Hey Putsie...15 minutes

Rating: 10/10 (4 September 2004)

GREASE was on AMC tonight and I happened to catch it.
This movie is so great. There's no pretension to it. It is really hard to make a movie musical that isn't pretentious and uppity. Has anyone watched "Chicago" lately, even though it got all those Oscar noms? Yeah, I thought not.
Sure, everyone's seen the movie. But here are a few facts about it you might not know.
The original Broadway production was a hit, but the music was REALLY hokey and many of the songs were different.
Can you imagine a movie musical being made today from a musical where new songs are added that are BETTER than the originals? Grease (the opener), Sandy, Hopelessly Devoted and You're the One That I Want are all new for the movie, and all are now classics.
It's fun to watch the Pink Ladies scenes knowing that Stockard Channing was 33 and Dinah Manot, who played Marty, was only 18 when the movie was being filmed.
(Side note -- if you haven't seen Dinah Manot in Ordinary People, watch it -- you'll be amazed at what a good actress she was).
Another interesting cast note: the woman who played Jan (brusha brusha brusha) basically was in this movie and that's it except for like three tiny cameo roles in other films. How's that for a film career -- one movie and it's one of the biggest hits of all time! Not bad!
When you talk about the movie version of Grease, you have to talk about Travolta. Seeing the bloated, bad actor that he's become, you have to go back and watch this movie to realize that this guy is one of the most talented all-around comedians who ever hit a screen. He can sing, he can dance, he's funny as hell, and he has a style all his own. I dare you to find a young actor today who pops off a screen as much as Travolta did. Unbelievable.
The thing I love most about Grease is that it was such an underdog as a project.
Helmed by a 31 year old TV director Randal Kleiser (who was George Lucas's roommate at USC, and apparently wrote his own IMDb biography, so maybe he'll read this and correct my mistakes), Paramount didn't expect much out of this movie, and they kind of left the young cast and director to do their thing. There's a fast-and-looseness to the movie, an almost improvisational feel at times, yet the comic timing is always DEAD ON.
This is a movie that respects comedy. Sid Caesar, Eve Arden -- these are giants of comedy that were at a career ebb around 1977, and the director shouldn't have been able to get them, but he did, and they make the movie hugely better.
But it's all about the young cast. You can tell that this is a group of actors that really felt like friends and were just having a good time. You've got actors in their late 20s and early 30s playing high schoolers, but somehow it's the best of both worlds -- there's plenty of sophomoric humor, but when Stockard C. sings "There are worse things," she gives it a depth Christina Aguilera never could . You've got actors like Jeff Conaway who never really did anything even close to good after this but he's brilliant as Kenickie. You've got a screenplay written by some woman I've never heard of who, once again, dropped off the face of the earth after this movie -- but how many classic lines are in this movie?! It's just amazing.
I salute every one who was a part of Grease. I loved it as a little kid and I still love it today.
JM