On Dec. 16, 1977, Paramount released Saturday Night Fever in theaters, where it would go on to gross more than $90 million domestically and then garner an Oscar nomination for John Travolta in the leading actor category at the 50th Academy Awards. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:

Saturday Night Fever is a kick, a film that ostensibly promises little more than a showcase for the highvoltage personality of TV’s John Travolta, but one that grows progressively more involved and involving as it explores the rites of passage of today’s urban teenagers. It even takes some of the shock of American Graffiti‘s closing title and builds it into the script.

The comparison to Graffiti is not gratuitous. Where the earlier film proffered a fond farewell to the innocence of the ’50s, Saturday Night suggests that while useful high spirits still remain, the innocence is long gone. Substitute now...