Victor/Victoria is a 1982 musical comedy film written and directed by Blake Edwards and starring Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston, Lesley Ann Warren, Alex Karras, and John Rhys-Davies. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, produced by Tony Adams and scored by Henry Mancini, with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. Victor/Victoria was adapted as a Broadway musical in 1995. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score or Adaptation Score. It is a remake of the 1933 German film Victor and Victoria.

Plot

In 1934 Paris, Carroll "Toddy" Todd, an aging gay performer at Club Chez Lui, sees Labisse, the owner, auditioning frail and impoverished soprano Victoria Grant. After her failed audition, Victoria returns to her hotel room to find herself about to be evicted, as she cannot pay her rent. That night, when hustler Richard, with whom Toddy is romantically involved, comes to Chez Lui as part of a straight foursome, Toddy incites a brawl resulting in damages and the police locking up whomever they can get their hands on. Labisse fires Toddy and bans him from the club. Walking home, Toddy spots Victoria in a restaurant. She invites him to join her. As both of them are poor, she plans to dump a cockroach in her salad to avoid paying, but it escapes and mayhem ensues. The duo run through the rain to Toddy's, and he invites her to stay when she discovers the rain shrunk and damaged her decrepit clothing. The next morning Richard shows up to collect his things. Victoria, who is wearing his suit and hat, hides in Toddy's closet. When Richard opens the closet, she punches him, breaking his nose before kicking him out. Seeing this, Toddy is struck with the inspiration of passing Victoria off as a man and presenting her to successful talent agent Andre Cassell as a female impersonator. Cassell accepts her as Count Victor Grazinski, a gay Polish impersonator and Toddy's new boyfriend. Cassell gets her a booking in a nightclub show and invites club owners to the opening. Among the guests are Chicago gangster King Marchand, his moll Norma Cassidy and bodyguard Mr. Bernstein, also known as Squash. Victoria performs "Le Jazz Hot" and becomes a hit. King is smitten, but is shocked when she "reveals" herself to be a man at the end of the act. King, however, is convinced that "Victor" is not a man because he insists that there's no way he could be attracted to another man. After Norma attacks King during a quarrel, he sends her back to the United States. Determined to uncover the truth, King sneaks into Victoria and Toddy's suite and confirms his suspicion when he spies her getting into the bath. In Chicago, Norma, angry over being dumped, tells King's business partner Sal Andretti that King is having an affair with a man. King invites Victoria, Toddy and Cassell to Chez Lui. Another fight breaks out. Squash and Toddy are arrested, along with many of the club clientele, but King and Victoria escape. Once outside the club, King says he doesn't care if Victor is a man, and kisses him. Victoria admits she's not a man. King says he still doesn't care, and kisses her again. Squash returns to the suite and catches him in bed with Victoria. King tries to explain, but then Squash reveals that he himself is gay. Victoria and King argue over whether or not the relationship could work and Victoria discovers that King is not really a gangster but someone who pretends to be to stay in the nightclub business. Both he and Victoria are pretending to be something they are not. Victoria returns to her room and finds Squash in bed with Toddy. Meanwhile, Labisse hires private investigator Charles Bovin to tail Victor. Victoria and King attempt to live together, but keeping up her deception strains the relationship, and King eventually ends it. At the same time that Victoria decides to give up the Victor persona to be with King, Sal arrives and demands that King transfer his share of the business to Sal for a fraction of what it is actually worth. Squash tells Victoria what is happening, and she shows Norma that she is really a woman, saving King's stake. That night at the club, Cassell tells Toddy and Victoria that Labisse lodged a police complaint against him and "Victor" for perpetrating a public fraud. After checking for himself, the inspector tells Labisse that the performer he saw in the room, after opening the door, is a man and that Labisse is an idiot. Victoria joins King in the club as her real self. The announcer says that Victor will perform, but instead of Victoria, Toddy masquerades as "Victor". After an intentionally disastrous performance, Toddy claims that this is his last performance.

Cast

Musical numbers

The vocal numbers in the film are presented as nightclub acts, with choreography by Paddy Stone. However, 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, and the cozy relationship of Toddy and Victoria is promoted by the song "You and Me", which is sung before the audience at the nightclub. "Gay Paree" – Toddy "Le Jazz Hot!" – Victoria "The Shady Dame from Seville" – Victoria "You and Me" – Toddy, Victoria "Chicago, Illinois" – Norma "Crazy World" – Victoria "Finale/Shady Dame from Seville (Reprise)" – Toddy Occasionally, Victoria and Toddy sing "Home on the Range" when they are in the hotel.

Production

The film's screenplay was adapted by Blake Edwards (Andrews' husband) from the 1933 German film Victor and Victoria written and directed by Reinhold Schünzel from an original story treatment by Hans Hoemburg. According to Edwards, the screenplay took only one month to write. Andrews watched the 1933 version to prepare for her role. The film had been planned as early as 1978 with Andrews to star alongside Peter Sellers, but Sellers died in 1980 while Andrews and Edwards were filming S.O.B. (1981), so Robert Preston was cast in the role of Toddy. The costume worn by Andrews in the number "The Shady Dame from Seville" is in fact the same costume worn by Preston at the end of the film. It was made to fit Preston, and then, using a series of hooks and eyes at the back, it was drawn in tight to fit Andrews' shapely figure. Black silk ruffles were added to the bottom of the garment to hide the differences in height. The fabric is a black and brown crepe, with fine gold threads woven into it, that when lit appears to have an almost wet look about it.

Release

Victor/Victoria was the opening night film at Filmex on March 16, 1982. It opened in New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto on March 19, 1982.

Reception

= Critical response

= Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 3 out of 4 stars and wrote: "Not only a funny movie, but, unexpectedly, a warm and friendly one." Todd McCarthy of Variety called it "sparkling, ultra-sophisticated entertainment from Blake Edwards." Vincent Canby in the New York Times was enthusiastic: “Get ready, get set, and go—immediately—to the Ziegfeld Theater, where Blake Edwards today opens his chef d’oeuvre, his cockeyed, crowning achievement....It’s called ‘Victor/Victoria,' and it stars Julie Andrews, Robert Preston and James Garner, each giving the performances of his and her career in a marvelous fable about mistaken identity, sexual role-playing, love, innocence and sight gags....Although ‘Victor/Victoria’ preaches tolerance and understanding of homosexuality, and though it uses the word ‘gay’ in a way that I doubt was much used in 1934 Paris, even in the demimonde portrayed in this film, the roots of the comedy are as ancient as the use of masks and disguises in the theater....’Victor/Victoria’ is so good, so exhilarating, that the only depressing thing about it is the suspicion that Mr. Edwards is going to have a terrible time trying to top it.” On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 97% based on 33 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Driven by a fantastic lead turn from Julie Andrews, Blake Edwards' musical gender-bender is sharp, funny and all-round entertaining." On Metacritic, it has a score of 84 out of 100 based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

= Accolades

= In 2000, American Film Institute included the film in AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs (#76).

See also

Cross-dressing in film and television

Notes

References

External links

Victor/Victoria at IMDb Victor/Victoria at AllMovie Victor/Victoria at Box Office Mojo Victor/Victoria at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films Victor/Victoria at the TCM Movie Database James Garner Interview on the Charlie Rose Show Archived 2008-01-03 at the Wayback Machine James Garner interview at Archive of American Television