BOB FOSSE – MORE SMOKE PLEASE
On Sundays in August, the Revue Cinema and curator Alicia Fletcher celebrate the originator of jazz hands, the godfather of Razzle Dazzle–the multi-hyphenate genius who rose from the ranks of seedy burlesque houses to Hollywood and Oscar heavyweight, the incomparable Bob Fosse. A vaudevillian, choreographer, actor, director, consummate womanizer, and prolific EGOT-tour-de-force, his contributions to dance, Broadway and film are immeasurable. A Footlights Svengali, Fosse and his productions were as notorious as they were celebrated. As a master of erotica, the director channeled the charged environment he was raised within–touring America’s burlesque circuit as a child performer in the ‘30s–into resurrecting and refining the big spectacle musical for the New Hollywood era. With his patented “isolated moves,” Fosse’s contributions as a choreographer and director are fabled–so celebrate his upcoming centenary on the big screen with 35mm and recent restorations, only at the Revue Cinema!
For his directorial film debut, Bob Fosse turned to what he knew best – footlights, bittersweet revelry, and sex work. Having found enormous success on Broadway with his Neil Simon-penned musical inspired by Fellini’s beloved NIGHTS OF CABIRIA (1954), for 1969’s film adaptation of SWEET CHARITY, Fosse was given carte blanche by Universal. And while Fosse’s famed collaborator and wife, Gwen Verdon, had brought taxi dancer Charity Hope Valentine to life on stage, for the film version, Fosse looked to another bobbed redhead with an indelible spirit–Shirley MacLaine.
Like Giulietta Masina’s “Cabiria,” MacLaine as Charity is an irrepressible force to be reckoned with. The film opens with Charity’s married boyfriend pushing her off a bridge in the hopes that she drowns, and yet Charity perseveres, finding friendship and romance as a for-hire private dancer at Times Square’s sleazy Fandango Ballroom. While her luck is bad, her outlook is remarkable, as she moves through comic tragedy with her dance-hall friends at her side–played by Chita Rivera and Paula Kelly in their film debuts.
While SWEET CHARITY was a total flop in 1969, it would soon be reappraised as one of the most interesting and indelible of mid-century musicals, with its iconic “The Rich Man’s Frug” dance number replicated by Beyoncé (“Get Me Bodied”), as well as Jenny Ortega’s Wednesday Addams. (ALICIA FLETCHER)