Paula Kelly Movies
Tall, elegant African American musical performer Paula Kelly was the daughter of a popular nightclub and band singer of the same name; the elder Paula Kelly had been instrumental in popularizing such 1930s and 1940s standards as "Jeepers Creepers" and "Chattanooga Choo Choo." The younger Kelly launched her own career in the early 1960s. In 1969 she made her first film, re-creating her Broadway role as dance-hall girl Helene in Sweet Charity. Kelly's later films ranged from the excellent (The Andromeda Strain) to the barely tolerable (Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling). Extremely active on series TV, Paula Kelly has played such roles as public defender Liz Williams on Night Court (1984), Theresa in The Women of Brewster Place (the 1989 pilot for Oprah Winfrey's abortive weekly) and Sweets in South Central (1994). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Shirley MacLaine plays Charity Hope Valentine who, despite her job at a seedy dime-a-dance joint, is an incurable optimist. Charity never stops looking for true love and never seems to look for it in the right places. We first see her in the company of Charlie (Dante DiPaolo), a slimeball who steals her purse and pushes her into the Central Park pond. Next she stumbles into a one-night stand with Vittorio Vidal (Ricardo Montalban), an egotistical movie star; this comes to nothing when Vittorio's contrite girlfriend Ursula (Barbara Bouchet) comes calling, forcing Charity to spend the night hiding in the closet. Desperate to escape the dance hall, Charity heads to an employment agency, where a bureaucratic clerk (Alan Hewitt) informs her that she has no qualifications. Unhappily, Charity heads for the elevator, where she becomes trapped with the very shy -- and very claustrophobic -- Oscar Lindquist (John McMartin). Once they've gotten out of the stalled elevator, Charity begins dating Oscar, never telling him of her checkered past or her sordid dance-hall job. Oscar eventually finds out but assures her that it doesn't matter. However, at the engagement party held at the dance hall, Oscar's puritanical streak emerges. He walks out on Charity, leaving her alone and heartbroken once more. With the help of a group of flower children (among them Bud Cort and Kristoffer Tabori), Charity is able to pick herself up and start living "Hopefully Ever After." Sweet Charity was adapted from the 1965 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was inspired by the 1957 Fellini flick Nights of Cabiria. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley MacLaine, John McMartin, (more)
