Publisher: CinemaSerf April 21, 2024
"Charity" (Shirley MacLaine), "Nickie" (Chita Rivera) and "Helene" (Paula Kelly) are call-girls working in a grotty dance hall. "Charity" is an honest, maybe too honest, gal, but after years going round in circles she needs a decent man in her life. That might just happen when she meets "Oscar" (John McMartin) but he doesn't know what she really does to make a living. It isn't quite in a bank. Should she tell him and risk him walking away? The story itself here is no great shakes, but the performances are really entertaining. MacLaine, Ricardo Montalban as the legendary actor "Vittorio" and the rhythmic Sammy Davis Jr. as "Big Daddy" all contribute to a tight ensemble delivering some of the best from musical theatre to the big screen. "Big Spender"; "If My Friends Could See Me Now"; "...Something Better Than This"; "The Rhythm of Life" - all cleverly written and scored by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields and sung by the folks we are watching. Now the production isn't the best. The editing is really quite bitty and director Bob Fosse still can't quite remember that cinema can flow in a continuous fashion that theatre cannot. It's not Neil Simon's best script adaptation either, indeed "Nights of Cabiria" might blush at the rather staccato nature of this tribute. It looks great and there's quite some chemistry between MacLaine and the suave and debonaire Montalban and by mid-way through, you just want poor old "Charity" to find her happiness. It's hard to see how it could be better and is well worth watch if you want to see charisma on screen in spades.