After she is robbed and dumped by her boyfriend, taxi dancer Charity Hope Valentine (Shirley MacLaine) hopes for a better future.
Her spirits raised by an encounter with the movie star Vittorio Vitale (Ricardo Montalbán), Charity tries to find other employment.
After her latest rejection at an employment agency, Charity is trapped in an elevator with claustrophobic Oscar Lindquist (John McMartin).
Attracted to each other, they begin to date.
The one problem is that Oscar does not know what she does for a living.
As marriage bells start ringing, Charity wrestles with when to come clean to her fiancé…
After listening to the Blank Check podcasts’ recent deep dive into Bob Fosse’s career, I was curious to check out his filmography.
Celebrated on stage and screen, Fosse only made five films, but remains an influential figure on Broadway and on the big screen musical.
Going into this movie, my only experience with Fosse was watching Cabaret.
Cabaret was a deliberate reaction to Sweet Charity, so I was expecting its exact opposite.
Sweet Charity is often lumped in with other musicals of the late sixties which were seen as a chief signifier of the decline of the old studio system - too bloated, expensive, and disconnected from the current zeitgeist.
Other examples often cited are Hello Dolly, Dr Doolittle and Paint Your Wagon.
While Sweet Charity is too long, it is also ambitious and - despite its bright exterior - feels in tune with the darkness of his later works.
I cannot say I am fan, but watching the film, it was a fascinating study in watching a filmmaker figure out a new medium, and how to express what they find interesting.
That being said, it was not without its arduous moments, such as the opening sequence, which strains to capture the central character’s ebullience.
Stylistically, it is a good example of watching a new filmmaker experimenting with various techniques, and figuring out their own voice. Another ace in the movie’s favour is Robert Surtees’ sumptuous photography, filling every frame with vibrant colour and shadows.
But as these early scenes progressed, I started to get worried that the movie’s tone was not to my taste - I was too cynical to be in the right position to accept the movie on its own terms.
And then we get to the ‘Big Spender’ number, and the movie comes to life.
Lit by red lights, with chiaroscuro turning the clientele into smoking silhouettes, Fosse turns the dancers’ number into a pulsing, erotically charged ode to the pleasures of the flesh, with a slow build punctuated by moments of aggressive, jerky movements.
‘Big Spender’ is so locked in, in terms of the choreography and the filmmaking, that it upheld my doubts about the sugary opening sequences.
The film is more engaged by the world Charity wants to escape.
The film’s attempts at comedy are stilted, but when the movie focuses on sex and decadence, it comes to life. There is an understanding of camera, choreography and editing in these scenes that feels distinctive.
Another example is when Charity follows Vittorio Vitale (Ricardo Montalbán) into the exclusive Pompeii club.
Shot from over Charity’s shoulder, we are put in the position of the naive dancer as she enters this alien environment. In contrast to the club where Charity works, this is a chilly space, where well-dressed extras and dancers move robotically around the room, in black and white costumes. The stage performers move in unison, repeating the same moves in a parody of romance and frivolity.
Shirley MacLaine is too inherently mature and smart to fully convince as the naive, almost childlike Charity. Apparently, MacLaine’s performance was heavily influenced by that of the original production’s star Gwen Verdon.
Verdon was celebrated in the role onstage, and MacLaine’s performance was compared negatively to hers.
Verdon was married to Fosse at the time, but more significantly, was his most enduring and important collaborator. She worked with Macline behind the scenes, but knowing that only reinforces the sense of MacLaine trying on the facsimile of a ingenue.
MacLaine is a terrific actress, and I found her performance more affecting as the movie progressed. But her attempt to play a Pollyanna in the early scenes comes off as a caricature of good cheer.
Maybe I was getting adjusted to the film’s tone or Fosse-MacLaine have a better handle on the darker aspects of the character and scenario.
The scene where MacLaine clicked is when Charity applies for a job and realises she has no applicable skills.
Once she is paired with John McMartin, the movie gains a jolt of energy, and MacLine gets a scene partner to bounce off of.
Not only does he have great comic timing and physicality, he has great chemistry with MacLaine.
He also plays lower status to MacLaine, which made more sense. Maybe this is just subjective but it felt off for MacLaine to play low status to everybody.
Sammy Davis Jr is electric as the leader of the Tabernacle of the Rhythm of Life. By turns a firebrand preacher, gospel singer, rock god, and cult leader, he skates through all of these personas without dropping a beat.
Ricardo Montalbán is also good as the cynical movie star charmed by Charity.
His role is perhaps the biggest example of the film’s bloat - for the part he plays in Charity’s story, we spend so much time in his company I was expecting him to come back as a romantic rival to McMartin.
Aside from ‘Big Spender’ none of the songs stuck in my mind. They are well-sung and choreographed, but I struggle to remember any tunes. The ‘Sweet Charity’ number is odd. Sung over slow-motion shots of our heroes running out of the car park and into the streets, it feels like it is missing a proper buildup to feel cathartic. The movie’s big issue is that it always feels too long. As much as some of the songs feel integrated, they stop the film dead.
Whatever pacing issues the film has, the third act is terrific - it is like watching a train crash in slow motion, as we watch Oscar slowly lose his nerve.
This section is filled with great touches:
the freeze frame during Charity’s farewell party where Oscar catches the boss of the club slapping Charity on the butt.
the blocking and camerawork of their breakup as Oscar reveals his true feelings and tries to escape
Not to simplify the filmmaker, but watching this film after Cabaret, one can see why Bob Fosse rejected the established musical format.
Like the central character, this film is wrestling between a desire for a happy ending where domestic bliss is the gateway to personal fulfilment and economic security, and an underlying belief that such desires are impossible.
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