The Ritz 1976

Gaetano Proclo, a heterosexual, Treat Williams, checks into the Ritz, a gay bathhouse in Manhattan, to hide from his homicidal brother-in-law Carmine Vespucci Jerry Stiller—a mobster whose name he uses on the register. The lobby hums with velvet curtains, and the neon glow spills onto the marble floors as he navigates a maze of rooms, stairwells, and whispered apologies from guests who pretend not to notice the tension he carries.

There, he meets Googie Gomez Rita Moreno, a third-rate entertainer whose confidence is bigger than her talent. She mistakes Gaetano for a famous producer, and the moment unsettles him in a way he hadn’t anticipated. Meanwhile, Carmine Vespucci, the very man Gaetano fears, has already put a plan in motion—he hires Michael Brick, a squeaky-voiced detective, Treat Williams who moves with a wary calm through the hotel’s tangled braid of rooms, chasing a name instead of a face.

In his hotel room, Gaetano is propositioned by Claude Perkins Paul B. Price, a man he recalls from their U.S. Army days. Gaetano brushes off the advance, yet Claude’s persistence lingers in the air like a complicated rumor. Claude’s presence is soon overshadowed by another guest, Chris F. Murray Abraham, and Gaetano follows him into the sauna, a steamy chamber where anonymity is supposed to bloom but never truly does. In that heat, Gaetano’s nerves collide with Googie’s bright energy once more, and he realizes her act is far from the backstage drama her demeanor promises.

Googie’s act unfolds by the pool, flanked by two go-go boys, Tiger John Everson and Duff Christopher J. Brown. Gaetano’s attempt to slip away is interrupted when Claude appears, and the tension crackles like electric wires along the back corridors. Backstage, Claude trips over an exposed wire, ruining Googie’s moment, and Googie’s disappointment turns sharp as she drags Claude toward the laundry chute and hurls him down.

The Ritz’s doors swing wide again as Carmine arrives, a storm in a tailored suit. Gaetano longs to escape to Central Park, but Michael’s calm insistence drags him back into the hotel’s confounding layout, leading him to a rendezvous that will redefine what either man is chasing. Chris and Googie follow, and Gaetano learns not only that Carmine is in town, but also that Googie is, in fact, a real woman—an irony that unsettles Gaetano more than he expected.

Carmine’s presence comes to a head when he awakens, accusing the guests of molesting his sister. He pistol-whips the poolside attendants and herds them into the water in a brutal search for Gaetano, revealing how far he’s willing to go to sever the threat to his inheritance. Gaetano finally reveals himself, and Vivian Proclo Kaye Ballard is stunned to recognize her husband dressed in drag. The shock lingers like a suspended note as the night’s truth settles over the pool and the hallways.

A thorny truth emerges: Carmine has secretly owned the Ritz, a patriarch’s artifact purchased long before Gaetano’s birth, and the lines between family duty and greed blur into a foggy moral landscape. After a tense confrontation, Gaetano and Carmine reach a fragile reconciliation, even as Carmine is dragged into the sauna with force, a symbolic gesture of ritual torment that neither man wants but both seem to need.

Googie, disappointed at not meeting a genuine producer, learns that Michael’s uncle is a stage producer with auditions for a dinner theatre—an eventual reveal that Seymour Pippin is behind the curtain, a name that still rings with Broadway promise but little of the glitter Googie seeks. The ending ages the Ritz in a quiet, ironic glow: Carmine, dressed in drag, is arrested by police, while Gaetano and Vivian exit the building, leaving behind the echoes of lives tangled in a single, shimmering night.