This musical is about wanting to get out of the life you live. In the case of Shirley Maclaine's character, it's about her finally trying to stop compromising on her ideals of love and quit her hypocritical( hypocritical considering her remarks about truly believing in love) job as a dancehall hostess. In addition to conversely demonstrating the shallow nature of the Broadway musical dream and how even love can seem insincere on a grand lofty scale, they also inject these ideas with quirky humor which distracts from just how insipid these characters would seem if played straight. The funny thing about this film is that it is both a satire and completely honest in it's depiction of life. It also contains excellent choreography and music whose flash demonstrates the appeal of such things. Depicting all of these differing and seemingly contradictory thoughts makes the viewer not know how they feel about the whole thing. Personally, after the film was over I was left with the callow sense of whimsy and was amazed at how willing I was to be entertained by this. Apparently the stage version has a different ending so I hope that at some point I'll be able to see it.

I wish the powers-that-be at Universal would go back and reinstate the exit music on the DVD. That would make this DVD perfect!

Sweet Charity is very, very Fellini-esque and rightfully so as it is based on Fellini's stellar film Nights of Cabiria. If you've never seen Sweet Charity I would suggest that you view Nights of Cabiria first to get the full effect of the story, then immerse yourself in the sinuous, sexy world of Bob Fosse.

If you're a drag queen or an aspiring drag queen or just like drag queens then Sweet Charity is the film for you. The art of exaggeration is what drag queens are all about and Sweet Charity is an overly exaggerated stylized 60s musical. Edith Head's costumes are outrageous (there's also a behind-the-scenes extra entitled the art of exaggeration featuring Head), the set designs are stupendous and the music, most of it anyway, is phenomenonal.

There are a few faults with the film however. The main fault is its length at two plus hours. That's a lot of singing. Some of the musical numbers go on a bit longer than necessary although Big Spender, If My Friends Could See Me Now, . . . Something Better Than This and Sammy Davis Jr.'s number Rhythm of Life are the highlights for me. Who knew Sammy Davis Jr. was such a hip cat? Rich Man's Frug is one of the coolest numbers but it's also one of the overly long numbers. Chita Rivera is fabulous as always and McClaine camps it up in a very over the top manner but that's only because she's trying emulate the essence of Guillietta Masina's brilliant Cabiria.

The extras are cool. It's nice to see the alternative "happy" ending although I for one am glad that it wasn't used. The tragic realism of the original ending remains true to Fellini's vision although the continuity of the alternative ending maintains a similar continuity to Fellini's film as well. I still highly recommend Nights of Cabiria as a precursor to Sweet Charity for nothing else than to view the tragic/comic performance of Guillieta Masina. All in all this is a classic.

Yes, Shirley is probably miscast--her opening number "Personal Property" is as weak as a musical opening can be. But it is a great time capsule of sixties fashion and pre-occupations. The Fosse choreography is excellent, and there are plenty of good production numbers. Worthwhile for musical lovers.

I saw this movie years ago, but didn't remember much about it, except some of the songs, and the basic story. I also saw "Nights of Cabiria", from which the story was taken. I love musicals, and I
think Shirley MacLaine is very talented. She is very sweet as Charity Hope Valentine, and one can't help wanting a happy ending for her. So why did I think this movie was awful? First of all, some of the dialogue was so repetitious it became irritating-- how many times can you listen to Charity say "Fickle finger of fate" over and over without wanting to hit the mute button? Also, some of the scenes went on and on and on-- especially the elevator scene. And-- the intermission was totally unnecessary. But the worst disappointment for me was the musical numbers. I didn't like any of them--- they were so far over the top as to be silly. Bob Fosse must have thrown everything into them that he could--- instead of letting the dancers and the songs carry the numbers, he had so much busyness in all of them-- too many people, costumes that didn't fit the story, silly moves-- and they all went past the point of enjoyment. I fast forwarded thru
a couple of them just to get them over with. I have never done that before with any movie. This could have been so much better-- the story was good, the charactors were good-- but the whole thing should have been toned down. The movie could have been 30 minutes shorter if there had been some trimming. It was entirely too long. Also--- all that stop action-- what was that all about? I know, I know-- it was to show the progress of the story, but it was a distraction.
I didn't like the movie and was glad when it was over.