leethomas-11621 Lots of talent behind and in front of the camera but it doesn't come across watching this uninvolving musical. Shirley gives her all but the director let her down. If I see another zoom, dissolve or freeze frame I 'll scream! During the Big Spender number, dancers were almost stationary throughout. Seemed like they were singing this wonderful number to an empty club. Where's the atmosphere? Thankfully, director Fosse went on to greater things, including Cabaret. Couldn't complete re-watching this movie. Rating based on seeing it at its release and on DVD a few years back.

evening1 This film captures poignancies -- the ineffable yearnings of a woman who has been burned in love, the challenges of escaping one's past, the energy and grandeur of New York City, the sadness and waste of conventional thinking.Shirley MacLaine coruscates as a woman with a past. (Is there a female alive who has not experienced Charity's manic elation over a man who is not available?) Also wonderful in their roles are Ricardo Montalban as a suave romantic and John McMartin as the first regular guy Charity ever dates.The song and dance numbers in this film are infectious and mesmerizing. My 12-year-old son started watching out of the corner of his eye, taking breaks from a video game, and got hooked. (Tells you something, doesn't it?) I loved every one of these extravagant interludes, but none could surpass the new-age church scene featuring Sammy Davis Jr. as Big Daddy.Forty years ago as a high-school junior I was part of the chorus in a community production of "Sweet Charity. What a pleasure it was to have the music and lyrics flowing back into my consciousness.This is one exquisite film.CODA: -- "I was going to be an assistant dental technician."-- "That doesn't sound very impressive." -- "It does to a dance-hall hostess!"

MartinHafer "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.

gedhurst This zany "tart-with-a-heart" story is something of an undiscovered gem. I'd never seen it on TV, before catching it recently on TCM.Made in 1969, the action takes place at tail-end of the 60's flower power era, though the anachronistic situation and predicament of the Charity, the "dancer-for-hire" and her associates comes direct from the 1950's. In fact, the constrained lives and world-weariness of the dancers and their poignant attempts to escape their hum-drum lives contrasts sharply with the fast-developing and affluent culture all around them.The musical numbers by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields, including "If My Friends Could See Me Now", "I'm a Brass Band" and "Hey, Big Spender", are simply stupendous and would grace any top-quality musical score. The "pièce de resistance" is, however, Sammy Davis Jr's astonishing cameo in "Rhythm of life", which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and has had a new lease of life lately after being used in commercials.As for the dancing, I'm not usually a big fan outside of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, but I found the dance routines entertaining, inventive and startlingly original, if not to say witty. It's certainly given me a whole new appreciation of Bob Fosse.It's a long film and there are times when it seems to drag a little, but MacLaine exudes a certain bruised charm which keeps us interested in the story and it's characters. In fact, at it's heart, the plot concerns a dilemma that all of us should be familiar with: when things aren't going well, is it possible take stock of our life and change it for the better?