That was the best quote in Sweet Charity, possibly the campest film ever made. It stars a youngish Shirley MacLaine doing her best Shelly Winters impression (a big dumb gaping smiling mouth showing the top set of teeth and hair like a mad wig put on back to front). Shirley plays Charity, a 'gentleman's' dancer at a tacky nighclub - it's about 1 step up from actual prostitution. And Shirley is desperate to get out of it. Cue a series of disastrous episodes with men - the first one pushes her off a bridge and steals her purse. The second is a rich movie star but ends up locking her in his closet when his girlfriend wants him back. And the third is a Tab-Hunteresque neurotic insurance man who can't get past her "sordid" past.
But the plot, like with most musicals is peripheral to the colours, costumes and crazy show-stopping numbers. And this film is a Queen's Dream. There's Big Spender, performed by a gang of women dressed as past-it drag queens (Chita Rivera is my favourite - she looks and acts exactly like Terrence Stamp in Priscilla Queen of the Desert.)
They're all playing that game where they have to hold a balloon between their thighs
Hey Big Spender, come up and spend some time with me - you can use my Stannah Stairlift - I only cost 10 shillings. Just be careful you don't accidentally break my wizened hands.
There's "If They Could See Me Now", featuring Shirley doing her thing with a top hat and cane. Then Sammy Davis Jr makes a somewhat incongruous appearance - he has his own religion called The Rhythm of Life (the song was recently ripped off for a beer advert!) and Sammy plays a drugged-out preacher called Big Daddy who leads his hippie congregation in a psychedelic dance number, which ends in a trade-marked Sammy Big Finish. I love Sammy Davis Jr (I have a shameful number of his cds, and can't believe I'd never come across this song before.)
But the best musical number comes near the beginning when Charity visits a weird New York "celebrity" nightclub (populated by people who seem to have just arrived via a spaceship from the planet Sogo in Barbarella). They perform a series of bizarre, complicated, kitchsly stylised dances - something you could only get away with in 1968.
If you haven't seen ths film - then it has a Trash Addict Seal of Approval :)
3 comments:
Have you really only just discovered the joys of Sweet Charity? Mary - i'm shocked!
You really do have incredible taste! Wish I knew you!
I make a point of watching Sweet Chairty at least twice a year. I like to sit really close to the screen and just be amazed.
I had a little party when it came out on DVD --- the soundtrack FINALLY came out on CD last year!!!
Soundtrack is all well and good - But, much as I love Shirley and her 'kooky' ways, I'm much more a fan of the Juliet Prowse and Gwen Verdon versions.
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