Sweet Charity (1969)

"Rocky Horror" is one of the few screen adaptations of a stage musical that' actually works. I'd argue the Russell-Wood "Gypsy" is another.

OP “Full on hippie” had taken off in CA by 1965, first in SF and certainly by 1966. Read the essays in Didion’s 1979 “The White Album” mostly magazine pieces first published in the mid-60’s.

It never got made into a movie musical, justifiably, but Jerry Herman’s “Mack and Mabel” has some great songs and the worst book imaginable.

R1, I think the "Rhythm of Life" number in the Broadway show was staged as if the chorus what used to be called "beatniks" in thrall to "Big Daddy," who is presented as the founder of a religion founded on jazz.

The original Broadway production was conceived as a wonderfully wacky and satiric cartoon with highly stylized and minimal sets.

The movie OTOH with its inevitably realistic settings and locations often becomes maudlin and and simply too real. OP, as you mention, those few musical numbers were wisely shot by Fosse to be performative and escape the ordinary realism of the rest of the film.

I think t's impossible from valley of the dolls sounds like there's gotta be something. Can anyone else hear it?

No, R5. The tempo and some of the syncopations are similar, but the time signature and the melody of the two songs are very different.

R2 Popism: The Warhol Sixties! does a really good job of describing how the whole aesthetic morphed from beatnik to hippie. Everything changed aesthetically very quickly in 1968 but this movie doesn't really reflect any of that change.

The “Rhythm of Life” sequence seems to understand the counterculture about as well as the sitcoms of the time did, which is not very well.

The basis for the original Broadway production, Fellini’s “Nights of Cabiria”, is perhaps my number one film of all time. The sequence where she hides overnight in the closet is very similar, right down to the pratfalls, in both films.

I absolutely love this movie, OP, which is odd, because although I am a musical theater lover, I can count on one hand how many stage-to-screen transfers I enjoy. More than that, I prefer the movie over the stage show.

It is very, very maudlin, much to it's detriment, but so is the source material, Nights of Cabiria (that film being even darker). The scene when she goes to apply for a job and they think it's a setup joke is humiliating, but she's such a sport for going through with it. I've felt that way when I knew I was underqualified at a job interview. That scene is not in the stage version.

And the ending is a heartbreaker. I liked the moving of Where Am I Going to the end after Oscar walks out, and she tries to save face when calling her friends back at the Fandango.

This used to be my go-to "break up" movie I'd watch and sob to when my man done me wrong. But now, as a grownup, I see it as a truly optimistic ending about a person finding their INDEPENDENCE. And that to me is the greatest part of the story, and the best possible payoff.

I saw a local theater production of Sweet Charity in the spring. I know the endings in the show and movie are different, I prefer the movie when he walks out on her at the JP. But the production I saw, man, the Oscar was so good I burst into tears when he dumped Charity.

I actually PREFER the movie over the show, because it cuts a lot of the fat in the score (unfortunately also sacrificing "Baby Dream Your Dream," which would've been a showstopper with Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly. I like "My Personal Property" much more than "Charity's Soliloquy" etc.

And Fosse is at his choreographer genius best here. Even my friends who hate musicals recognize "Big Spender" and "Rich Man's Frug" as high pop-art.

[quote]The “Rhythm of Life” sequence seems to understand the counterculture about as well as the sitcoms of the time did, which is not very well.

The number is a satire of the counterculture, a joke song about a religion based on jazz. ("And the voice said, 'Daddy, there's a million pigeons waiting to be hooked on new religions....")

R10, I agree with much of what you wrote, but "My Personal Property" is a replacement for "You Should See Yourself," not for "Charity's Soliloquy," even though the latter was also cut from the movie (wisely, as it would never have worked in a movie).

Another vote for “My Personal Property”.

The movie ending of “Charity” very closely aligns with the ending of “Nights of Cabiria” with the young people giving her hope.

But the ending of “Cabiria” makes me bawl like a baby.

I just wish Fosse had not kept pausing “I Love to Cry at Weddings” as it kills the flow and it’s such a fun song.

I saw the movie before I saw the show. I had liked My Personal Property OK until I heard You Should See Yourself which I like a lot better. I hate that they cut Charity's Soliloquy. Maybe, as some said above, it was wise for them to do so but I just hate it when they cut memorable numbers from movie versions like they did with Class or especially When Velma Takes the Stand in Chicago.

As far as the film version of Sweet Charity, I think some of the film's esthetics have not aged so well especially the constant zooms and the freeze frames. In the 60s everyone seemed to be going cuckoo with the in and out zooms. I think the films that refused to follow that trend like TSoM look far more sophisticated and classic nowadays.

R16, the movie is too long as it is. Losing those numbers doesn't hurt it but putting them in would have made the movie drag even more.

What about Shirley vs Gwen?

R16, You Should See Yourself and Charity's Soliloquy are kind of redundant and don't move the plot forward.

"You Should See Yourself" is a great song because it encapsulates a major point of the story: That Charity so badly wants someone to love her that she is willing to delude herself as to a man's true nature. "You should see yourself in my eyes," she sings -- just before the guy she's singing to steals her purse and throws her into a lake in Central Park.

"My Personal Property" is a nice, fun song but it really doesn't illuminate the character at all, and reportedly it was written to get money from the NYC tourism bureau!

Charity's soliloquy would not have worked in the movie because Charity sings it as direct address to the audience. You could argue that's also true of "I'm a Brass Band," but some people feel that number doesn't really work in the movie, either :-)

R3 I have that on a playlist along with Something Better than This lol

“I’m tissue paper on a comb!” is an inane lyric.

No it isn't, R22. The lyric lists all different types of music, from "the bells of St. Peter's in Rome" to "tissue paper on a comb." Sorry if you don't get it.

Like the person above, who posted that "The Rhythm of Life" doesn't understand the counterculture, whereas the real problem is that person doesn't understand the song.

You can see Gwen doing "I'm a Brass Band" and "If My Friends Could See Me Now" from The Ed Sullivan Show on YouTube.

Friends.

[quote]“I’m tissue paper on a comb!” is an inane lyric.

Silly you.

I never saw SC on stage until the 1985 revival with Debbie Allen. So much better than the movie. And funny! The movie is too depressing. They should have gone with the happy ending. But I do love Paula Kelly.

[quote]It never got made into a movie musical, justifiably, but Jerry Herman’s “Mack and Mabel” has some great songs and the worst book imaginable.

Same goes for "Chess."

I get that the resolved the whole point of Soliloquy with two or three lines from Charity's girlfriends but I still miss it. And I'm with R27 that the movie is seriously depressing. I don't know how the show ended originally but I liked the way the finished it in the Cristina Applegate version where she tells Oscar, "Up yours!" It's not a happy ending but it's a happier ending than the movie.

What’s the original ending of the Broadway show?

Gwen picks herself up out of the lake and says "did you ever have one of those days?" Ruth Buzzi runs onstage in a fairy princess costume and says that Tonight will be the night. She turns around and she has a sign advertising a new TV show. Charity says at least she didn't get tattooed this time and repeats the same dance she did at the beginning. Then a sign comes down saying "She lived hopefully ever after." Curtain.

The Applegate production was amazing. She really proved herself. I saw Molly Ringwald do it regionally as well—also very good.

Christina Applegate should have had a much bigger/better career, but she's had a lot of health issues.

Christina Applegate was terrific and I love that they put Charity's Soliloquy back after cutting it for the 1985 revival. And she was dancing on a broken foot! Very enjoyable production but Denis O'Hare could have brought it down a notch.

Yes, the ending of SWEET CHARITY in the original Broadway production was quite a lame ending to an overall terrific show, and definitely had to be rewritten for the movie (and for revivals).

It is also boring onstage.

Rhythm of Life with Sammi Davis and a very young Ben Vereen was phenomenal. I just think it was a little too much for its time. There is no choreographer since Foose who could fill the entire screen with dancers

I think the thing about SC is that, cinematically, it is so rooted in the 1960s. Never really blunt enough with Charity being basically a prostitute and my all-time favorite tell is the zoom-out camera work. First Charity is in a close-up and then the camera pulls away about 100 yards as she stands there with one hand stretched upwards and feet splayed.

As somebody mentioned above, the film versions of SC and “Nights of Cabiria” have a similar ending. In SC, Charity sadly sits on a bench in the park and a bunch of hippie kids (including Bud Cort) walk by and wish her peace. And Charity starts to smile.

“Cabiria” finds the heroine destitute and homeless , as Oscar has stolen her money and Cabiria has sold her home. She encounters a bunch of young Italian youth partying and their energy slowly has her smiling through her tears as she looks at the audience and smiles at us and nods at us good night. And I cry every time.

The endings of the Charities from 1966 to 2010.

I'm not a huge SC fan despite the fact the i was a HUGE Shirley Mac fan until I read 'Lucky Me' by her daughter. And to think Bob Fosse's next film was Cabaret, which imo is and was a masterpiece.

R39, Pauline Kael said that despite Cabiria's environment, it never changes her gullibility, which we finally see is her saving grace. Her walk was compared to Chaplin's and it inspired Charity's opening and closing dance.

I got to go to a one night only concert version with complete choreography of "Sweet Charity" where Debbie Allen, Donna McKechnie, Bebe Neuwirth, Chita Rivera AND Gwen Verdon shared the role of Charity. It was so cool. The scene where Charity was in the closet, Marla Maples as Ursula hit the door so hard Gwen who was hunched down actualy fell over and everybody gasped but she was fine.

I can only imagine that those of you who prefer the movie to the stage never saw the original Broadway production. Which was brilliant. Smart and sassy and never remotely sentimental or maudlin. And, of course those dances with Gwen and the comic timing of Helen Gallagher and Thelma Oliver (who?).

Wasn't there some hilarious review of Molly Ringwald as Charity that said her dancing resembled a frightened deer trying to jump over a snow bank?

If you saw the original Broadway production in 1966, you're around 80.

I'm 76, r46.

I saw the 1986 revival for Debbie Allen (although I saw it later in the run, with Ann Reinking, who was charming), and it had almost all the original staging and Fosse choreography, so I feel like i have a great idea of what the original looked like. The choreography for "Rich man's Frug" was almost exactly like that of the movie.

R44 R47, yeah but you look 45, right.

R43. And a chair poor John McMartin was sitting on broke. The most thrilling thing in that concert was Chita opening the show and everything she did after that.

I preferred Ann Reinking to Debbie Allen but I hated her wig. I also saw Bebe as Charity and, as usual, she was chilly.

Bebe seems like a bad choice for Charity but a good choice for either of the friends.

When I first watched it on home video, they kept the intermission which occurred during the stalled elevator scene. I thought that was strange place to have an intermission.

And not only did I see Gwen Verdon in SWEET CHARITY on Broadway, the following fall of 1967 I saw Chita Rivera as Charity in Boston (as a college student) in the national tour.

That original Broadway ending seems extremely anticlimactic.

Agreed, R54. It's as if they really had no idea how to end the show, so somebody -- presumably Neil Simon? -- came up with the joke about the good fairy, and they felt that was the best they could do.

I have very mixed feelings about the ending of the movie version. On the one hand, it is quite jarring that we suddenly are confronted with all these flower-children or "hippie" characters, when we have seen no evidence of such people for the entirety of the film up to that point. But on the other hand, the ending is bittersweet and moving, and it is modeled very closely on the ending of the source material, the movie NIGHTS OF CABIRIA. So I guess I have come to really appreciate that ending even if it is a bit jarring, for the reason I noted.