A Chorus Line **** (1985, Michael Douglas, Terrence Mann, Michael Blevins, Alyson Reed) – Classic Movie Review 1868

A Chorus Line is one of the greatest of all Broadway musicals, as well as one of the longest runners of all time) and unexpected director Richard Attenborough’s 1985 movie version is pleasingly entertaining. The show focuses on a group of hopeful musical performers auditioning for a place on the chorus line of a new Broadway show and meanwhile revealing all their hopes and their fears and their lives.

Another unexpected  choice, Michael Douglas, makes a highly effective star, bringing a sharp and beady-eyed chill gale force across the sentimental proceedings as the cynical and demanding theatre director the prospective chorus line play for (I Really Need This Job) and Alyson Reed also scores strongly as his ex-mistress hoping for a comeback. Terrence Mann, Michael Blevins and Audrey Landers also star.

Attenborough films the dance numbers electrifyingly, thankfully without the endless, disruptive cutting you get in many dance movies, placing the viewer in the heart of the action. You might churlishly think that there’s a slightly better film to be made here though: just imagine how Bob Fosse could have improved the dancing, editing and general pizzazz. But, nevertheless, Attenborough does a very fine job, effectively and instinctively guided by his love of actors, the stage and showbiz. Attenborough clearly adores and respects the material, and he knows how to show it, and that’s the most important thing.

Nothing stops the songs and the numbers. The soundtrack is one of the all-time greats. ‘One’ and ‘What I Did for Love’ are among the absolutely stupendous, all-time great Marvin Hamlisch show tunes. It is very much an adult musical for sophisticated grown-ups, with some frank speaking about sex.

Arnold Schulman adapts his sympathetic screenplay from the musical A Chorus Line, concept by Michael Bennett, book by James Kirkwood Jr and Nicholas Dante.

Richard Attenborough died on August 24 2014, aged 90. His very first film as director, Oh! What a Lovely War in 1969, was a musical too.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1868

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