Victor/Victoria
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| Victor/Victoria | |
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 original film poster |
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| Directed by | Blake Edwards |
| Produced by | Tony Adams Blake Edwards |
| Written by | Blake Edwards Hans Hoemburg Reinhold Schünzel (1933 script) |
| Starring | Julie Andrews James Garner Robert Preston |
| Music by | Henry Mancini |
| Cinematography | Dick Bush |
| Editing by | Ralph E. Winters |
| Distributed by | MGM/UA Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | March 16, 1982 |
| Running time | 132 min. |
| Country |  United States United Kingdom France West Germany |
| Language | English/French |
Victor/Victoria is a 1982 musical comedy film, which involves transvestism and sexual identity as central themes. It stars Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston, Lesley Ann Warren, Alex Karras and John Rhys-Davies. The screenplay was adapted by Blake Edwards (Andrews' husband) and Hans Hoemburg from the 1933 German film Viktor und Viktoria by Reinhold Schünzel. The film was produced by Tony Adams, directed by Blake Edwards, and scored by Henry Mancini, with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. It was later adapted in 1995 as a Broadway musical. There was also a 1935 movie named "First a Girl," made in the United Kingdom and directed by Victor Saville, about a woman who stands in for a female impersonator and becomes a hit. The name of the person she impersonates is also called Victor and Victoria.
The movie won the Academy Award for Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Robert Preston), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Julie Andrews), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Lesley Ann Warren), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.
Plot summary
In 1930s Paris, Victoria Grant (Andrews), a struggling female singer, is unable to find work. She runs into Carroll Todd ("Toddy", played by Preston) at a Paris restaurant as she is scheming to plant a cockroach in her food in order to get her meal for free. Toddy has a plan to help both her and himself: Victoria will pretend to be a man pretending to be a woman, and get a job as a female impersonator in a nightclub. In order to enhance the ruse, Toddy will pretend to be her gay lover.
Soon Victoria's new persona, "Count Victor Grezinski", becomes the toast of Paris. As money and fame start to turn her (and Toddy's) lives around, an additional complication arises. King Marchand (Garner), a gangster and nightclub-owner from Chicago, finds himself at first repelled by and then strangely attracted to "Victor". This encourages his burly bodyguard, "Squash" Bernstein (Karras), to come out of the closet, but it enrages Marchand's current girlfriend, Norma Cassady (Warren).
Norma becomes more annoying and tawdry, in contrast to the classy Victoria, and King finally has Squash send her home to Chicago so that he is free to pursue Victoria. Victoria must come to terms with what she really wants out of life: to be true to herself by giving up her career and fame in Paris to be with the man who loves her and whom she loves, or to continue with her duplicitous profession and risk losing Marchand.
The vocal numbers in the film are presented as real-life scenes or entertainments that involve singers; this explains why neither Toddy nor Marchand sings a duet with Victoria as part of some sort of private scene. Nevertheless, the lyrics or situations of some of the songs are calculated to relate to the unfolding drama. Thus, the two staged numbers "Le Jazz Hot" and "The Shady Dame from Seville" help to present Victoria as a female impersonator. The latter number is later reinterpreted by Toddy for diversionary purposes in the plot. The cozy relationship of Toddy and Victoria is promoted by the song "You and Me," which is sung before the audience at the nightclub.
See also
External links
- Victor/Victoria at the Internet Movie Database (film)
- Victor/Victoria at the Internet Broadway Database (Broadway play)
- Victor/Victoria at the Internet Movie Database (TV adaptation of Broadway play)
- Victor/Victoria at Allmovie (film)
- James Garner Interview on the Charlie Rose Show
- James Garner interview at Archive of American Television
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