Sweet Charity

Sweet Charity  (1969)

After successfully staging this Neil Simon-scripted musical on Broadway, Fosse was given free reign as director and choreographer to bring it to the screen. The bittersweet results, based on Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria, chronicle the exploits of an eternally hopeful dance hall hostess—read: prostitute—who only wants to be loved but seldom meets with fortune in her relationships with men. A box office failure at the time, Sweet Charity stands today as a highly enjoyable, beautifully stylized time capsule of the psychedelic Sixties, replete with zealous use of the zoom lens, interludes of still images, and Sammy Davis Jr. memorably singing-preaching “Rhythm of Life.”

35mm, color, 149 min. Director: Bob Fosse. Screenwriter: Peter Stone. Cast: Shirley MacLaine, John McMartin, Ricardo Montalban.