Sweet Charity

Taxi dancer Charity Hope Valentine (Shirley MacLaine) tries to have hope despite being pushed into a lake by her boyfriend Charlie. She meets the Italian movie star Vittorio Vitale (Ricardo Montalban) but his volatile statuette girlfriend returns. Then she's stuck in an elevator with flustered Oscar Lindquist (John McMartin). She tries to keep her real life a secret from him. Shirley MacLaine is great and there are a couple of terrific songs like 'Big Spender' and 'If They Could See Me Now'. She is a really funny broad. This is Bob Fosse's movie directorial debut. He shows that he can stage performances. The pacing does drag a little here and there. MacLaine is always there to pick up the movie when that happens. There is an alternate happy ending filmed. The movie works either way and its fun to see both.

This film adaptation of the Broadway hit updates the original it was based on, namely Federico Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria". "Sweet Charity" is set in the "hip" 60s, the times of "flower power" and bubble gum. Shirley MacLaine is wonderful as Charity, the "hooker with a heart of gold" who is determined to settle down with a good man and live a respectable life. Unfortunately Charity gets used and abused by most of them, until a shy, well mannered accountant offers her marriage. Thrilled about the prospects of settling down, Charity rushes to the marriage license bureau, only to have her "fiance" get cold feet (after he learns of all the "other" men Charity has known). Shattered and suicidal, Charity "gets her smile back" when "flower children" ask her to be their friend. -- Like "Nights of Cabiria", this film leaves the viewer heart broken, yet with a glimmer of hope: Never give up on your dreams and one day they will come true!

"Hey big spender" That's all I knew about Sweet Charity. A musical version of Federico Fellini's masterpiece "The Nights Of Cabiria" - I didn't think of Cabiria when I saw Charity on the screen. Shirley MacLaine's recreates and reinvents Giulietta Masina's Cabiria. That is something that very rarely works. But here in Bob Fosse's version, Cabiria has a new life, an American life, a song and dance life but just as sad. Sad but not hopeless. There is the spirit of Cabiria/Charity that will survive. Shirley MacLaine is magnificent. She manages to project that innocence that makes everything not just palatable but delicious.