Sweet Charity (1969) User Reviews (90)

Fosse's first

[buby1987 · 8/10 · 1 July 2005]

Sure, Bob Fosse sometimes indulges in trendy late-60's stylistic touches like freeze-frames and crash-zooms. Some of the jokes by Neil Simon are corny, and Shirley MacLaine can be a little hard to take sometimes. The film also suffers from the bloated, over-produced quality that infected most 60's major studio musicals.

The dull non-musical scenes are a chore to sit through, but when one of Fosse's amazing production numbers begins, Sweet Charity soars into the sublime. Fosse was quite simply a genius, and the great showcase numbers such as "Hey Big Spender" and "Rich Man's Frug" are as brilliant as any dance numbers ever put on film.

Shifting configurations of dancers, contorted body poses, dance steps that are by turns awkward and graceful, a studied contrast between clustering dancers and separating dancers -- it is hard to describe the magic of the Pompeii Club sequence. I've always felt that Fosse's choreography has the same sense of space and volume as Cubist painting.

Fosse's camera placement and camera movement capture an ideal "in-the-round" feeling of choreographed numbers that one cannot experience in the theater. For a first-time film director, Fosse revealed an amazing facility for the form. Usually theater directors don't take to the medium of film as quickly as Fosse did. Usually, theater directors make visually unexciting films that feel stage-bound. Not Fosse -- Sweet Charity, despite some flaws, doesn't play like a filmed stage play, it has the visual panache of Fellini and Godard.

Sweet Charity was just a warm-up, Fosse's personal film school at Universal's expense, before he truly mastered the form of film-making with the classic Cabaret.

A largely overlooked Musical Gem...

[ijonesiii · 8/10 · 30 November 2005]

Bob Fosse's first opportunity to direct a movie was the 1969 film version of his own Broadway musical SWEET CHARITY, a musical based on the film NIGHTS OF CABERIA, with a book by Neil Simon and music by Cy Coleman and Doothy Fields. The story is best described by the film's subtitle: "The Adventures of a Girl Who Wants to be Loved". Shirley MacLaine, taking over the title role from Fosse's wife and muse, Gwen Verdon, plays Charity Hope Valentine, a pathetic thing who has worked as a taxi dancer in the Fandango Ballroom for eight years and has basically been a doormat to men all her life. As her friend Nickie (Chita Rivera) explains, "You run you heart like a hotel...you got men checking in and checking out all the time." The story is told in a series of amusing and touching vignettes which lead to Charity meeting the possible man of her dreams, a milquetoast named Oscar Lindquist (John McMartin, reprising his Broadway role). This film died at the box office in 1969 and I'm not sure why except for the fact that this was a period when musicals just weren't being made anymore and that's a shame because the movie is extremely entertaining, thanks to the bravura performance by MacLaine as Charity and the extraordinary choreography by Bob Fosse. I can watch this movie over and over again just to watch the dance numbers. The raw sensuality of "Hey Big Spender"...the angular, disjointed and pointed moves of "Rich Man's Frug"...the Broadway exuberance of "There's Gotte be Something Better Than This", exuberantly danced by MacLaine, Rivera, and Paula Kelly...the brilliant jazzy classic Fosse moves of "Rhythm of Life"..and the pure joy of "I'm a Brass Band." All of Fosse's choreographic signatures are present here...the hats, the gloves, the turned in feet, the disjointed body parts, the expressionless dancer faces, it's all here to be watched and studied and marveled over. For dance purists and Fosse devotees, SWEET CHARITY is a must.

"I Don't Pop My Cork For Every Guy I See"

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 21 May 2009]

I notice that uncredited, but still making a vital contribution to this film was the original Broadway lead Gwen Verdon who assisted her then husband Bob Fosse with the choreography. This has to be one of the truly unselfish acts in a business that's built on ego.

Sweet Charity ran 608 performances on Broadway with a flock of Tony Award nominations including Gwen Verdon for the lead of Charity Hope Valentine and two Tony Awards for Bob Fosse for direction and choreography. Fosse came over to Hollywood to repeat his dual roles. But instead of Gwen doing the lead, Shirley MacLaine steps into the part and Gwen assists in the choreography. Quite frankly had she told Universal and her then husband to take their film and follow explicit directions what to do with it, who could have blamed her.

Yet there was Gwen Verdon, helping another performer do good in a part she created. Shirley MacLaine did do good in the role and it was a return to MacLaine's own musical roots. Shirley MacLaine has done so many dramatic roles and been Oscar nominated and once a winner for them, people do forget her beginnings were musical. Had she come along ten years earlier she would have been a great musical star. As it is she does have films like Can Can, Artists and Models, and What A Way To Go where we see Shirley singing and dancing. Her first big break was on Broadway replacing Carol Haney in Pajama Game.

Charity Hope Valentine, someone who is charging more than 10 Cents a Dance Depression prices in a dance hall keeps having the worst luck in men which is established early on when at the beginning a guy she was just getting interested in threw her off a bridge into Central Park lake and robbed her purse. The latest in a long line of romantic failures. But quite by accident she gets involved with two men, Italian film star Ricardo Montalban and insurance actuary John McMartin who is repeating his role from the original Broadway production.

The Cy Coleman-Dorothy Fields score is a bit cut down, but you couldn't do Sweet Charity without Hey Big Spender and If They Could See Me Now. In the latter Shirley's musical talents, singing and dancing, get their full range. It must have been something however to see Gwen Verdon cavorting around the Italian film star's apartment doing that soliloquy of finally hitting the big time and wishing her dance hall girls could see here.

As for the dance hall girls, Shirley's peers are led by best friends Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly who along with Shirley do the big production number of Hey Big Spender. Who wouldn't want a little quality time with any one of them.

And we get a special treat with Sammy Davis, Jr. doing the Rhythm Of Life church, a satire on those who claim religious tax exempt status for some interesting beliefs. It maybe his best musical moment in film.

The ending for a musical is rather unusual, I can't reveal, but nothing similar comes to mind at the moment. Though Shirley MacLaine is great, poor Gwen Verdon died having only had one of her Broadway hits filmed, Damn Yankees.

But Gwen was quite the girl helping someone else score a hit with her role.

Shirley MacLaine Channels Gwen Verdon

[drednm · 14 December 2013]

Shirley MacLaine is excellent in this underrated, brassy musical based on the Italian classic film, NIGHTS OF CABIRIA.

MacLaine plays Charity Hope Valentine, a sweet but rather clueless woman who works in a dance hall but yearns for love. She's constantly linking up with men who use her, take her money, dump her. The film opens with Charity in Central Park with her "boyfriend." Sitting on a bridge, she chirps about making a wish and throwing something off the bridge. The creep shoves her into the water.

She has two wiser-but-cynical pals, played by Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly. They seem resigned to their fates as dance hall girls but there's still an ember of hope for a better life.

Charity meets an Italian film star (Ricardo Montalban) and spend the night with him ... in his closet. She then meets a repressed man (John McMartin) in a stalled elevator and seems to have found happiness at last..... But is happiness in the cards for Charity? MacLaine seems to channel Gwen Verdon (who starred in the show on Broadway and who worked with MacLaine on the dance numbers) and excels in the many productions numbers, especially "If They Could See Me Now" and "Somebody Loves Me at Last." MacLaine also has a spirited rooftop dance number with Rivera and Kelly as they opine "There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This." The show-stopper is probably the "Big Spender" number which features MacLaine, Rivera, and Kelly with a line of dance hall girls who try to lure men to be their partners. It's a sensational number that shows Bob Fosse's choreographic skills and also demonstrates the cynical life of a dance hall girl.

Other great numbers include MacLaine and Montalban's visit to the Pompeii Club where the dancers go through a series of landmark Fosse dances. The lead dancer here is the sensational Suzanne Charny. Among the dancers are also Ben Vereen, Lee Roy Reams, and Chelsea Brown.

Sammy Davis turns up the heat with the "River of Life" number which shows Charity and Oscar (McMartin)seeking meaning and discovering the 60s counter culture. Then there's Stubby Kaye as the dance hall manager who throws Charity a wedding party and sings "I Love to Cry at Weddings." This is a hugely underrated musical filled with great music and production numbers. Big, bright, brassy, and brazen, what's not to love? MacLaine won a Golden Globe nomination.

Bob Fosse: Dance expresses joy better than anything else

[Galina_movie_fan · 7/10 · 5 September 2009]

My love and admiration for Federico Fellini/Guiletta Masina's film Nights of Cabiria had stopped me for long time from seeing Sweet Charity, the adaptation of the musical based on the same story which was made into a highly successful Broadway show directed and choreographed by a multi talented Bob Fosse. I am a fan of Bob Fosse. I love all his films, musicals and not, but I was hesitant to see Sweet Charity the movie and I never had a chance to see the Broadway musical. Well, I finally did and I can say that nothing is wrong with transporting the same story to the different time, place, language, medium, and to use the different artistic tools. The story is the same; the films are as different as Rome and NYC or as Federico Fellini and Bob Fosse. Fosse's film should be judged on its own terms, and it has a lot of breathtaking scenes to enjoy, bright colors, outrageously stunning costumes (the work of incredible Edith Head), adorable and unbelievably cute Shirley MacLaine, Sweet Charity Hope Valentine, and the best of all - the dancing sequences to die for. Among them, splendid The Big Spender is perfection and the real treasure. Fosse's staging of the musical numbers is outstanding. The most memorable moment in the movie for me was stolen from Shirley MacLaine by Chita Rivera in Big Spender. Just watch Rivera's seemingly boneless arms, the right one around her head and the left one behind her back, the left hand on her right hip as she sings, "do you want to have fun, fun, fun?" For this moment alone, I like the film even if I see very well that it has some minuses, too. The first act between two intermissions was really good, and it includes the best dancing and singing numbers: "Hey, Big Spender", "The Pompeii Club", "Rich Man's Frug", and "If They Could See Me Now". After the second intermission the movie went over the hill. I believe that it could do without both intermissions. We are not watching the show at the theater, and the intermissions only took time. The "hippiest" "Rhythm of Life" scene was overlong, did not make much sense, and made me want to fast-forward it. I take it that Fosse wanted to experience with the camera movements and different techniques in his very first feature film which was a screen transfer of his Broadway Musical. This is the only explanation of his multiple slow-motions, stills, color/black/white and back changes that did not add anything to the film, just paused it with no apparent reasons. His next screen adaptation was timeless Cabaret, and he had improved his directing style dramatically. As the result, Cabaret has stayed his greatest achievement along with All That Jazz.

Coming back to the original tragic comedy "Nights of Cabiria", of all the characters Fellini had given life on screen, by his own words, Cabiria was the only one he worried about many years after the film was made. Of all the characters, I've seen in films, Cabiria is the one I often think about - whatever happened to her? Did she survive? Was she able to find love? As much as I like Shirley MacLaine/Charity, I did not worry about her future. She lived happily ever after - in both movie endings, theatrical and alternative.

A well crafted musical

[HotToastyRag · 7/10 · 26 June 2017]

In Sweet Charity, Shirley MacLaine plays Charity, the original hooker with a heart of gold. Well, that's not entirely true; Sweet Charity is a remake of the Italian film The Nights of Cabiria, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film of 1957. In any case, the hooker with a heart of gold archetype is embodied by the protagonist in this story.

While the Italian film is depressing beyond belief—Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the movie and have seen it many times—the musical is slightly different. There are many dramatic, depressing musicals, and this isn't one of them. It's fun and colorful with uplifting songs, a lighter title, and a generally sunny disposition. I won't spoil anything, but if you're looking for a downer, try Oliver instead.

Shirley MacLaine is darling! I know, it seems like I'm always talking about how cute she is, but she is particularly adorable and charming as Charity. Shirley got her start as a dancer, and in this movie, she's able to really show off her skills (and her legs). It's a Bob Fosse musical, so if you've never seen his choreography before, prepare yourself for a very different type of dancing. Dancers will stand perfectly still for several beats, breaking the stillness by a single shoulder shrug or finger flick. It's a very controlled, intense, stylized kind of dancing, one that uses a Hollywood camera to its advantage. The dance numbers are beautifully directed and framed in each shot. Usually, you'll either love Bob Fosse or hate him, so it might be a determining factor in your enjoyment of the film.

It's difficult to pull off the heart of gold hooker role convincingly. In my opinion, Giulietta Masina conveys the "seedy hooker" aspect of the character a little better in the original version, but it's also a darker, sadder film, so that makes sense. In Sweet Charity, Shirley MacLaine chews gum and sports a heart tattoo on her shoulder, but that's about it. Still, she nails the hopeful, utter faith in human nature aspect, which delights audiences and draws them into her story.

When I first watched the movie, I wasn't really too impressed with the songs. Now that I'm older and have written three musicals myself, I actually like Cy Coleman's and Dorothy Fields' creations better. For me, part of what makes an effective musical song is if the melody conveys the words of the song, even if the words are hidden. In "Big Spender", the famous song all the streetwalkers sing to a potential customer, the melody captures the boredom they feel, as well as the frustration simmering underneath. You can really feel it's a song that's been sung a hundred times a night. In "If They Could See Me Now", another famous song that Shirley MacLaine sings with a top hat and cane, it actually sounds like it's being sung on her tiptoes, while she's excited and afraid if she shouts it'll echo off the walls. And finally, one of my favorites, "There's Gotta be Something Better Than This": you can truly feel the frustration boiling over as the girls finally declare they've had enough of their terrible lives. To see what I mean, watch the YouTube clip of the song, and if you like it, rent the movie!

Nights of Fosse

[Quinoa1984 · 7/10 · 1 January 2020]

This is loaded to the brim with that dancing and just general idiosyncratic "cool" feeling that made Fosse who he was as a creator. "Big Spender" and "If My Friends Could See Me Now" are all-timer Musical numbers in film history. And yeah, a couple of the numbers have certainly dated (hearing Sammy Davis tell a bunch of Broadway Hippies to "Sock it to me" in the "Rhythm of Life" number is worth a major eye-roll), plus Fosse's attempts to do uh La Jetee type still image montages at a couple of points. However, Shirley MacLaine is often so moving in a role that others might have played a little less intensely felt (what sold me was the job interview scene, which is just about perfect, but her comic timing is impecable). She's adorable but also very serious as a person, which is hard to pull off. It's big and flashy and a little bit silly (I like to call Ricardo Montalban Casanova Khan in this), and the director jumps off from Fellini and Neil Simon (in a Peter Stone script) for as much audacious advantage as he can. Not all of it works, but it's far from a "disaster" like Pauline Kael called it. 7.5/10

Shirley MacLaine/ Giulietta Masina

[damian-fuller · 9/10 · 7 November 2017]

"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.

Shirley MacLaine is a really funny broad

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 17 November 2014]

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.

Fosse's first film (and big bomb) is remarkable

[zetes · 10/10 · 12 August 2002]

There's just something about this movie that I love. I had seen bits and pieces of it some half a dozen times in the past couple of years. Tonight I finally sat and watched all of it. In theory it sounds like blasphemy: a musical remake of Fellini's Nights of Cabiria. But somehow first time director Bob Fosse pulls it off, and enormously well. Fosse is daring and innovative in his direction. Not just in the musical numbers, where you would expect it, but in every scene. He plays, and he's obviously having a ball. After the direction, a high percentage of the film's success is due to Shirley MacLaine, who was never better as Charity Hope Valentine. As much as I love and care for Giullieta Masina's Cabiria, I love and care for MacLaine's Charity. She's such an enormously lovable character, and MacLaine is simply brilliant. Her comic timing is impeccable. Sweet Charity also proves an interesting time capsule of late 60s New York City. In the scene cognate to the Picadilly Club in Nights of Cabiria, we visit a trendy night club where the girls where blue feathers as hats. Clips of Cleopatra (the one with Claudette Colbert) and an unidentifiable W.C. Fields movie play on a big screen in the background. We visit a religious ceremony for hippies who sing The Rhythm of Life. Sammy Davis Jr. is the priest! In Cabiria, a parade of young people cheer her at the end of the film. In Sweet Charity, a group of hippies, amongst them a young Bud Cort, hand out flowers in the morning, just saying good morning to everyone they meet. This movie was a huge bomb when first released. Fosse is actually really lucky they gave him another chance at direction, and then he made a film instantly recognizable as a masterpiece, Cabaret. Sweet Charity did not deserve to fail so miserably. Just the fickle fingers of fate, I guess.

"To feel the powerful beat"

[Steffi_P · 6/10 · 2 October 2011]

The 1960s threw up some interesting musicals, the last of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein/Lerner and Loewe offerings, rubbing shoulders with a new breed for the hippy generation. Perhaps no other movie musical seems more typically a product of the decade than this. Taking its plot from one of those trendy European movies (The Nights of Cabiria), it references the youth politics of the times, as well as the more explicit sexuality that was permissible with the breakdown of the production code.

Appropriately enough, the Cy Coleman score successfully blends the big brassy sound of burlesque with the melodic folky sound that was then en vogue. It's a score of rather mixed quality, with such mighty numbers as "The Rhythm of Life", "Big Spender" and "If My Friends Could See Me Now" making up for filler material like "My Personal Property" and "It's a Nice Face". The arrangements here are very nice, with strong walls of sound and some wonderful harmony and counterpoint on "The Rhythm of Life".

This was the feature debut of choreographer-turned-director Bob Fosse. Fosse's approach here is typical of directors with a stage background – he seems a bit overawed by the possibilities of the camera, throwing pans and zooms all over the shop. His aim is at a fully musical form, but it is massively overdone, for example going into unfocused blurs for "My Personal Property". However his capability as an arranger of people is magnificent, using advanced musical technique to create asymmetrical dances. For "Big Spender", you can see the hand movements of the various women moving each doing its own dance, some on the beat, others in double time. At the beginning of this number, there's a shot of three women turning their heads not quite in unison, like the dance equivalent of an arpeggio.

Although Shirley MacLaine was an accomplished singer she did relatively few musicals. Her performance here is rather lightweight, all giggles and twee poses, rather embarrassing considering what she is capable of. As to her co-stars, John McMartin is not bad, just bland. It's nice to see Italian exploitation actor Ricardo Montalban in a Hollywood movie, but in this context he does rather have "We couldn't get Omar Shariff" written all over him. Sammy Davis Jr. is the most welcome sight here. Kudos to the old Ratpack star for putting on the psychedelic threads and grooving on down.

A major problem with Sweet Charity is its lack of structure and cohesion, a problem that probably stems most of all from the stage production. Although "The Rhythm of Life" is a great set-piece, it barely relates to the rest of the picture. The device of putting the intermission during the lift scene, cliff-hanger style, doesn't really work because this is actually one of the weakest scenes in the whole piece. It doesn't have the emotional high needed to carry us through to the second half. As a series of titled dances at the actors' party more or less formalises, the picture seems at last to be not much more than a showcase for Bob Fosse's choreography. And this is by no means a bad thing, especially when it's to the music of Cy Coleman. It's just a shame that the choreographer's camera acrobatics and paltry ability at directing dramatic scenes get in the way, padding this out to a somewhat dull two-and-a-half hours.

MacLaine, Fosse & Fellini Make a Musical Comedy

[Kennedy63 · 10/10 · 25 August 2007]

While "Sweet Charity" was being filmed, almost 40 years ago, Shirley MacLaine was a song and dance actress with a body and matching charm that wouldn't quit.

Bob Fosse was the rising choreographer of MacLaine's and so many other dancers' dreams, in this, his first major musical.

Fellini was a brilliant director.

In hindsight, MacLaine's career may have been royally jump-started by "Sweet Charity." As a dance hall hooker, more or less, her character, Charity Hope Valentine, was looking for Mr. Goodbar--a man with money to marry.

Her classic song, "If they could see me now," comes from this musical and as scene where she found one such guy. Nearly 2 scores later, MacLaine is still playing leading characters with the same comical charm and extraordinary talent; still singing hits like "I'm still here," in "Postcards from the Edge," and has out lasted both famous men.

What I've always loved about Shirley MacLaine's characters is that even though they are supposed to be sexy, like Charity, as a dance hall hooker, she makes them into charming, funny, and innocuously cute-sexy rather than sleazy women. In fact, it's her trademark to do so. "Irma la Douce" is another fine example.

Though MacLaine could have easily used her dancer's body to seduce us to the pinnacle of the stage and screen, she uses her multiple talents instead. And she is "still here!"

Sweet Charity needed the alternate ending

[trylontheatre1 · 7/10 · 20 September 2016]

I really liked this movie until the ending. Yes, the original ending in the Broadway show and the film has an unhappy ending, but for me it just doesn't work. The character of Charity is such a sweet person and she deserved a happy ending. This is not WEST SIDE STORY. Having an upbeat motion picture and it ending like it does with Charity having no future is not what the audiences in 1969 wanted to see. In the end Charity she has no husband, job or friends. What kind of future does she have? The only ending for Charity is to kill herself. I think the unhappy ending hurt the film's box office. People left the theatre feeling real depressed. What a downer. The alternate ending was uplifting and left you feeling good.

Big, splashy musical bursts at the seams with flash and style, but still feels empty.

[gbrumburgh-1 · 5/10 · 26 October 2002]

Ya gotta have heart...as they say in the song. But `Sweet Charity,' a story of a luckless girl's neverending search for true love, doesn't. It sings a lot...a LOT!...but it never really SINGS. Lord knows, it knocks you over the head in its attempt. Dancer/director Bob Fosse (in his debut) throws lots of pizzazz and pop art distractions our way, but he can't disguise the fact that underneath all the gaudy hoopla is a simple story that's begging to be told, well, more simply. It's hard to care for this girl when her story is buried under tons of unnecessary spectacle. Dancer/director Gene Kelly had the same problem with `Hello, Dolly!' Maybe it has something to do with a dancer's visual and flashy sense of style. When in doubt...accessorize! Oh well, whatever mistakes Fosse made with this one, he redeemed himself twelve-fold with `Cabaret' a few years later.

Shirley MacLaine is a smart, obvious choice to handle the midadventures of Charity Hope Valentine. MacLaine has been down this road many times before...the kooky loser, the prostitute with a heart of gold. Her credentials include some of the best: "Some Came Running," "The Apartment," and "Irma la Douce." As Charity, MacLaine is pure show biz. She gamely takes on all of Fosse's garish extras and doesn't get lost, but it's a strenuous, no-holds-barred performance and it shows. She has much to compete with and Fosse doesn't help things by foisting every imaginable 1969 techno flash invented on her - scores of stills, jarring zoom-shots, pop art psychedelics, you name it -- giving everything a choppy feel to it. Every dramatic scene oozes pathos and bathos. Every hopeful scene gushes with giddiness. Every song comes out of the starting gate bigger, glitzier, more manic, more depressing, more invigorating, and, ultimately, less effective than the one preceding it. From Shirley's dizzy 'Somebody Loves Me' sequence as she dances about New York City to the wide-eyed `If They Could See Me Now'; from the relentlessly somber `Where Am I Going' to the relentlessly overdone `I'm a Brass Band,' every souped-up song for Charity chips away at the heart and soul of her...making her more of a cartoon and showcase for a big star. With all due respect to MacLaine, I often wonder what Fosse's then-wife at the time, Gwen Verdun, who originated the role on Broadway, might have done. The multiple Tony-winning dancer/actress was not a bankable film star and had the same kind of thin, reedy voice as MacLaine, but there is a built-in frailty and openness in Verdun that might have better suited the role.

As for the support staff, John McMartin as Oscar, a prospective suitor/savior, is rather bland and lost in all the chaos, a dim memory by picture's end. Ricardo Montalban is typically suave and narcissistic while Barbara Bouchet is breathtakingly beautiful, but both of them are forgettable too. Stubby Kaye, usually a sunny scenestealer, doesn't get to show off his stuff as well this time with only a so-so version of "I Love to Cry at Weddings." Groovy Rat Packer Sammy Davis Jr.'s brief time on the screen gives the movie a time capsule feel with his `un-cool' version of `The Rhythm of Life.'

The true star is, of course, Fosse's trail-blazing choreography. Paula Kelly and Chita Rivera, as two of Charity's dance hall pals, add electricity to the seedy surroundings as they front the chorus of come-on gals in the crackling `Hey, Big Spender' number and join MacLaine in a soaring version of `There's Got to Be Something Better Than This.' The highlight, however, belongs to the kitschy `Frug' sequence. Fosse is at his best here though the sequence seems out of sync with the rest of the movie. For me, it's a natural tape rewinder.

Part of the problem (for those of us art-house snobs anyway) is the genuine awe we feel for `Nights of Cabiria,' Fellini's foreign masterpiece from whence this musical came. After seeing the tiny, Chaplinesque Giulietta Massina whose sad clown eyes spoke volumes as the gutsy, pitiable streetwalker determined to find love and a life of respect, much of "Sweet Charity" rings hollow and over-the-top.

There is entertainment value for sure, for anything by Fosse is definitely worth a look. But the heart of this movie is about as fake as the heart tattooed on Charity's shoulder. It becomes much ado about nothing.

Very entertaining!

[Xanadu-2 · 14 October 2004]

I've seen Sweet Charity a few times before without really thinking about it. Certain images remained, especially the Pompeii Club dance and the famous Big Spender scene. Then I read that this was the legendary Bob Fosses first film, that it was big a Hollywood production and that it flopped at the box office. Why? This intrigued me and I finally got hold of a copy. Thankfully the widescreen DVD to see the whole film at its best!

I was expecting a big so-so musical but it was very good! Not the very best but one of the better big sixties musicals. There's not much of a story, a prostitute wants a better life. I was worried that maybe Shirley McLaine would be too saccharine or too old for the part, but she was great. She wasn't pathetic as the girl who gets dumped by men, just another survivor in a big city. Naive but not cute.

It looks like a movie to take the whole family to enjoy but how many brought their kids along to watch a prostitute? (Although nothing rude happens at all.) It's very tame. Younger people at the time thought musicals were square and went to see 'Easy Rider' instead.

*SPOILER* So this movie had no audience except musical lovers who didn't like the downer ending since they expected happy endings! (The alternate ending on the DVD works better and is not too sugary. Fosse thought it corny.)

It's an interesting time capsule of the late sixties. It probably grew old quickly but today it's a camp joy to see all the great sixties fashions! Quite groovy, coming from Hollywood chief designer Edith Head!

The movie starts slow and is too long (2½ hours!) with overtures and an intermission! No one, I guess, had THAT much patience with it. It wasn't Gone with the wind! Perhaps big musicals had fallen out of taste with audiences at the time. There were several other big musical flops at the end of the sixties. HUGE Hollywood productions like Star!,Dr. Dolittle, Hello Dolly, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, On a Clear Day, bombed.

The choreography by Fosse is great! He made too few movies! There are a few similarities with his his next film, Cabaret. The decadent dances at the Fandango and Pompeii clubs and the 'Fickle finger of fate' scene which reminds me of the scene with Liza Minelli and Michael York under a train bridge about to yell.

Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly bring a lot of life to the film too. Oscar is a little dull. What would he be doing in a colorful hippie congregation???? Just an excuse for more fab Fosse footwork! The parade scenes in New York are proof of McLaine's excellent dancing. This a forgotten musical classic waiting to be rediscovered!

Shirley Maclaine Is Perfect For This Film

[kseemoe · 7/10 · 1 April 2003]

Great Sets, choreography, music, cast. "If They Could See Me Now" is worth the price of admission. "I'm A Brass Band" is also a highlight. Somewhat depressing story line makes this a happy/unhappy experience. But if you haven't seen it, give it a whirl. I hear the DVD has an alternate ending, which may be a good idea!

A Case For The Alternate Ending

[rasithrill · 6/10 · 23 March 2010]

Neither this movie nor the two endings are that good in my book, I never saw the Fellini movie that "Sweet Charity" is based on and I love a sad, "realistic" ending as much as the next person. But with the way this movie is written, it doesn't make sense to me for Oscar to leave Charity hanging at the altar.

Maybe if he found out what she does for a living after he asked her to marry him it would make more sense. Then he might feel some obligation to go through with the marriage even though he was having serious second thoughts, and that could lead to him backing out of it at the last minute. But the way this movie is written, he not only found out about her life before asking her to marry him, he found out before he told her he loved her. There were no serious ties between them, he had all the time in the world to keep dating her and mulling it over (if he wanted to use that time), yet he still came to the conclusion that nothing else mattered and they had to be together.

To me that isn't the thought process of a man who is going go flip-flop on his decision. And if he does flip, what's to stop him from flopping right back hours later and deciding he was a fool for leaving Charity ... which brings us back to the alternate end.

Like I said, neither end is satisfying to me. But at least the alternate one makes more sense. In the original one even Oscar can't explain why he's leaving her.

Underrated Bob Fosse

[danielll_rs · 7/10 · 3 November 2001]

SWEET CHARITY (1969) 8/10

Director/choreographer Bob Fosse is probably most known for his Oscar winning CABARET, maybe for his semi-auto-biographical ALL THAT JAZZ, some even remember him from LENNY, but none remembers of SWEET CHARITY nowadays. Strange, because the songs are great, Shirley MacLaine is terrific as the title character and this is a remake of Fellini's NIGHTS OF CABIRIA.

One of the greatest merits of SWEET CHARITY is that it's one of the films that best portrays the late '60s. It seems that someone has smoken pod, because this is a colorful, out of control, over-the-top musical, but also uneven and very long- and the male lead is unconvincing. Despite all that, this is one of the most original musicals I've ever seen, mostly because of Bob Fosse, Shirley MacLaine and the style- not to talk about a very convincing Ricardo Montalban playing an Italian movie star. The ending is a bit depressing, but realistic and original- I loved it!

SWEET CHARITY is not a classic, but it's one of the last fine musicals. It's worth a rent at the video store.

Vastly underrated! Seek Out This Gem!

[aceellaway2010 · 10/10 · 31 January 2015]

I watched this movie for the 'umpteenth time again last night. I saw it when it first came out, and have encouraged people over the years to search it out.

Checking the Oscar nominations, for 1970, it's shocking it was so neglected. I do remember a British magazine "Films & Filming" did award their Best Actress that year to Shirley Maclaine for Charity. To consider detail and depth that Shirley brings to her role, and to not even get nominated is just plain ridiculous. Particularly when you consider some of the winners for that and other years. Bob Fosse's direction is also a revelation. At the time the "freeze frame" was relatively new, and the way he uses it to reveal, Character, events and plot is wonderful Think of the images of Shirley after being dumped by Charlie an meeting Vittorio, or her dates with Oscar, and then their usage during "I love to cry at weddings' to indicate the problems that Oscar is having with Charity's past. I cannot believe Vincent Carby's New York Times review, it appears to be an attack on Shirley Maclaine( I think because he seems to think she was somehow at fault for Gwen Verdon not getting the part). To think that he was a supposedly qualified Film Critic and to come up with this ridiculous "review" which faults the performer's acting/ dancing and singing, is scandalous. My only reservation about the film is the ending, hen the words "..and she lived hopefully ever after" are flashed on the screen, it implies that Charity Hope Valentine never did find happiness, and I like to think that she did.

She's an eternal optimist who laughs through her tears!

[moonspinner55 · 7/10 · 28 October 2007]

Episodes in the luckless-romance department of a modern-day dancehall cutie in New York City, who seems to date nothing but losers. She chances to meet a handsome Italian movie star--who treats her like Queen For a Minute--and then finds herself stuck in an elevator with a nervous bachelor...but how can she tell him she's in "the rent-a-body business"? Making his debut as director, choreographer Bob Fosse took a distinctive and dynamic sense of style with him when he passed, and musical comedy has never been the same! This adaptation of the 1966 Broadway hit (originally adapted to the stage by Neil Simon by way of Federico Fellini's film "Le Notti di Cabiria" from 1957) is top-heavy with its creampuff story, but there are bits of Fellini's garish style evident in Fosse's handling (particularly at the finale, which mirrors the '57 film). Shirley MacLaine does a fine job as the dancehall hostess (and sometime-prostitute, though this is only alluded to) whose rare shot at happiness might be destroyed by her sordid surroundings. Her boundless enthusiasm--and Fosse's flashy presentation--carries the picture a long way to the iffy finish line. The narrative boxes Charity in at the last gate, and her predicament with her straight-arrow suitor isn't worked out satisfyingly (there's an alternate ending, and it's even worse). John McMartin tries hard in a hopeless role: he's decent at times and noble, he's touchingly square, but then his character becomes a spineless weasel (it's a sour turn of events). The ladies are all terrific, and the splashy production numbers never halt the story: they're the movie's greatest asset. Three Oscar nominations, including for Cy Coleman's sparkling score. *** from ****

Musical inspired by Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria"

[mdm-11 · 9/10 · 16 October 2004]

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!

Gimmicky musical.

[gridoon · 7/10 · 25 December 1999]

A spirited, energetic but perhaps overly gimmicky musical. Some of the gimmicks work, and result in highly imaginative scenes. Other gimmicks (most of the "freeze-frame" tricks, for example) don't work, and simply seem unnecessary and distracting. Most of the songs aren't particularly memorable, and some dance numbers, although spectacularly staged, go on too long and sometimes start looking redundant. But this musical is distinguished by its surprising amounts of substance, which make it a lot more thoughtful than you might expect. Definitely worth seeing.

The Reason Films are Made!

[mistybunny_27 · 10/10 · 26 October 2006]

Bob Fosse's masterpiece and most amazing film creation, 'Sweet Charity' has to be the top of my list for musical/romance/comedy enjoyment. I have watched this film well over 50 times, and still it never tires me. Shirley MacLaine's performance as the title star, Charity Hope Valentine, is award-winning! Her genuine, lovable character really brings the film to life as you begin to know and understand her throughout it. I remember feeling immense sadness for her each time her love for another man is abused, and its films that bring emotion like that out of you that are one of the greats! The ending is truly captivating, and her faith in hope creates a fantastic feeling for the close of this wonderful movie, hopefully ever after.

Overly-long with weak second half

[jamesrupert2014 · 6/10 · 30 August 2019]

Shirley MacLaine is 'Charity Hope Valentine', a dance hall rental-girl with romantic dreams in this film version of the Broadway play directed by Bob Fosse. There are a couple of show-stopping tunes in the first half ("Hey, Big Spender", "If My Friends Could See Me Now") and an excellent, if weird, dance number ("Rich Man's Frug"), but after Charity meets potential 'Mr. Right' Oscar Lindquist (John McMartin), the story starts to drag, especially during the endless "I'm a Brass Band" number, which features gimmicky dance-marching to a tedious song with silly lyrics. The film is badly dated in places (especially the 'hippie' scenes) and most of the shots of Charity jubilantly running around New York look like the openings of 1970's sitcoms about 'empowered women'. MacLaine is fine, as is Broadway stalwart Stubby Kaye ("I Love to Cry at Weddings" is the only good song in the second half), but McMartin is as bland as his character supposed to be. Fosse's choreography is excellent but the gimmicky freeze frames, slo-mo, jump-cuts, reverse shots, etc. do nothing to enhance the film and many scenes just run on too long. Worth watching if only for the highlights and MacLaine's infectious bubbliness but far from the standards of the great 1960's Hollywood musicals. The story about the alternate 'happy' ending (included in some packages and available on-line) is interesting.

Others love it--I was not so impressed.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 17 March 2013]

"Sweet Charity" is about the adventures of a terminally optimistic 'woman of easy virtue' (Shirley MacLaine) who seems to be happy no matter what horrible things are thrown her way. While the prostitution angle is highly de-emphasized (which is odd, given it was made in the later part of the swinging 60s and in the original she was CLEARLY a prostitute), she is a 'dance hall hostess'. But she also is very dumb--a terrible judge of character and some one who always seems to be bouncing from one problem to another. Through the course of this film, you hope that somehow things will finally work out for this sweet but ditsy lady.

"Sweet Charity" is a hard sell for me. This is because the musical is based on Fellini's film "Nights of Cabiria"--a technically well made but incredibly unpleasant film that I saw twice. Why twice? Because it is very, very highly touted as one of his best films but one that left me so depressed that I couldn't understand why anyone would want to actually watch it. Imagine--the film is about a sweet prostitute who is constantly being abused, disappointed and degraded. Not pleasant stuff, that's for sure.

It's also a hard-sell because it's a movie so deeply entrenched in the late 60s that it has not aged well. The best example is the bizarre dance numbers that occur when the Italian actor (a miscast Mexican-born Ricardo Montalban) takes her to a trendy club. The dance numbers look almost like a combination of Italian high fashion of the day which is performed by a bunch of Twiggy-like models and was designed by Andy Warhol and Richard Avedon!! It may have seemed really cool in the day, but now it just comes off as bizarre...very, very bizarre. And, very slow...as the dancers keep blank expressions while they move in a manner that requires the minimum of energy! It's just strange and goes on, seemingly, forever.

Now I did not thoroughly dislike the movie--but I did dislike it. MacLaine was cute in the lead (though, oddly, her singing sounded very tinny and canned--but she could sing well so I don't blame her for this). And, if you love modern dance, then you'll most likely like the film--it just wasn't my taste but I could respect the effort it took to make this. Overall, not a particularly enjoyable film...at least for me.