Grease | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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Directed by | Randal Kleiser |
Produced by | Robert Stigwood Allan Carr |
Written by | Musical: Jim Jacobs Warren Casey Screenplay: Bronte Woodard |
Starring | John Travolta Olivia Newton-John Stockard Channing Jeff Conaway Barry Pearl Michael Tucci Kelly Ward Didi Conn Jamie Donnelly Dinah Manoff |
Music by | Jim Jacobs Warren Casey Michael Gibson |
Cinematography | Bill Butler |
Editing by | John F. Burnett |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date(s) | June 16, 1978 20th Anniversary March 27, 1998 |
Running time | 110 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $6 million |
Gross revenue | $394,589,888 |
Followed by | Grease 2 |
Grease is a 1978 American musical film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Jim Jacobs' and Warren Casey's musical, Grease. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Stockard Channing, and Jeff Conaway.
Contents |
Plot
In 1959, during their summer vacation, Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson meet at a beach and begin to fall in love. At summer's end, Sandy tells Danny that she's returning to Australia where she lives but it's only the beginning. That is followed by an animated credits sequence accompanied by the theme song, "Grease", composed expressly for the film by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees and performed by Frankie Valli.
The "T-Birds" are a gang of boys who go to Rydell High School. Danny is their leader and Kenickie, second-in-command of the T-Birds, is Danny's best friend.
Sandy's parents decide to move to the States and Sandy enrolls at Rydell High School, where Danny is a student. Sandy has a new friend Frenchy who is a member of the schoolgirl clique "The Pink Ladies". The other members are Jan, Marty Maraschino, and their leader, Betty Rizzo.
The school's principal is Miss McGee and her sidekick is Blanche. During the morning announcements McGee points out that National Bandstand is coming to broadcast the National Dance-off later in the year.
At lunchtime, Sandy is sitting with the Pink Ladies and they get to know her. In the bleachers, Kenickie and the boys encourage Danny to tell them about his holiday experiences, while the Pink Ladies likewise persuade Sandy. This results in "Summer Nights."
Encouraged by preppy school girl Patty Simcox, Sandy joins the Rydell cheerleaders. The Pink Ladies decide to reunite Danny and Sandy, but Danny wants to protect his cool image, and his behavior towards Sandy causes her to storm off in tears.
Frenchy attempts to cheer Sandy up by inviting her to a sleepover at her house with the rest of the girls. Rizzo, however, soon gets fed up with Sandy's goody-two-shoes behavior. Frenchy announces that she is dropping out of Rydell and going to beauty school. Rizzo lampoons Sandy, singing the sarcastic "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee". When the T-Birds arrive outside Frenchy's house, Rizzo and Kenickie flirt then leave. After the party splits up, Sandy decides that she still loves Danny, in spite of everything, and sings "Hopelessly Devoted to You", a poignant love song that was added for the film and was a big hit as a single. Meanwhile, Rizzo and Kenickie are making love to each other in the backseat of Kenickie's new car, but Kenickie's condom breaks. Rizzo, however, is unable to resist Kenickie, so they decide to have sex anyway. They are interrupted when the leader of a rival gang, Leo of The Scorpions, and his girlfriend, Cha Cha DiGregorio, damage Kenickie's car. While repairing the car, the T-Birds fantasize about what it will look like after a paint job, singing "Greased Lightning".
Danny meets Sandy at the Frosty Palace (the local ice cream parlor that serves as the local teens' hangout), and tries to apologize for his poor deportment at a juke box. When he sees that Sandy is sharing a soda with jock Tom Chisum, Danny decides that he is going to join the jocks to impress her. After disastrous performances in basketball, wrestling, and baseball - where he keeps losing his temper when he loses - he finally finds his ideal sport in cross country, until the sight of Sandy distracts him and he falls. Sandy comes to see if Danny is all right, and they are seemingly reconciled.
Danny attempts to go to the Frosty Palace with Sandy so that they can be alone and not worry about ruining his image. What they didn't know was that the T-Birds and Pink Ladies are already there, and Danny finds it hard to charm Sandy without looking like a sissy in front of his friends. After everyone leaves the malt shop, Frenchy imagines a guardian angel telling her what to do with her life, and Frankie Avalon sings "Beauty School Dropout".
Later, the big dance comes to Rydell, where the TV show National Bandstand plans to broadcast live from the school's gymnasium with millions of Americans watching, including the waitresses at Frosties. Danny takes Sandy to the dance. When Kenickie asks Cha Cha to the dance, Rizzo retaliates and asks out the rival gang's leader Leo. During the dance-off, Rizzo leaves in a huff, seeing Kenickie dancing with Cha Cha, and Danny and Sandy are one of the few still in the dance-off. But soon, Sonny pulls Sandy away from Danny, and Cha Cha starts dancing with Danny. Sandy realizes that Cha Cha was one of Danny's past girlfriends. Sandy leaves the gym upset, and Danny and Cha Cha win the contest. When they share their spotlight dance, the T-Birds (minus Kenickie) run in front of the camera and moon the crowd and the nation watching while "Blue Moon" is playing. Everyone ends up laughing, even the band gets into it.
That evening, Danny takes Sandy to a drive-in movie, apologizes for leaving her, and gives her his class ring. Inside the drive-in toilets, Rizzo tells Marty that she has missed a period, after making love to Kenickie. Marty promised not to let anyone know about it but she tells Sonny LaTeirri of the T-Birds the story anyway. That would lead to a chain effect that makes it common knowledge. When Kenickie asks Rizzo why she didn't tell him about it, she lies out of anger and tells him it isn't his. Back in the car, Danny starts trying to make out with Sandy. She raises a ruckus, throws back his ring (which she calls a "piece of tin"), and leaves. Danny laments losing Sandy again, and reveals the true extent of his feelings for her in the song "Sandy" — he is helpless without her.
Next day, the car the boys have been working on has finally been finished and will be used at the up and coming race at Thunder Road. Kenickie lets Danny know how they have been friends for years and asks him to be his right hand man at Thunder Road. Sandy meets Rizzo, who has no plans of going to see the race of the millenium. Sandy offers to help Rizzo but she declines and sincerly thanks Sandy. Rizzo expresses what she could do in the next number — "There Are Worse Things I Could Do".
Later that afternoon, the T-Birds, Pink Ladies, Scorpions and their girls gather for the race. Jan sees a penny on the ground and picks it up for good luck. Marty grabs it out of her hand and gives it to Kenickie. Marty drops it and Kenickie has to pick it up again. Putzie opens the car door and it hits Kenickie on the head and knocks him out cold but he recovers. Because of this mishap before the race at thunder road, Danny races Leo in Kenickie's place while Sandy sits on the hill watching. While Sandy is happy to see Danny win the neck-and-neck race, she has misgivings about her own image, reflected in the song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise)". As the T-Birds and Pink Ladies celebrate with Danny, Sandy asks Frenchy's help in winning Danny's heart.
At the last day of school carnival, Danny has followed through on his track jock plans and arrives in a preppy letter sweater. However, Sandy arrives in full greaser-girl apparel . Danny falls at her feet and the two reunite, singing "You're the One That I Want". Rizzo and Kenickie get together after Rizzo has screamed from the Ferris wheel that she is not pregnant after all, and everyone sings the big finale, "We Go Together." Sandy and Danny fly off in a car and disappear into the sky. Everybody waves goodbye and the end credits start in the style of a yearbook.
Cast
- John Travolta as Danny Zuko
- Olivia Newton John as Sandy Olsson
- Stockard Channing as Betty Rizzo
- Jeff Conaway as Kenickie
- The T-Birds
- Barry Pearl as Doody
- Michael Tucci as Sonny LaTierri
- Kelly Ward as Putzie
- The Pink Ladies
- Didi Conn as Frenchy
- Jamie Donnelly as Jan
- Dinah Manoff as Marty Maraschino
- Special guest appearances
- Eve Arden as Principal McGee
- Dody Goodman as Blanche Hodel
- Annette Charles as Charlene "Cha-Cha" DiGregorio
- Frankie Avalon as The Teen Angel
- Joan Blondell as Vi
- Edd Byrnes as Vince Fontaine
- Sid Caesar as Coach Calhoun
- Alice Ghostley as Mrs. Murdock
- Sha-Na-Na as Johnny Casino and the Gamblers
- Susan Buckner as Patty Simcox
- Lorenzo Lamas as Tom Chisolm
- Eddie Deezen as Eugene Felsnic
- Dennis C. Stewart as Leo Balmudo
- Ellen Travolta as waitress
- Michael Biehn (uncredited) as Mike (On the basketball team)
Production
Casting
Singer Olivia Newton-John had done little acting before this film. She appeared in the 1970 film Toomorrow - a science fiction musical that pre-dated her initial chart success with 1971's If Not For You. Cast with Newton-John and three male leads in an attempt by Don Kirshner to create another Monkees, the film failed miserably; this led Newton-John to demand a screen test for Grease to avoid another career setback. The screen test was done with the drive-in movie scene.
Randal Kleiser directed John Travolta in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble two years prior to Grease.
Two actors who were seen for the film were Henry Winkler and Marie Osmond. Winkler, who was playing Fonzie on Happy Days, was originally chosen to play Danny, but, having twice already played similarly leather-clad 1950s hoods in 1974's The Lords of Flatbush as well as Happy Days, turned down the role for fear of being typecast. Osmond turned down the role of Sandy because she did not like the fact that Sandy had to "turn bad" to get the boy. Adult film star Harry Reems was originally signed to play Coach Calhoun; however, producers got cold feet weeks before filming and replaced him with Sid Caesar.
Dinah Manoff was only 19 years old during the filming of Grease making her the youngest of all actresses in the film. She passed her audition without being given a singing or dancing tryout. The future Empty Nest star's skills in those areas proved limited, so she was moved into the background during the song numbers. Manoff sang only two lines in the movie: the Bamba Bamba line of "La Bamba" at the start of the lunch scene (with Stockard Channing singing along), and "Like, does he have a car?" during Summer Nights. Dinah would not sing in a movie again for 23 years in 2001's The Amati Girls.
Stockard Channing and Dinah Manoff would reunite in 1989 with the film Staying Together. It was directed by Lee Grant, who is Dinah's mother.
Frost Palace Scenes
Scenes inside the Frosty Palace contain obvious 'blurring' of various signage. Prior to the film's release, the film's producers had not received permission to use any Coca-Cola trademarks. Furthermore, Coca-Cola refused to allow its signage to be shown due to the raunchy nature of the film[1]. The 'blurring' covered up trademarked menu signage and a large wall poster[2].
Controversy
- In November 2002, Camille Paglia asserted in an Interview magazine [1] with Donna Mills that the character of Sandy in Grease was based on Mills' experiences as a Chicago-area teen, even though no interview questions covered the subject.
Releases
Grease was originally released to theatres on June 16, 1978. It was released in the U.S. on VHS during the 1980s; the latest VHS release was June 23, 1998 as 20th Anniversary Edition following a theatrical re-release that March. On September 24, 2002, it was released on DVD for the first time. On September 19, 2006, it was re-released on DVD as the Rockin' Rydell Edition, which includes a black Rydell High T-Bird jacket cover or the Target-exclusive Pink Ladies cover. It was released on Blu-Ray on May 5, 2009. The original release had Paramount's best known logo (the one with the blue mountain) shown at the beginning (with its own fanfare) and it would be shown again after the end credits. For the 20th anniversary and all releases since, the Paramount logo from 1987-2001 was shown with the feature presentation fanfare.
Reception
Although Travolta was already famous from the movie Saturday Night Fever and the television sitcom Welcome Back Kotter, Grease reaffirmed his status as a superstar. Newton-John's fame also reached new heights after the movie released. The movie received five Golden Globe Award nominations in 1979 and the highest grossing (US) movie of 1978 and the highest grossing movie musical at the time, surpassing 1965's The Sound of Music.
The movie's soundtrack was a number one album in many different countries. The song "You're The One That I Want" was released as a single prior to the film's release and became an immediate chart-topper, despite not being in the stage show or having been seen in the film at that time.[3] In the United Kingdom, the two Travolta–Newton-John duets, "You're The One That I Want" and "Summer Nights", were both number one hits and appear 6th and 21st respectively in the official all-time UK best-selling singles list issued in 2002. The song "Hopelessly Devoted to You" was nominated for an Academy Award (1979) for Best Music - Original Song. The movie's title song was also a number-one smash hit single for Frankie Valli.
Grease spawned a sequel, Grease 2 (1982) (with the only cast members from the original movie being Blanche, Coach Calhoun, Eugene, Frenchy, Leo (the Scorpions' gang leader, and Principal McGee), that was much less successful. Patricia Birch, the original movie's choreographer, directed the ill-fated sequel. It would be the only movie that she would direct. After the success of the original, Paramount intended to turn Grease into a multi-picture franchise with at least three sequels planned and a TV series in the pipeline. When Grease 2 flopped at the box office, all the plans were scrapped.[4]
This movie was re-released to theaters in 1998 to mark the 20th anniversary. It also ranked number 21 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.
Voted the best musical ever on Channel 4's 100 greatest musicals.[5]
Soundtrack
The song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" references Sal Mineo in the original stage version. Mineo was stabbed to death a year before filming, so the line was changed to refer to Elvis Presley instead. The Troy Donahue reference is in the original stage version. Coincidentally, this scene was filmed on August 16, 1977 - the date of Elvis Presley's death.
(The song order on the soundtrack album does not match the order in the film (common practice in those days for soundtrack records). The number in brackets below indicates the order from the film. Some of the songs were not present in the film.
- [02] Grease — Frankie Valli
- [03] Summer Nights — Danny, Sandy, Pink Ladies and the T-Birds
- [04] Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee - Rizzo and the Pink Ladies
- [05] Hopelessly Devoted to You — Sandy
- [06] Greased Lightning — Danny and the T-Birds
- [22] You're the One That I Want — Danny and Sandy
- [18] Sandy (Music by Louis St. Louis, Lyrics by Scott J. Simon) — Danny
- [09] Beauty School Dropout — Frankie Avalon / Angels
- [07] It's Raining on Prom Night — Radio
- [08] Alone at the Drive-in Movie (instrumental, see below for details)
- [17] Blue Moon (Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart) — Johnny
- [11] Rock n' Roll is Here to Stay (D. White) — Johnny
- [12] Those Magic Changes — Johnny and Danny
- [14] Hound Dog (Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller) — Johnny
- [15] Born to Hand Jive — Johnny and Cast
- [13] Tears on My Pillow (S. Bradford and A. Lewis) — Johnny
- [16] Mooning — Jan and Roger
- [19] Freddy, My Love — Marty
- [10] Rock n' Roll Party Queen — Radio
- [20] There Are Worse Things I Could Do — Rizzo
- [21] Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee (Reprise) — Sandy
- [23] We Go Together — Danny, Sandy, Rizzo, Kenickie, Marty, Sonny, Jan, Putzie, Doody, Frenchy, Eugene, Patty, Miss Mcgee, Mr Lynch and Coach
- [01] Love is a Many Splendored Thing (Instrumental)
- [24] Grease (Reprise) — Frankie Valli
Other songs that appear in the film but not in the soundtrack are Richie Valens' La Bamba, Whole Lotta Shaking Going On by Jerry Lee Lewis and Alma Mater (it was played during the first day announcements, the bonfire, the T-Birds sang the version with funny lyrics, the announcements when McGee was the seniors are prepared for their future, and finally at the carnival).
References
- ^ http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s70grease.html
- ^ http://scenesteal.com/html/grease
- ^ VH1's "Behind the Music: Grease"
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084021/trivia
- ^ 100 Greatest Musicals: Channel 4 Film
External links
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