“Zoom-happy Fosse’s choreographic conceptions are intensely dramatic, and the movie has some of the best dancing in American musicals of the period.” (Pauline Kael, The New Yorker)
The unfortunate love life of a hopelessly naïve and endlessly hopeful dance-hall hostess (Shirley MacLaine) is the subject of Bob Fosse’s razzle-dazzle directorial debut—and all the Fosse-isms (the hats, the gloves, the jazz hands, the disjointed body parts) are already here on full display. Based on the stage musical of the same name (which he also directed), itself inspired by Federico Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria, Sweet Charity’s got a dark edge, a groovy score by Cy Coleman, and a hilarious book by Neil Simon. The musical numbers including “Big Spender,” “If My Friends Could See Me Now,” and “There’s Gotta Be Something Better Than This.” While the old-fashioned Hollywood musical was dying, this bold entertainment began to show a new way forward.