SYNOPSICS
Victor Victoria (1982) is a English,French movie. Blake Edwards has directed this movie. Julie Andrews,James Garner,Robert Preston,Lesley Ann Warren are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1982. Victor Victoria (1982) is considered one of the best Comedy,Music,Romance movie in India and around the world.
In 1934 Paris, trained coloratura soprano Victoria Grant (Dame Julie Andrews), a native Brit, can't get a job as a singer and is having trouble making ends meet. She doesn't even have enough money for the basics of food and shelter. Gay cabaret singer Carole "Toddy" Todd (Robert Preston) may befall the same fate as Victoria, as he was just fired from his singing gig at a second-rate club named "Chez Lui". To solve their problems, Toddy comes up with what he considers to be an inspired idea: with Toddy as her manager, Victoria, pretending to be a man, get a job singing as a female impersonator. If they pull this scheme off, Toddy vows Victoria, as her male alter ego, will be the toast of Paris and as such be extremely wealthy. That alter ego they decide is Polish Count Victor Grazinski, Toddy's ex-lover who was disowned by his family when they found out he was gay. The Count auditions for the city's leading agent, Andre Cassell (John Rhys-Davies), who, impressed, gets him a gig ...
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Victor Victoria (1982) Reviews
The last great musical?
"Victor/Victoria" was the film where Blake Edwards finally managed to deliver his valentine to his wife, Julie Andrews, and convince the public to join in. Maybe because of that, it's one of his most heartfelt movies, and the enormous love between the director and his star do as much to warm up this movie as the careful colour composition of Dick Bush's fantastic - and underrated - photography. This is a film where everything works perfectly. The acting ranges from the impeccable (the leads) through the touching (Alex Karras) right to the truly sublime (Robert Preston and Lesley Ann-Warren). The musical numbers are lovingly staged and shot and, possibly because this is a pre-MTV film, we actually get to see dancers dancing, as opposed to machine-gun assemblies of body parts performing details of not necessarily connected movements. The directorial touch is assured, proficient but never showy: the many complicated set-ups are executed with elegance, economy - not a frivolous camera movement to be seen - and discretion. (The circular pan around Julie as she sings "Crazy World" is a lovely example of how camera movement can create emotion without drawing attention to itself.) The sets and costumes are lavish but, again, do not distract. The screenplay is witty, full of deft touches, and Edwards treats his rather daring (for 1982) theme without blinking, and with great lucidity. (The other drag film of the year was "Tootsie", which stuck to the romance and stayed away from uncomfortable homosexual touches as much as it managed to.) The timing never falters. And the score is priceless. All in all, a flawless entertainment, which, like the best movies from the studio system's heyday of which "Victor / Victoria" is a proud and worthy descendant, rewards the attentive (and interested) viewer with far more substance - and style - than might appear at first. I do not have the space to analyse this film at the length it deserves; but I can recommend it, which I do wholeheartedly.
A Great 1962 Movie -- Made in 1982
Despite all of its gender-bending commentary on sexuality, both hetero- and homo-, "Victor/Victoria" looked and sounded in 1982 (year of "ET" and "The Road Warrior") as if it were made in 1962 -- and that was a good thing. Blake Edwards' trademark ability to combine lush romanticism with immitable slapstick comedy was here matched by a wonderful score by his longtime collaborator Henry Mancini, "Voila!" -- we're back in the early sixties again. (It didn't hurt that stars Julie Andrews and James Garner were hottest in the sixties, and had acted together in 1964's "The Americanization of Emily.") Robert Preston, "The Music Man" of late fifties Broadway and 1962 screen fame, further added an element of early sixties nostalgia -- with the twist that he here used his booming vocal tones in the service of a delightfully out and comfortable gay man. Preston was one of two hot contenders for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar that year. The winner was Lou Gossett, Jr. for his Drill Instructor in "An Officer And A Gentleman." Rounding out the great cast are Lesley Ann Warren (sexy and very funny) in an Oscar-nominated role as Garner's mob moll floozie, and Alex Karras, continually funny as Garner's softhearted ox of a bodyguard. (Karras gets a classic Blake Edwards slapstick routine trapped in the freezing snow outside a Paris hotel, getting big laughs out of the simple line: "You've got heat? That's good.") And be sure to keep a lookout for "Sherloque Tanney" as the French private detective on Victor/Victoria's trail. Tanney was Blake Edwards dentist, and appeared in almost every Blake Edwards film from "Darling Lili" (1970) on. Other than his corpse in "SOB," (1981), the French detective is possibly Dr. Tanney's greatest role on the screen. Tanney, too, gets to anchor several great trademark Blake Edwards slapstick routines. Oh, and there's music, too. Enough music for a Broadway musical (which is what "Victor/Victoria" became), and with a sad and wistful Mancini title tune (reprised in the film by Andrews) that reminds one a bit of "Moon River" and "Days of Wine and Roses." Just like in the early sixties.
How do YOU describe "great?" I define it with this movie.
My God, the reviewer before me MUST be mad!!! Either that, or he/she must be struggling with their own sexuality! THIS is one of my favorite movies of ALL time. Julie Andrews is in fine musical form; James Garner gives one of his greatest comedic performances since "The Americanization of Emily" (also with Julie Andrews) and Lesley Ann Warren just about steals the picture! This movie scores a solid "10" for comedy, a sterling "10" for music and a rousing "10" for romance! ANYONE that DOESN'T like this movie should suck an egg! HOW did Lesley Ann Warren NOT win an Oscar? Ditto, Robert Preston? I consider myself a guy's guy, but I confess I tear up every time I hear the opening refrains of Julie singing "Crazy World," the film's theme song. Bravo, Blake Edwards!!!
Le Film Hot
Dazzling art direction, lavish costumes, funny dialogue, a fabulous soundtrack, and Robert Preston make "Victor/Victoria" one of filmdom's most entertaining musicals of all time. Set in 1934 Paris, and filmed in luscious color, the film tells the story of two down and out friends who carry out an ingenious plan to get rich. Toddy (Robert Preston), a gay performer, persuades Victoria (Julie Andrews), a struggling singer, to change her appearance to that of a man so that she can pose on stage as a female impersonator. Blake Edwards converts the film's clever concept into a film of true cinematic flair and panache. The film's music alone is enough to make "Victor/Victoria" a winner. With consummate verve, Andrews sings the lively "Le Jazz Hot", a stage performance that has been mimicked by, it seems, one in ten talent competitors in the Miss America Pageant for the last twenty years. The colorful song "The Shady Dame From Seville" is memorable as a cultural classic. Even the restrained "You And Me" is satisfying, with its old fashioned charm. And Henry Mancini's wistful and slightly melancholy original score adds melodic balance to the flashy stage numbers. The casting is perfect. I cannot imagine anyone other than Julie Andrews as Victoria. James Garner is fine as King Marchand. And in support roles, Lesley Ann Warren adds sexy spunk as Norma, and Alex Karras is surprisingly effective as Marchand's bodyguard. But it is music man Robert Preston who leads this top notch Hollywood talent parade. Preston is likable throughout, and is a hoot in the film's finale. If the film has a flaw, it might be in the editing. The plot in Act Two slows down. Or, to say it a little differently, it ... drags (so to speak). The 132 minute runtime is a tad long maybe, and so a few scene deletions here and there might have rendered a slight improvement in the pace. But, this is a minor issue, one that I raise only in my grasping-at-straws attempt to find something to complain about. "Victor/Victoria" is an expressive, fun, one-of-a-kind musical garden party that easily makes my list of top fifty films ever made.
A fine way for the stars to break away from their earlier roles, and it's pretty funny, too.
Three of the stars of this movie all made their mark playing wholesome characters, (and all in musicals, ironically) but they certainly got rid of those personas in this film. Julie Andrews finally solved the problem of Maria by playing a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman, Robert Preston's gay entertainer is a long, long way from Harold Hill, and Lesley Ann Warren... well, her floozy moll ("Ya mean you really aw... quee-uh?") basically erases all memories of Cinderella. All give excellent performances in this entertaining, funny film from director/co-writer Blake Edwards. And they all get to sing some great songs from Henry Mancini and Leslie Brucusse, among them "Le Jazz Hot," (in which Andrews sings in her lower range, and actually sizzles) "The Shady Dame From Seville," (first sung by Andrews, then hilariously reprised at the end by Preston) and "Chicago, Illinois." (Warren is great in that) Though there is a long stretch in the middle that either included jokes and/or subtleties that went over my head or just wasn't funny, though not bad, otherwise it's a great comedy. In addition to the three performers mentioned, James Garner is also good as the gangster who falls for Andrews but is unsure of her gender.