Freaky Friday ***½ (1976, Jodie Foster, Barbara Harris, John Astin) – Classic Movie Review 2863

Director Gary Nelson’s warm-hearted 1976 movie is a fondly remembered Seventies hit generation-swap comedy from the Walt Disney studio.

Jodie Foster stars as Annabel Andrews, who exchanges her 13-year-old brain for her mom Ellen (Barbara Harris)’s 35-year-old body for one funky, frenetic, frenzied, freaky Friday. This follows them arguing and saying they wish they could have the easy life of the other that day.

The funny premise in Mary Rodgers’s bright screenplay, expertly adapting her own novel, is inventively developed by the gleeful performers, especially spunky young Jodie, amusing Golden Globe nominee Harris and John Astin as Jodie’s father Bill. The good-natured result is way above average for a Disney comedy of the day.

Both stars were nominated as Best Motion Picture Actress – Musical/Comedy at the 1977 Golden Globes, as were Joel Hirschhorn and Al Kasha for Best Original Song (‘I’d Like to Be You for a Day’). As the actresses also played each other’s characters, they were both nominated for playing the same characters. There were no wins.

Dallas’s Charlene Tilton makes a fleeting appearance as Bambi. Also in the cast are Patsy Kelly, Dick Van Patten, Sorrell Booke, Marie Windsor, Ruth Buzzi, Vicky Schreck, Alan Oppenheimer, Kaye Ballard, Marc McClure, Sparky Marcus, Brooke Mills, Karen Smith, Marvin Kaplan, Al Molinaro, Iris Adrian, Shelly Jutner, James Van Patten and Fritz Feld.

It was made in the same annus mirabilis year that Foster showed her extraordinary range by playing the singing siren Tallulah in Bugsy Malone and the child prostitute in Taxi Driver.

It was remade in 1995 for TV and for cinemas in 2003.

Dick Van Patten, who plays Harold Jennings, died on 23 June 2015, aged 86.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2863

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