The Chippendales Murder

I wish this movie wasn't known as being about male strippers, because I feel that isn't the focus at all-which sounds strange I know since this movie highlights the lives of the makers of the historical "Chippendales" male stripper revue. I had the chance to see this quite awhile ago and what I took away from it had nothing to do with buff men shaking their -well-you get the point.

This story is about greed. It's about the slow disintegration and corruption of a human being(steve bannerjee) who had the world at his fingetips and let it all go to become a slave to money, power, greed, hate and paranoia.

This is a true story of a guy that plotted to kill former workers because they wanted to make a living doing the same thing he did.It really drives home the point of how money and power can make a person crazy. This is a true story and I'm sure anyone who watches this will want to shower when their done because the story is a sleezy one but it isn't a lightweight movies about male strippers, its more of a character study of a sad and pitiful human being. The film had its flaws, it did drag at times, certain parts were almost unreasonably boring(it IS a tv movie)-the only thing I can say to justify watching it is I like character studies and this is definetly that. I think it should probebly have been done a bit better, script was a bit weak. Nonethelss, it succeeded in its casting, it was very well acted-forget about the men dancing and shaking about and concentrate on the story of what greed and money can make of a person.

In Los Angeles in 1975 Steve Banerjee buys a run-down night club and converts it into "Chippendales", an entertainment centre with male strip dancers designed to appeal to women and their sexual fantasies.

If one can judge from the noise of the screaming women in the opening scenes, it was a huge success. As the dancers became more polished, they opened up shows in New York and other major cities.

I thought the dance routines lacked a certain zest. The choreography was limited and there could have been more variety in the costumes. This would have added to the interest.

Based on his true life story Banerjee sets out to poison a couple of his dancers who have decided to stage shows in opposition in England.

His plans go awry and Banerjee ends up in court pleading guilty to an earlier murder. Whilst we may have little sympathy for the man himself, the show he created was truly a sensation in its time.

There are other documentaries on this subject which are far more detailed in the police investigations and the cat and mouse game of catching the murderer and consequently far more exciting and interesting.

On the whole I found this film rather dull.

This rather conventional TV-movie takes as its gimmick the fact that it is about the Chippendale Dancers, the first group of men who professionally danced for women. The film is a basic story of rise to power, seduction by greed, and fall from power. Along the way, we have the eye-candy of young hunks doing various types of striptease. This is not one of the better USA Network TV-movies, but it can provide a mild diversion.