Sweet Charity (1969)
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The story
Charity Hope Valentine is a taxi dancer at the Fandango Ballroom in Times Square who longs for love but faces constant disappointment. After being betrayed by her married boyfriend, she seeks a more respectable life. She meets a famous movie star and experiences the highs and lows of the nightlife scene. Seeking a stable future, she meets Oscar Lindquist, a shy man who doesn't know her true profession. As they begin a relationship based on her hidden life, Charity must navigate the tension between her reality as a dancer and the respectable life she desires.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Charity Hope Valentine works as a taxi dancer at the Fandango Ballroom with her friends Nickie and Helene. After her married boyfriend, Charlie, steals her savings and pushes her off a bridge, Charity continues her life in the sleazy, erotic setting of the ballroom. She meets movie star Vittorio Vitale, but after a brief romantic entanglement, she is humiliated when his girlfriend Ursula returns. Seeking a better life, Charity meets Oscar Lindquist, a shy, claustrophobic man. She hides her job from him, leading him to believe she works in a bank. They begin dating and eventually marry, but at the marriage license bureau, Oscar reveals he cannot accept her past as a dancer. Devastated, Charity returns to the bridge in Central Park, where she is comforted by a group of hippies. An alternate ending shows Oscar finding her on the bridge, falling into the water, and rescuing her, leading to a second proposal and her acceptance.
- First release year
- 1969
- Runtime (minutes)
- 149
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Bob Fosse
- Writers
- Peter Stone · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Shirley MacLaine · Charity Hope Valentine; John McMartin · Oscar Lindquist; Chita Rivera; Paula Kelly; Stubby Kaye; Ricardo Montalbán; Sammy Davis Jr.
- Genres
- musical; comedy-drama
- Themes
- social class; identity; loneliness; the search for love
- Tone and mood
- melancholic; glamorous; dramatic
- Premise and plot tags
- musical; romance; drama; adaptation
- Source material / true-story basis
- The 1966 stage musical (based on the 1957 film Nights of Cabiria)
- Reception
- The film received a mixed critical reception at release, with some praising the choreography and performance but others finding it overlong and ineffective. However, it has been reappraised positively over the years.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 82% · review count: 11; Rotten Tomatoes · score: 6.40/10 · scale: 10 · review count: 11
- Awards and nominations
- Academy Award · Best Score · Nomination; Academy Award · Best Art Direction · Nomination; Academy Award · Best Costume Design · Nomination
- Production trivia
- The film's failure marks the first episode of the 2019 biographical mini-series 'Fosse/Verdon'.; The 'Rich Man's Frug' number has served as a visual reference for several music videos and the TV show 'Wednesday'.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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