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.
Plot
The film opens with 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.
In 1959, during their summer vacation, Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson meet at a beach and begin to fall in love. Instead of returning to Australia at summer's end, 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". Danny is the leader of the boys' gang, "The T-Birds". Kenickie, second-in-command of the T-Birds (and Danny's best friend), encourages Danny to tell them about his holiday experiences, while the Pink Ladies likewise persuade Sandy. This results in "Summer Nights."
Encouraged by preppy school spirit 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 Pink Ladies: Jan, Marty Maraschino, and the leader of the clique Betty Rizzo. 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. Rizzo and Kenickie are making love to each other and Kenickie's condom breaks but they continue to make love to each other and 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 in front of his friends. 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, Danny takes Sandy to the school's dance, where the TV show National Bandstand plans to broadcast live from the school's gymnasium with millions of Americans watching. 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 audience watching while "Blue Moon" is playing. Everyone ends up laughing, even the band.
The next 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 her unprotected sex with Kenickie has come back to haunt her — she has missed a period. Sonny LaTeirri of the T-Birds overhears and gets the story, leading 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. 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. 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.
On the last day of the 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
- The T-Birds
- The Pink Ladies
- Special guest appearances
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, otherwise known as Marty, 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 Ba-Ba-Bum-Bum parts of "La Bamba" at the start of the lunch scene, 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. Even Lee Grant has never been in a movie musical.
Costumes
- Danny's blue windbreaker at the beginning of the film was intended as a nod to Rebel Without a Cause (1955).
- Because of a zipper breaking, Olivia Newton-John had to be sewn into the pants she wears in the last scene (the carnival at Rydell), and was unable to remove the trousers until the filming of that scene was over.
- Cat eye glasses were in style during the 1950's. Several female students wore these glasses throughout the movie. Especially Dinah "Marty" Manoff.
- Stockard Channing's original costume was going to be a purple blouse and green skirt. Unfortunately, it was a bad fit and she had to wear black and did so within the first 20 minutes of the film.
- Didi Conn was originally to dye her hair golden, but refused. She also refused to have her hair dyed blue at the Carnival ending, stating in the DVD that she was supposed to explain to the group that she got into a pool that contained too much chlorine (referencing a joke from the original play) and colored her hair into a bright blue color. She refused, stating in the interview "Don't turn me into a joke."
Product Placement
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].
Deleted/Extended/Alternate scenes
Some scenes were edited out for timing issues and stored in Paramount's vaults since 1978. Those scenes were included in the Rockin' Rydell Edition on DVD and Blu-Ray but only in black and white. And the worst part of it is that some of the dialogue spoken in these scenes have actually been spoken in the musical.
- Introduction by Randal Kleiser: The Grease director explains that scenes have to be edited for time and those scenes have been stored in Paramount's vaults since its release.
- T-Birds Harass Eugene: While the T-birds talk to Eugene (Eddie Deezen), Sonny (Michael Tucci) calls him fruit boots after picking up his bow tie that Putzie dropped and steps on his foot. Eugene paints his shoes white to hide the dirt. Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) is shown running down the hall.
- Classroom Announcements: During the Morning Announcements, Principal McGee (Eve Arden) gives out news about the upcoming pep rally and bonfire and she asks everyone to support Coach Calhoun's Rydell Rangers, that's the football team. Mcgee follows this up with "If you can't be an athelete, be an athletic supporter". She continues with raising the prices of lunch, yearbook pictures and senior rings, in which the previous seniors have been offering cut rate buys. In Mr. Lynch's (Darrell Zwerling) class, Eugene is writing on the chalkboard, one of the students has a sign on his back that says "kick me", Frenchy (Didi Conn) sees a note in Sandy's hand and she mouths to her to give Mr. Lynch the note. In Biology, Kenickie (Jeff Conaway) of the T-Birds discovers a frog in a jar. He would say to Danny (John Travolta) and Putzie (Kelly Ward): "Hey, kiss it. Maybe it'll turn into a princess." After the fact that Flu Shots and Chest X-rays would be administered by Nurse Wilkins (Fannie Flagg), Mcgee's next topic is about the faculty. They are there when the students need them. Mcgee's quote here is "Remember, there's not only a 'prince' in 'principal', there's a 'pal' there too". In Mrs. Murdock's (Alice Ghostly) class, Doody (Barry Pearl) and Sonny and Jan (Jamie Donnelly) and Rizzo (Stockard Channing) of the Pink Ladies play a game of Go Fish. Marty Maraschino (Dinah Manoff) puts on her makeup behind the boys and when she's not looking, Doody puts a gun on the table. The looks on Jan's and Rizzo's faces are priceless. Principal Mcgee also gives out the news about National Bandstand coming to broadcast live at Rydell for the National Dance-Off. That's when Mrs. Murdoch blows a steam whistle. Kenickie puts the frog in Patty Simcox's (Susan Buckner) purse without her knowing. Mcgee finishes the announcements, and if you look closely you will see a quilt with the phrase "School Sweet School" written on it behind Principal Mcgee. It's a little play on words for the real phrase: "Home Sweet Home". Simcox discovers the frog, screams and runs out of the classroom and Kenickie, Danny and Putzie end up laughing. In fact the whole class ends up laughing.
- Pink Ladies and Sandy at Lunch: During lunch, Frenchy asks Marty about her new glasses. Marty asks Rizzo if they make her look smarter. Rizzo answers back, "Nah, you can still see your face" Rizz and Frenchy start giggling and that's when we see Marty holding up rice pudding and threatens to put it down Rizzo's Bra. Jan takes it out of Marty's hand. Sandy offers Jan coleslaw, in which she asks, "Does the pope Wear a dress?" while she starts eating Marty's rice pudding right away. Rizzo replys, "Go get it Petunia Pig!". That's Porky's girlfriend from the Looney Toons. Frenchy calls the chipped beef "Barf on a Bun." Marty says the girls have "halitosis of the vocabulary". Frenchy and Marty start arguing but Rizzo stops them. Jan asks sandy about how she likes school. Sandy answers: "It's Different." A girl off camera says "Hi Kids".
- She's too Pure to be Pink: We first see Patty Simcox tell sandy about cheerleading tryouts in which they will become lifelong friends. Jan follows this up by saying "Anybody with a vote is her lifelong friend". Simcox then asks for Sandy's scheduel. Frenchy asks Rizzo if Sandy could join the pink ladies. And that's when we see Simcox put on glasses similar to Marty's only darker. Rizzo says that she's too pure to be pink. Marty takes off her glasses, Jan says "what's up doc?", a quote from another Looney Toon icon: Bugs Bunny. Marty discovers one of her diamonds in the macaroni. Rizzo goes to have a viceroy on the veranda. If you look closely, you'll see a young man playing with a yo-yo. Marty gets her diamond out with no problemo and a little help from Frenchy and Jan.
- Intro to Summer Nights: Marty tells about the time her mother grounds her for two weeks, Rizzo returns and then Frenchy asks Sandy what she did during the summer which would start the musical number Summer Nights.
- Rydell Pep Rally: At the saturday night Pep Rally and Bonfire, Blanche (Dody Goodman), Mcgee's assistant, tells her not to forget her notes. Mcgee claims she does not need them. After Mcgee introduces Coach Calhoun (Sid Caesar), we cut to the Pink Ladies in which Jan calls out "Coach Spitoon!". The coach apologizes to Blanche and McGee after saying "Give 'em hell, Rydell!".
- Kenickie and Danny Outside Frosties: At Frosty Palace, Kenickie tells Vi (Joan Blondell), the waitress to pick up a cherry while serving a sherbet. Danny and Kenickie find the other T-Birds and their meeting commences. If you look closely, you can see that the Coca-cola sign behind Sandy and Tom what's-his-name (Lorenzo Lamas) IS NOT blurred out.
- The Stroll: At the dance, Leo (Dennis C. Stewart), the scorpion leader, tells Rizzo that nobody moves in on Cha Cha (Annette Charles). Rizzo then answers back "Nobody has to".
- National Bandstand: During the warm up numbers, Sonny has a present to give to Marty. Marty ignores him. Mr. Rudie (Dick Patterson) tells Eugene that the show starts in 5 minutes. Eugene asks him to make it 10 minutes. Mr. Rudie (Dick Patterson) tells him that he's dealing with live tv.
- At the dance: Two male students start a Jerry Springer style fight. Mcgee and Coach Calhoun break it up and tell them to settle it on the parking lot. Mrs. Murdock tells Mr. Rudie that she admires his functions. He says that the chaperon line is nearby. Murdock then says that Mr. Rudie should think of her as one of the boys. Marty, after talking with dance judged Vince Fontaine (Edd Byrnes), is holding a shoe for some reason and puts it back on. Kenickie tells Cha Cha to remember who she's with. But she has lots of interests. Kenickie already has what she wanted.
- Thunder Road: Marty lets Kenickie know about bad luck when it comes to picking up pennies off the ground after he gets knocked out by Putzie opening the car door. Kenickie answers back "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all".
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.
- Randal Kleiser resisted the opening title song, "Grease" (he thought that the cynical lyrics and disco beat were inappropriate for a film set in the 1950s) and the song "You're The One That I Want" (saying the original demo sung by Barry Gibb and a piano "sounded awful". He later admitted he was not familiar with demos and loved the completed song).
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.
Reception
Although Travolta was already famous from the movie Saturday Night Fever and the television sitcom Welcome Back Kotter, Grease reconfirmed 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, surpasing 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.
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This article or section appears to contradict itself. Please help fix this problem. (November 2009) |
(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.[6])[discuss]
- [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
Also appearing in the movie are La Bamba by Richie Valens (sung by Rizzo and Marty in the school lunch yard) and Whole Lotta Shaking Going on by Jerry Lee Lewis (juke box at Frosties) but these songs do not appear on the sound track.
References
External links
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Films directed by Randal Kleiser |
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Grease (1978)
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