Sweet Charity (1968)

This film was recently recommended to me by a very close friend, and I had to admit - with great embarrassment, given my love of musical theatre - that I was not previously familiar with it. However, I managed to find a DVD without too much trouble (apart from Currently Playing reviews, I am limiting myself to only reviewing movies that are in my personal collection; given that number is nearly 2100, I won't be running out of movies any time soon). And I have to say, thank you so much to this friend for the recommendation; this is a fantastic film, and a fantastic musical.

It follows the story of Charity Hope Valentine (Shirley MacLaine), who has never been lucky in love. She works as a dance hostess (her title) in a club, which pays good money, but she doesn't tend to get a lot of respect.

At the beginning of the film, she is filled with excitement, having just withdrawn her entire savings - all $427 of it - from the bank, so that she and her current boyfriend Charlie can settle down somewhere. But when he pushes her off the bridge in the middle of Central Park and runs away with all her money, everyone tells her that he isn't coming back.

The eternal optimist, Charity doesn't give up on him that easily. But she soon comes to realise that indeed he is not coming back, and she should just chalk it up to experience.

Charity (Shirley MacLaine), flanked by Nickie (Chita Rivera) and Helene (Paula Kelly).

Meeting Italian film star Vittorio Vitale (Ricardo Montalban) one night, the two of them share the evening together, and Charity thinks maybe he could be the one; all she wants in her life is someone to love and to love her in return. But he is too smitten with gorgeous Ursula (Barbara Bouchet).

Her friends (and co-dancers at the club) Nickie (Chita Rivera) and Helene (Paula Kelly) start to think about what they might be able to do when they retire from dancing. Charity decides she too wants a more respectable job, and goes to an employment agency. The only trouble is, she doesn't have any experience in anything else, and with no education to speak of, her prospects of finding other employment aren't great.

Coming out of this appointment, dejected and down, she meets Oscar (John McMartin). At first, it seems they couldn't be a worse match for each other, but the two become very close, and even become engaged to be married.

I won't say any more about the plot here, I'll leave that for you to discover (if you haven't already seen the film, that is).

The moment Charity (Shirley MacLaine) and Oscar (John
McMartin) meet for the first time.

Based on the smash-hit Broadway musical, with book by Neil Simon, music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields, the screenplay for this film - by Peter Stone - is quite good. It follows the musical quite closely, including an intermission at the end of what would be Act I on stage, with the only real exception being the ability to stage large-scale musical numbers outside and indeed at real locations in New York (there are scenes in Central Park, Yankee Stadium, Times Square and the Lincoln Center, to name just a few).

The cinematography by Robert Surtees is wonderful, with the camera often being positioned right in the centre of the action. And when this action is a large-scale musical/dance number, being right in the middle of it is quite an experience.

Of course, when watching this as a stage musical, you are free to look wherever you like during the performance, but when you're watching the film, you can only look at what the camera is showing you. Naturally, this means that the musical's choreography had to be adjusted slightly, to allow for the movement of the camera. But the decisions that have been made with regard to where the audience is looking are all decisions that in my opinion were made well.

Charity (Shirley MacLaine) and Oscar (John McMartin).

The director Bob Fosse, who also acted as choreographer, was in fact the director of the musical's premiere on Broadway. Indeed, by the time this film was made, he was highly regarded on Broadway, having won five Tony Awards. But he had never directed a film, until he directed this one. His expertise as a stage director and choreographer shines through in every scene, and it is magnificent. He himself has said he felt a little out of his depth at times while making the film, but was grateful to the talented cast and crew he was working with, who brought their own collaborative skills to the table, and made a pretty good film out of it.

The cast are all fantastic, all the way down to the background singers and dancers. A highlight for me in the casting was Sammy Davis Jr. as Big Daddy, the leader of an underground church called The Rhythm of Life. His big musical number is absolutely fantastic, and definitely a high point of the film.

Once again, I must thank my friend Austin for recommending the film to me. I can't believe it's taken me this long to get around to watching it, but I am certainly glad I did.

8 1/2 out of 10.