of the family. On his deathbed, old man Vespucci demands his son Carmine kill Gaetano, so that Gaetano will not inherit half the family garbage business. Knowing that his brother-in-law is going to have him killed, Gaetano goes on the run, hopping into a cab and telling the driver to take him to the last place the mob would look for him. Where the driver takes him is The Ritz, a male bathhouse. What straight Gaetano doesn't know when he checks into The Ritz is that it is a gay bathhouse, something he does not truly figure out until he is well ensconced within the goings-on at the facility that evening. Like many of the men who want anonymity while at The Ritz, Gaetano signs in under an assumed name, using Carmine's. While Chris, one of the regulars with a penchant for screaming, helps Gaetano navigate the bathhouse, Gaetano tries to steer clear of a few of the other regulars at the facility that evening: Claude Perkins, a chubby-chaser chasing chubby Gaetano, who Gaetano does not want to get too close to for a reason beyond the gay issue; Googie Gomez, the heavily accented Hispanic floor show performer who may or may not be a transvestite, who believes Gaetano is a Broadway producer and thus her ticket to stardom; and Michael Brick, a good-looking but slightly naive private detective hired by Carmine to locate Gaetano, having only a description to work from, and dim Michael cannot even see through Gaetano's obvious fake mustache and toupee. Further complications and misunderstandings ensue when Carmine arrives on the scene. As Carmine and Michael have never met, Michael believes that Gaetano, using Carmine's name, is his boss rather than the man he is supposed to find. The complications grow even further when Vivian arrives on the scene, knowing that her husband is somewhere in the gay facility, with her assuming he is there as a genuine customer.—Huggo
- Gaetano Proclo (Jack Weston) is present with his wife's (Kay Ballard) family at her father's deathbed. Her father has never liked his son-in-law and before he dies, asks his son (Jerry Stiller), to kill him. Since theirs is a mob family, Gaetano takes the threat seriously and he runs, asking the cab driver to take him someplace where the Vespucci's will never find him. The cab driver's answer? The Ritz. The Ritz is a typical 70's gay bath house. Here you meet Chris ( F. Murray Abraham), a regular visitor who's on the prowl for the newest and/or hottest guy he can find. Also there's Claude Perkins (Paul B. Price), a chubby-chaser who takes a shine to Gaetano. Unfortunately for Gaetano, the cab driver was in the employ of his in-laws and so he tells them where he went. They send in Michael Brick (Treat Williams) who speaks with a very high voice. Also here is a really bad performer, Googie Gomez (played by the talented Rita Moreno) who is playing the bath houses for now and hoping to hit it big. She vascillates between looking for a producer that she was told would be in the audience (with whom she has a long and uncomfortable history) and decrying the belief of some that she is a drag queen. The result is a grand chase and a lot of laughs in very 70's style.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content