Alicia I love this movie so much

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

leethomas-11621 Lots of talent behind and in front of the camera but it doesn't come across watching this uninvolving musical. Shirley gives her all but the director let her down. If I see another zoom, dissolve or freeze frame I 'll scream! During the Big Spender number, dancers were almost stationary throughout. Seemed like they were singing this wonderful number to an empty club. Where's the atmosphere? Thankfully, director Fosse went on to greater things, including Cabaret. Couldn't complete re-watching this movie. Rating based on seeing it at its release and on DVD a few years back.

gavin6942 Charity Hope Valentine (Shirley MacLaine) works as a taxi dancer along with her friends, Nickie (Chita Rivera) and Helene (Paula Kelly). She longs for love, but has bad luck with men, being robbed and pushed off Bow Bridge in Central Park by one ex-boyfriend. She has another humiliating encounter with Vittorio Vitale (Ricardo Montalban), a movie star.Is this better than Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria"? Nope. But it is also a different enough film that it may not be fair to compare them directly. Especially the change from prostitute to dancer (which makes sense in the world of Bob Fosse). Is Giulietta Masina better tan Shirley MacLaine? Yep. But then again, MacLaine is given a lot more to do.I suppose this film has many fans, but for me the muse of Fosse is Minnelli, not MacLaine. They both have their strong points, but Liza Minnelli is truly one of the greats of the 20th century (and beyond).

mike48128 Gwen Verdon, where are you? Shirley MacLaine is good (but not great) as the replacement for Gwen in this mixed-bag of a film adaptation directed by Bob Fosse. It's too bland. Charity is a hooker in the Broadway version, but here she is a "taxi dancer" who occasionally goes in for the "long haul" with regulars like "Charlie". The scenes are G-rated so a great opportunity with Latin Lover Ricardo Montalban is lost. Shirley plays "Charity Hope Valentine" the girl with the proverbial heart of gold. She appears wide-eyed-and innocent in spite of her sordid profession. Her long-lost "love", Oscar Linquist, is played by John McMartin. He's an insurance actuary, an incredibly boring and strange man who claims to "love her for what she is" but gets cold feet on the way to the marriage license bureau. (The "Charlie" red heart tattoo on her shoulder sure doesn't help.) John's lack-luster performance rivals that of Van Johnson's in "Brigadoon". It "cools down" the movie, especially the last 20 minutes. The ending stinks also. After the "flower children" wish her a cheery "Good Morning" she skips down the lane, on her merry way, after staying out all night on the footbridge where she used to meet her sweetheart. It's way too long. (157 min.) The musical production numbers are quite good because they are directed by the genius Bob Fosse. "Hey Big Spender" is the stand out. Sammy Davis Jr. appears in a great cameo as a singing and dancing "soul man hippie" preacher. However, there is too much dialog in-between all the music. Universal considered this a "bomb" as it lost money at the box office. Even Stubby Kaye (as the dance hall owner) couldn't save this one.

Ras-I Thrill Neither this movie nor the two endings are that good in my book, I never saw the Fellini movie that "Sweet Charity" is based on and I love a sad, "realistic" ending as much as the next person. But with the way this movie is written, it doesn't make sense to me for Oscar to leave Charity hanging at the altar.Maybe if he found out what she does for a living after he asked her to marry him it would make more sense. Then he might feel some obligation to go through with the marriage even though he was having serious second thoughts, and that could lead to him backing out of it at the last minute. But the way this movie is written, he not only found out about her life before asking her to marry him, he found out before he told her he loved her. There were no serious ties between them, he had all the time in the world to keep dating her and mulling it over (if he wanted to use that time), yet he still came to the conclusion that nothing else mattered and they had to be together.To me that isn't the thought process of a man who is going go flip-flop on his decision. And if he does flip, what's to stop him from flopping right back hours later and deciding he was a fool for leaving Charity ... which brings us back to the alternate end.Like I said, neither end is satisfying to me. But at least the alternate one makes more sense. In the original one even Oscar can't explain why he's leaving her.