Sweet Charity (1969) – Nostalgia Central

Charity Hope Valentine (Shirley MacLaine) works as a taxi dancer (she is paid by the dance at the Fandango Ballroom in New York) with her friends, Nickie (Chita Rivera) and Helene (Paula Kelly).

She longs for love, but has bad luck with men – illustrated when her married boyfriend, Charlie (Dante DiPaolo), pushes her off Gapstow Bridge in Central Park and steals her life savings of $427.

Charity meets famous movie star Vittorio Vitale (Ricardo Montalban) just as he breaks up with his girlfriend, Ursula (Barbara Bouchet) and has dinner with him at his apartment. Unfortunately for her, Ursula returns to Vittorio, forcing Charity to spend a humiliating night in a closet as Vittorio and Ursula make love and sleep together.

Seeking a more respectable and rewarding line of work, Charity visits an employment agency, but with no higher education or qualifications, the interviewer thinks she has been sent in as a joke.

As she is leaving, the elevator breaks down between floors, and Charity supports a panicking man – the shy and claustrophobic Oscar Lindquist (John McMartin), who finally asks her out on a date with him.

The couple date several times – including a visit to an alternative church presided over by a preacher named Big Daddy (Sammy Davis Jr) who sings The Rhythm of Life.

Charity leads Oscar to believe she works in a bank, but when he proposes, he discovers the truth about her past at the Fandango and cannot accept it, ultimately deciding not to go through with the marriage.

Charity returns to the bridge in Central Park where she first appeared in the film and seems ready to throw herself off it, but a passing group of young hippies singing about love and peace hand her a flower, lifting her spirits.

Among the many dancers in the film are Toni Basil, who went on to have a hit single in 1982 with Mickey, Chelsea Brown (a regular on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In who became a big TV and music star in Australia in the 1970s), and future porn actress Georgina Spelvin (who starred in The Devil in Miss Jones )

Charity Valentine
Shirley MacLaine
Oscar Lindquist
John McMartin
Vittorio Vitale
Ricardo Montalban
Big Daddy
Sammy Davis Jr.
Nickie
Chita Rivera
Helene
Paula Kelly
Herman
Stubby Kaye
Ursula
Barbara Bouchet
Nicholsby
Alan Hewitt
Charlie
Dante DiPaolo

Director
Bob Fosse