Annie (1982)

The last big scale classic musical.

Directed by the legendary John Huston.

Produced by Ray Stark.

Based on the Broadway musical by Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin and Thomas Meehan.

Aileen Quinn makes her film debut as the titular orphan Annie. Quinn is spectacular.

Every adult cast member is great, too- Albert Finney, Carol Burnett, Tim Curry, Ann Reinking, Bernadette Peters, Geoffrey Holder, Roger Minami, Lois de Banzie, Peter Marshall, and Edward Herrmann as President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Every musical number is a show stopper. The film was after it's time. More along the lines of West Side Story, My Fair Lady, etc.

R1 It did not. $75M on a $35M budget, or something like that

I LOVED the movie as a kid and used to know the songs and dance routines off by heart! I'd play the movie over and over, especially the dance scenes and copy the choreography. Critics panned 1982's Annie, but I credit it for sparking my interest and love for musicals and I used to dream of becoming. I think that many forget that the movie wasn't intended to please dedicated theatre goers or critics, it was for little boys and girls who lived far from NYC and who didn't have easy and regular access to live musical theatre. If it weren't for Annie, I don't know if I'd have ever become the theatre queen I am today.

Ann Reinking. What a dancer. There's dutifully following choreography and then there's TRUE dance. She was mesmerizing. Even in throwaway numbers.

Oops, my post came out all mangled. It should have read that I dreamed of becoming a choreographer.

It may not have been considered a flop box-office wise, but I don't remember it getting the best reviews. I'm not looking them up, so feel free to prove me wrong.

They have remade Annie several times, but none of them have the magic of this version.

Carol Burnett made the film

I didn't appreciate this number as a kid but I sure do now.

My mom said I couldn’t see it. She said it would make me more queer than I already was.

If Albert Finney, Carol Burnett, and Ann Reinking were not in the movie, it would not have been nearly as good.

I'm surprised Carol would play a drunk considering her parents were alcoholics. It seemed to be a sensitive topic, she won a lawsuit against The National Enquirer when they printed a false story about Carol being drunk in public.

Ever since someone pointed out the DPs panty fetish, when watching this movie now, it's all one can see. The movie is all about panties, even the orphans. It's bizarre.

Well, R13 she had plenty of experience to draw from to play drunk

Beloved by pederasts OP all those shots of little girls' panties!

I agree Carol Burnett was the highlight of the film, but every adult cast member is solid. The problem was that the titular role was horribly cast and thus sunk the film.

I've come around on John Huston over the last couple of years. I used to consider him uneven (some hits, some misses), but now I agree with the general opinion that he's one of the greatest directing talents to come from the States. What a varied and amazing catalog: The Maltese Falcon, The Night of the Iguana, Heaven Knows Mister Allison, The Misfits, Key Largo, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Reflections in a Golden Eye, The African Queen, The Asphalt Jungle, The Dead, Fat City...

Even his lesser works like The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean and Freud have their merits. And Annie for that matter.

R4 Reinking could always move, she was always a vaudevillian actress.

I saw this posted on Facebook the other day and I dead serious thought it was Ann Reinking before realizing that it was Ozzy. ☹️

R17 and Wise Blood (1979)

'is one of John Huston's most original, most stunning movies. It is so eccentric, so funny, so surprising and so haunting that it is difficult to believe that it is not the first film of some enfant terrible instead of the 33rd feature by a man who is now in his 70s' -Vincent Canby NY Times

Wikipedia says it had a $35 million budget and earned $57.1 million .

So, not a flop, but not a massive hit either. Didn't earn back twice its budget.

Critics, especially local network TV critics, were vicious then. The standards were higher. Pia Lindstrom was such a nasty bitch, it was all very amusing. Today the entertainment press does handstands for mediocrity. I remember Annie was panned but it probably is a classic compared to most of the last decade’s movies.

My four nieces and nephews were orphans. None of the emotionally stunted adults in my family could ever talk to them about it. One day someone put it on the DVD and they were transfixed for the entire movie. I don't know what they thought or how they felt. I can only imagine. For many years until they entered their teens it was one of their favorite movies which they watched with some degree of regularity.

R23 Annie has a very low 39 Metascore The 2014 version has an even lower 33

What is a “DP”, [R14]?

Could it be director of photgraphy?

I never understood why they started the movie with “Tomorrow,” instead of its usual place later in the plot.

Yes, DP is director of photography (i.e., cinematographer)

I have never loved a musical number more than, Let's go to the Movies.

The movie tells us that Miss Hannigan is a Democrat, lol.

"We Got Annie" is such a dumb little number, and yet Reinking's dancing is so magnetic, it somehow justifies it.

The gardener in "We Got Annie" is a phenomenal dancer too, R31.

I was obsessed with the yellow dress she wore in that number and thought it was so glamourous. Same with the ensemble she wore when she first went to the orphanage.

[quote]Yes, DP is director of photography (i.e., cinematographer)

Thanks for explaining that! The thought of Annie and Double Penetration was making me queasy.

Who played gardener? I can't find a name for the actor at all. He's wonderful.

"We Got Annie," for the record.

I loved this movie as a kid. Whatever happened to Quinn

[quote]Thanks for explaining that! The thought of Annie and Double Penetration was making me queasy.

Lol! Somehow we’re all still ok with a story about a middle aged billionaire taking an orphan for just a week then deciding to keep her. Because that sounds like human trafficking! That’s some Jeffrey Epstein secret pedo island level shenanigans.

I'm sorry DL people but NOTHING equals the ORIGINAL cast from 1977.

I don't remember it being a big hit. There was a great amount of anticipation but it was nowhere the success Stark was expecting. I have no idea why it would have been given to a director like Huston who had as much experience with musicals as Robert Aldrich but maybe he was hoping for a William Wyler surprise smash. That little girl looked like a horror show moppet all by herself.

And as he detested the song Tomorrow he got it out of the way at the beginning of the film so audiences wouldn't have the agony of sitting through it later.

And yes Easy Street is dreadful compared to the original Broadway cast.

She's a cocktail waitress, r36, and is attending cosmetology school.

My high school job was in a movie theater. I remember this came out at the beginning of the summer and we played it to pretty big crowds in the largest of our two theaters. Then a couple of weeks later, Rocky III came out and pushed Annie into the small theater. A few weeks later, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas came out, pushed Rocky into the small theater and Annie completely out. Whorehouse did much better business that summer than Annie, at least at my theater.

It pained me for Miss Burnett that her new chin nearly upstaged her successfully in almost every one of her (I mean, their...) scenes.

It got mixed reviews at the time, but now it seems like a classic.

But I don't think Huston directed it. I think he was the titular head, but gave hands on directing chores to underlings like choreographers.

Annie the 1982 musical is gawdawful!

Leaden, terribly paced, hammily acted and Carol Burnett is just community theater level bad. She is exposed as the mugging actor she's always been on the big screen. The ret of the supporting cast and a cute child can't save it.

The main problem is it is directed by John Huston who likely had never seen a film musical and it's evident nobody has any feel for the material at all. The numbers are poorly shot in a forced inartful manner and nothing flows. Then just when it is a little good you have bizarre numbers like "We Got Annie", "Let's Go to the Movies" and "Dumb Dog" which flatline everything to a dead halt.

I mean if you screw up a sweet, fun, character-driven number like "Easy Street" (they did) how can you pull off a decent film musical (they didn't)?

[quote]I never understood why they started the movie with “Tomorrow,” instead of its usual place later in the plot.

Yeah they effectively tossed aside the most famous song in the musical by playing it over the opening credits, so it wasn't even part of the story, and then filmed only the version in the White House, which in the stage musical was the reprise version, which didn't have nearly the impact as the way the song was intended. Just one of the many missteps in this steaming pile of dog shit of a movie.

Whorehouse surprised.......Annie disappointed 40 Years Ago

(more DL usher stories/memories please!)

WHOREHOUSE Budget$20.5 million

Box office$69.7 million[3]

[quote]Whorehouse surprised

It really shouldn't have.

Fun fact: "Annie's" DP was Richard Moore, the third husband of the singer Margaret Whiting, whose fourth husband was gay pornstar Jack Wrangler--for whom DP probably had a different meaning.

It's not beloved as Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (which also didn't do well at the box office and received lukewarm reviews), but I think due to constantly airing on network television throughout the decades since its release, it has become a cult classic.

It was universally panned. And rightly so. It sucks.

Chicago (2002) had a budget of $45 million, grossed $307 million worldwide, and won Best Picture.

I don't care how bad Easy Street is, it's still my favorite scene because of Tim Curry.

[quote]The last big scale classic musical.

Yes, if we forget about Mamma Mia, Les Miserables, Evita, Dreamgirls, The Greatest Showman, In The Heights, West Side Story...

Annie is a classic example of Hollywood taking hugely successful material and deciding they should change the fuck out of it to put it on the screen. Like many shows, Annie on stage had a couple of throw-away numbers, but the whole story was reimagined for the film, including adding new characters, while a large part of the score was jettisoned in favor of lesser material. The original finale, "A New Deal for Christmas," was organic to the story -but the filmmakers didn't want the film to be a "holiday movie" and added the overblown replacement. Casting Quinn, who was not untalented, was just wrong. But the biggest sin was removing all of the social commentary from the story. One of the reasons for the success of the show was that America was dealing with hyper inflation, gas shortages, and a sense of hopelessness about the future (sound familiar?) -and the show had a message: things will get better tomorrow. People left the theatre feeling better. But with the film, people left the theater saying, "What's for dinner?"

The debut of the most underrated princess of pop- MARTIKA

...and dearly departed camera hog Amanda Peterson

I found this number charming, and everything it should be.

I see that Osbourne has finally turned into the bat he once savagely mutilated. Karma is a BEAR.

It has popped up in other films too.

I have always been fascinated that Columbia Pictures (or someone) licensed the rights to “Tomorrow” to Serial Mom. Did no one read the script to see how John Waters planned to use it? I used to work for a big media company and they were very fussy about how their material could be used in films.

Precocious child performers have always made me want to vomit.

John Huston loved the original comic strip when it morphed into more of an adventure comic, so he insisted they bring in the strip's characters of Punjab (which for some reason they gave to a Caribbean actor, Geoffrey Holder) and Asp. They didn't make much sense in the movie.

He cut so many songs from the original show: "We'd Like to Thank You Herbert Hoover," "NYC" "You Won't Be an Orphan for Long," "Annie," "A New Deal for Christmas." Not all of those songs were huge losses, but "NYC" is a terrific song, and "A New Deal for Christmas" is such a satisfying way to end the show.

I like the original, but lowkey prefer the disney made for tv one. It's closer to the Broadway plotwise.

r41, My cousin also had a high school job at our local theater and I remember her saying it always had big crowds! Mostly as she told me, Mothers and little girls shrieking "WE JUST LOVVVEE ANNIE"

[quote]Who played gardener? I can't find a name for the actor at all. He's wonderful.

Timothy Scott (1955-1988). He originated the role of 'Mr. Mistoffelees' in the original 1982 Broadway production of CATS, starring Betty Buckley as 'Grizabella,' He began dating her younger brother Norman and they were together for several years until Scott died of AIDS. Norman later went on to direct TV shows like THE O.C., CHUCK, GOSSIPS GIRL, and PRETTY LITTLE LIARS, and THE FOSTERS.

Here is what Norman had to say a few years ago:

[quote]"I met him when he played Mr. Mistoffelees in the original Broadway production of Cats. My sister Betty Buckley was also in the show and I would frequently visit her backstage at the Winter Garden. One night I went up into the catwalk to watch the last part of the show and Tim was about to make his entrance from the same catwalk. I turned and looked at him and he looked back at me. It sounds corny but I fell instantly in love with him. We were together for five years. For all intents and purposes he was my husband, but his obituary called me his ‘longtime companion. In the last four weeks of Tim’s life, as his condition worsened, I barely left his side. Several days before he died, I woke in the middle of the night and he was sitting up, very alert. I asked him why he wasn’t sleeping. He said, ‘I am trying to measure where we are relative to that space out there.. Then he turned to me and said, ‘Are you ready for your big test?’ I said I didn’t know what he meant, but I would try to be ready. He patted me on the arm and said, ‘Go back to sleep.’ It was the last thing he ever said to me. The next morning he’d fallen into a coma from which he’d never awake. I loved him so much and still do, 31 years later. It is the love that endures. I learned from Tim that love is not something measured in quantity. It’s instead a state of being. I believe there is a place where it is no longer about being ‘in love,’ but simply feeling the presence of love. It transcends death. You’re either there or you’re not. And in Tim Scott I knew and have continued to know love. And I will always be grateful for that.”

I’m still waiting for the 21st century woke version of Annie

TRANNIE

One of John Huston s duds.

I always feel that Annie must have used the same cinematographer as Bad Lieutenant.

While on a business trip with some very straight and dull Big 8 public accountants I unwisely convinced them to go to see “Annie”. If they hadn’t figured out that I was gay before that, they sure did then. No surprise my career growth with this company stopped dead in its tracks. Oh well.

The story at R64 made me cry.

ABC Family used to play this in their Friday Night Lineup along with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Imagine a musical where in many of the dance scenes they framed the camera to cut off dancer's feet. Brilliant!

It was shit. Ann Reinking coming and doing her jazz dancing out of nowhere is the funniest part of the movie. Poor Roger Minami and Geoffrey Holder were reduced to racial stereotypes. Aileen Quinn wasn't bad but it was a mistake to give her that stupid hairstyle from the start. Horrible choreography. Carol Burnett proved that she has zero talent for musical theater. Her numbers are all so dull. Bette Midler was suggested and it could have been one of the few roles that she could have done well in. Bernadette and Tim Curry are pretty perfect and the best things about it. BTW, Pauline Kael read the script for Ray Stark and hated it but also noted the flaw with the locket gimmick in the show. If a locket is cut in half, it no longer works. One half of it becomes two separate pieces. That's why it was changed to an entire locket stored by Hannigan when Annie arrived.

12 of us went to the movies to see this for my 10th birthday, loved it! My brother decided he would go next door and watch Alien. He was white as a sheet when we saw him afterwards.

Hate it, love the show better. r54 nails it, Annie the Broadway musical was really a social commentary first and a kid's show second.

Also, I hate the stupid tacked on chase scene at the end.

The adult cast is great, regardless of what you are all saying.

Only Carol Burnett could bring the sad, yet sadistically comical, desperation of Miss Hannigan. You hate her, she is terrible, yet you feel for her. You don't realize it until Annie tears up the check and she says "By God, he really is going to kill her." The look in her eyes and her running after him. There is more depth in Miss Hannigan than any other character.

Albert Finney as Daddy Warbucks is perfect. He has the 1930's Hard Ass Wall Streeter appeal. He was in league with Rockefeller, Mellon, Vanderbilt, etc. No Bull Shit. Finney does not Bull Shit.

No one can dance and sing like Anne Reinking.

Tim Curry and Bernadette Peters were made to play cooky street thugs. When Burnett says, "My God, he really is going to kill her," you believe it. Curry excels at unhinged sociopaths. Peters is flighty and airy, she doesn't give a damn as long as she gets money. Yet she is bubbly and charismatic.

Geoffrey Holder was a dancer, he has that deep voice. I remember him best from Live and Let Die as the Occult Voodoo Witch Doctor. He has always played menacing and intimidating characters.

Edward Herrmann can always be counted upon.

I also never figured out who the two old men were. In my mind, they were Warbucks lawyers.

R67 Do not mention the brilliant Bad Lieutenant in the same breath as the pathetic Annie.

"While on a business trip with some very straight and dull Big 8 public accountants I unwisely convinced them to go to see “Annie”. If they hadn’t figured out that I was gay before that, they sure did then. No surprise my career growth with this company stopped dead in its tracks. Oh well."

Your career momentum stopped because you sent them to a terrible film, R68, not because you were gay...

[quote]No one can dance and sing like Anne Reinking

It’s ANN (no E)

That dance had really subpar choreography. Very conventional, boring. Ann tried her best with lousy material.

LOL at R75 who gives this turd of a movie WAY too much credit.

R80 the dance posted at R7.

R64 Sweet story from the tragic times of AIDS. Longtime companion was such a pathetic substitute for lover.

It’s one of those movies that when you rewatch as an adult you realize a lot of the humor wasn’t for kids - I think that’s the real reason it wasn’t a huge hit. But that’s why I like it - also because the orphans especially barely register - it’s all about the adult cast, which is just about perfect.

Had Annie been made at the end of Vs the beginning of the decade (or anytime thereafter, really), it would have been much more straight on /kids oriented. But back in ‘82 “kids movie” still had a stigma - movies were made for adults.

That’s why they put that Goddamn it in there for the PG rating.

I remember seeing a touring production of the show about six months or so before the movie was released. I was only around seven or eight but remember that the orphans were much more of a focal point in the stage version than in the film because as a kid I was more interested in the orphans than the adult stories so that stood out. Watching the Tony sequence from 1977 it's clear to see Loudon's portrayal of Hannigan was a lot smarter than Burnett's. I like Carol in the film but Loudon performance isn't pandering to the audience the way Burnett's was, which is backed up in the 'redeeming' of Miss Hannigan in the film as opposed to the stage production.

In today's $ it made about $172 million.

When I was trying to get the attention of the hottest man I had ever seen and not having faith in my gaydar all I had to do was say Annie and he finished it with "And this place better shhhinneee like the top of the Chrysler building!" That and the "bunny" episode of Littlehouse.

Whoever Greenlit that horrible Annie remake with Cameron Diaz needs to be castrated.

[quote]In today's $ it made about $172 million.

Also in today's $ it had a budget of $106 million.

They used one of the most unappealing locations in the world for Oliver Warbucks' mansion. It looked incredibly cold and inhospitable.

The only time I've ever seen a rich person's house look colder and unfriendlier in a movie was Mame's Beekman Place townhouse in "Mame."

"Victor, Victoria" only made $28 million on a $15 million budget. Strange: I would have thought it was a bigger 1982 hit than both "Best Little Whorehouse" and "Annie," although all three ended up making money. I guess "Annie" had family audience appeal and "Whorehouse" had Burt & Dolly....

Oh god, Victor Victoria... Another letdown. With that horribly miscast Julie Andrews. The only bright light was Lesley Ann Warren.

Too bad Lesley didn't wax.

I hated the direction of Burnett, Peters and Curry to look directly in the camera during "Easy Street". Burnett walking into a wall TWICE was stupid as well.

The TV version is a lot better. Glad NYC was restored. I saw the last Broadway revival twice, both times in the front row, and was thrilled by the big sets and seeing it as it should be done. While Katie Finneran was fine, Faith Prince was a delightful Miss Hannigan.

I remember I was a kid when this came out. The film, like a lot of films from the early '80s, benefitted from the advent of home video. Annie was a popular rental for a new number of years.

I can't say I loved the film. Quinn was fine but she was a bit too precocious and overly sweet. I think they needed someone a little - I don't know - tougher or scrappier or even bratty to compensate for the sweetness.

Burnett, Curry and Peters were great though.

Interesting, R64. Someone in this thread (linked below) says the gardener was played by someone named Russell Chambers, who also sadly died of AIDS complications. The name Russell Chambers is also mentioned in one of the YouTube comments.

Whoever the gardener was, was gorgeous and a beautiful dancer. RIP to both Russell and Timothy.

Chambers was a Fosse dancer, just like Reinking.

From R150 in the linked thread -

[quote] [R147]/[R149] His name was Russell Chambers and was with the Joffery Ballet in NYC for a number of years and was the principal dancer in the Broadway production of DANCE.

[quote] Mr. Chambers later suffered an Achilles's tendon injury and retired from active dancing but formed a ballet school / company in Randolph Massachusetts with his life partner Ken Aubert. Mr. Chambers passed away in the early 1990's of AIDS complications.

For what it's worth, Russell Chambers only has one credited film on IMDb and it's not ANNIE.

On the other hand, Timothy Scott has three, including ANNIE and A CHORUS LINE.

I just watched the closing credits on YouTube and neither name is listed which is surprising since the gardener character has a speaking and singing line plus is highlighted in two dance numbers.

Timothy Scott was uncredited in the ANNIE film. However, IMDb credits him as "Staff Member," which I'm assuming is referring to the Warbucks staff (i.e., gardener).

Yeah, you're probably right, R103. I did a little digging and found another uncredited "staff member" in 1982's Annie who also died of AIDS. So fucking tragic.

Annie was a "hit" in the same sense as Mary Poppins Returns was a "hit." It made a small profit but was an enormous disappointment.

I’m guessing most of the “house staff” (the young ones, that is) died of AIDS. Even before I read any of this I knew that cute guy who climbs up and brings Annie the flowers must have been a casualty. That’s the tragic part.

That goes for any chorus of any movie/show /tv special within a certain time frame.

Here's a close up. So sad. Sorry it's not the best picture. I hope this poor man has people who remember him.

Doesn't a movie have to make 2-3 times its budget to make a profit? Victor Victoria looks like it might have broken even but barely. I assume a huge chunk of the budget went to Julie's and Blake's salaries. If Annie made money it was on home video.

Julie's successful movie career lasted 3 years. And she probably made a million each on Millie, Star!, Lili, and Say It With Music. Then she probably made good money on that terrible TV show. That was great money back then. I assume it was invested very wisely.

She was married to Blake Edwards for 40 years. I don't think you need to fret over Julie's finances.

As someone upthread mentioned, with this film, I imagine counting rental and home video sales is important when measuring its financial performance. I'm a child of the 80s and early 90s and I swear it seemed like every household with kids had a copy of this film on VHS or rented it frequently. It would be interesting to see the stats on the profits from home video sales and rentals -- I wouldn't be surprised if it made a lot more via those channels than via its original theatrical run.

I would imagine it’s made money by now. There are lots of people who, inexplicably, love this movie.

Annie Sprinkle used to pics all over herself and splash piss in her mouth.

It seems that a lot of our younger Dataloungers don't really understand just how big AIDS was -we lost an entire generation, and more. Look at the casts of every musical film, broadway show, and lots of TV series (Murder She Wrote, for one) from the 80s and you'll see young man after young man lost to the plague. And many of them are still posthumously closeted by their families and obit writers. Saying a man died from AIDS was the same as outing him, and many families just wanted their former loved one to disappear quietly, rather than suffer the "shame" of losing him to AIDS. Just writing this makes me cry. Those of us who lived through that terrible period won't ever forget it. Film's like Annie, Best Little Whorehouse, and some cast albums are all that's left of those thousands and thousands of talented men.

R115- Three actors from Dallas died from AIDS.

Your post made me want to cry, R115.

What r115 said is so true, and it is sad. As r116 mentioned three actors from Dallas died. Watch so many of the soaps from the '80s and those beautiful hunk bit players and many of them died.

Disney's renaissance back in 1989 was in large part thanks to the wonderful contributions of Howard Ashman.

I always watch the beginning of All That Jazz and wonder how many of those men in the audition sequence are still with us. Same with the extras in Cruising. We lost so many artists and I think we are still feeling the loss and the impact on creativity.

R118, considering it was 1979 and the dancers were in their early 20s, it's a pretty good guess that many of them are dead.

God that Annie trailer makes it look like a surreal nightmare with singing and dancing.

R120 it’s also practically the entire movie! Old trailers gave away so much. It also looks like a couple of the scenes were deleted.

Oliver Warbucks was kind to Annie, but he was still filthy rapacious capitalist scum.

My favorite part of the trailer was “Geoffrey Holder as Punjab”

As if some frau in Nebraska was like, “I don’t know if I like the idea of Annie, but if Geoffrey Holder is playing Punjab, I guess I’ll give it a try.”

Geoffrey Holder was a beautiful, beautiful man and very talented.

I wish I could see the deleted scene where they go to Radio City and Ann leads the Rockette show with all the dancers wearing Ann Reining masks (that's sadly a true story).

Here's another pic of the gardener.

Geoffrey Holder was great. Fascinating family. Very talented.

There was only ever one Annie!

John Huston had no interest in this movie. He took it on because he owed several favors to producer Ray Stark. Choreographer Joe Layton directed the bulk of it, working closely with the DP. Huston checked in every couple of weeks and made suggestions.

Oh this was a major flop, the costs of the opening were beyond extravagant and probably underreported.

Wasn't the opening night arrivals aired LIVE on tv, via a special either on PBS or ABC? I vividly remember then-new First Lady Nancy Reagan was the special invited guest at the Premiere...at Radio City, I believe.

The Easy Street number was filmed twice - the first time was a huge extravaganza, only seen as a "thought bubble" in the final version of the number.

Annie wasn't a flop. It was the 10th highest-grossing film of 1982. Get your facts straight. 🙄

Both Annie and Whorehouse were two of the top ten grossing movies of 1982.

Here's the first part of a "making of" documentary. If you're interested in seeing the whole thing it's called, "Lights, Camera, Annie." Unfortunately, it's all chopped up into several segments, but it is available for free online.

The original version of Easy Street, a big exstravanza out on the street, is seen only in a few seconds of a documentary made about the film.

I'll warn you, the part where they do the auditions is very painful to listen to. Why would people send their clearly untalented daughters to audition?

A loving tribute from a beloved son, and no better time to remember that love than today, Fathers' Day.

An "Annie" side note: I once asked Mr. Holder what it was like to work with Tim Curry. "He was an ahs hole," frankly stated in that most wonderful of voices.

Joe Layton has an Executive Producer credit in the credits because he did indeed direct most of the film, as opposed to just being the choreographer.

Joe Layton, blast from the past for me. He did the choreography for Mama Cass cabaret act. Nice guy.

The Hard Knock Life number looks like it would have been a nightmare to choreograph.

Anyone here familiar with this Arlene Phillips person?

In the movie the orphan scenes were all about the gymnastics, so much so that one of the orphans was portrayed by a young Sabrina Mar who a couple of years later would be the U.S. gymnastics champion and on two World championship teams.

still no love for Martika, Meredith Salenger and Amanda Peterson, the real stars of Annie

r128, that's not Annie; that's Equus.

Somebody's untalented daughter got the role.

r69 The story at r68 made ME cry. r68 Chariots of Fire would have been the best choice. You would have been CEO in 10-12 years!

[R78] R68 here. I think it was a combination of a boring movie and lousy musical. I never learned my lesson as I also dragged them to see "Mommie Dearest" and while I was howling with laughter at Faye hitting the kid with the bad wig over the head with Bon Ami, they were not amused. I was "laid off" soon after. But got a better job after that.

R146- The problem was you were trying to impose your FABULOUS gay taste on these boring OFFICE DRONES.

If you had taken them to see something blatantly heterosexual like Rocky III you would have lifetime employment wit that company.

Huston clearly didn't really want to make this movie. Testament to his grit-teeth professionalism that it came out as well as it did.

The gin bath sticks with me the most, I don't know why. It just seemed so extreme and villainous to my child's eyes.

I should have warm nostalgia for this movie but it really is a turd.

It's a great fil. John Huston's best.

[quote]I was "laid off" soon after. But got a better job after that.

I told ya the sun would come out tomorrow!

I remember reading a review of ANNIE when it was released. The critic noted that Huston was always too close to the action and the frame always seems a little over stuffed. I haven't enjoyed the movie since except in bits and pieces.

[quote]I never understood why they started the movie with “Tomorrow,” instead of its usual place later in the plot.

Huston hated the song, so it was treated as a throwaway under the opening credits. What a brilliant way to handle the most popular song from the score. It just underscores how bad a choice Huston was. The movie sucked from its very beginning.

How did Huston end up directing this? What is the story there? Why would Ray Stark choose him?

What were the changes brought on by the mega-musicals of the 80s and 90s? I can definitely feel the change in music when you jump to something like Les Mis (my personal favorite show ever) but I’d also like to hear how the theater experience changed for patrons?

I just saw the Disney one- with Kathy Bates- I was really, really impressed with it and Annie. I had such low expectations because every Annie remake kind of sucks. My daughter is studying voice, had ironically never seen Annie and the teacher told her to choose between Tomorrow and Maybe as her next song- so I went to youtube to play them for her and heard the Annie from the Disney version singing Maybe from Annie- such a really great voice- no one can beat Andrea McCardle singing tomorrow. I doubt it is a bastion for gay men- but if you are interested, I recommend it.

I'm not a fan of the song Tomorrow. I like how John Huston did it.

Anyone who isn't a fan of "Tomorrow" should just avoid "Annie" altogether.

Did R157 just deliver the hot take that you should listen to the Original Cast Recording of a musical?

If so, thanks for that. Probably good advice.

R160 I agree usually, with Chicago as the exception. The 1996 Revival is better than the original. Ann Reinking, James Naughton, Joel Grey, Marcia Lewis, and Bebe Neuwirth.

R36 a friend of mine went to college with Quinn. She graduated, I think she lives in California (or did at least 10 years ago) and was in a band called Leapin Lizards. (for real)

R160 I got to see the original cast! I think I was 4 years old. My grandmother wanted me to be on broadway so when Annie was out she was determined. I even got to meet all of the cast afterwards- I have NO idea how she managed that. I remember meeting Molly and she and I clicked b/c we were the same age (she was later Stephanie in All in the Family) and there were two twin girls who I think played - ugh, blanking on the character- the anxious orphan who always says "oh. my goodness, oh my goodness". It was pretty awesome.

Randall Kleiser, hot off "Grease," was slated to direct, until Ray Stark took over as producer and fired Kleiser and hired Huston. Stark and Huston had made three movies together before "Annie."

I saw Aileen Quinn in the stage musical Saturday Night Fever at the Shubert Theater in Los Angeles in 2001. Must have been one of the last shows performed there as the theater was demolished in 2002. Quinn played the Donna Pescow part. Clearly it didn't jump start her career but she was fine in it. We waited outside the stage door hoping to meet her but she never came out

[quote]I saw Aileen Quinn in the stage musical Saturday Night Fever at the Shubert Theater in Los Angeles in 2001.

Fine old theater, the Shubert. Full of tradition.

R163 I saw the original cast, too. I was older (9) and one of the thrills of the night was when we realized Shirley Hemphill from What’s Happening was sitting right in front of us. She signed my Playbill, which, in retrospect, is a weird thing to have signed by someone not in the show!

Rewatched recently. Still such a fun movie that makes me think of my childhood. Annie was part of the Sunday Family Movie Night

R10- "My God! Is that thing real?" (opens coat) and "I guess this means no Bonness Ayreez" (pulls back shower curtain) were two of my favorite parlor tricks for guests as a kid.

My parents *loved* it.

I still think it's hilarious John Huston, of all people, directed this. I read that he lost a gambling bet with Ray Stark and had to do it for that reason.

R64- That is a beautiful story. Tragic. We lost so many brilliant people.

The new songs for the movie are mostly disasters, from "Big Dumb Dog" to "We Got Annie," which always sounds like an ad for soda-pop.

[quote] Anyone who isn't a fan of "Tomorrow" should just avoid "Annie" altogether.

Well, John Huston hated the song.

Annie is a lot like the film version of The Wiz. Although both are inferior to the Broadway musicals they were made from, they still were able to enchant lots of children who came across their stories for the first time through the film versions, and so have huge cult followings today because it's where many people first heard the songs (some of which in both are fantastic, although The Wiz has many more great songs than Annie).

Annie had Huston wanting to bring in elements from the original comic strip he used to love in the 30s (and so he brought in Punjab and the Asp), and he also got rid of the Christmas setting and about a third of the songs from the original show. Fortunately, except for NYC, most of those songs are not missed. Why he included several minutes of Camille is something I've never understood.

R174 Especially since Camille came out two years after the movie is supposed to take place? My first thought would be to suggest Huston was going senile, but after Annie he directed two good films (Under the Volcano and Prizzi's Honor) and one incredible one (The Dead), so the answer is he probably didn't give a shit.

My mom took me to that movie when I was 12, she knew already then about me.

The funny thing is, one year later, another movie with a cult following was released in which Annie plays an important part.

Don't forget to drink your Ovaltine!

I was the same age as Annie, and every kid I knew loved this film. Even 20 years later my mom had a vhs copy and the neighbour kids, 2 girls and a boy, would knock to borrow it Every day. It made big money in vhs rentals and purchases and was never out of the top 10 yearly rentals for over 10 years. I think the kids it was made for absolutely love it. I watched in 3 weeks ago and for the first time the politics of it all annoyed my enjoyment. How Daddy Warbucks made his money and how the president was so accessible, cos he was a billionaire....whereas, as a kid, i looked at it as that the president was accessible to an orphan...and willing to sing Tomorrow cos she had melted their hearts. Lol. But Miss Hannigan is brilliant...Lottle Girls, Sign, Easy Street....and Aileen Quinn is Annie..as Judy is Dirothy (i do love Andrea Mccardle too who was the original Broadway Annie).There will Always be an audience for Oz, Sound of Music and Annie.

Annie herself is annoying. I only watched for Burnett & Peters. Even as a child.

The film would have probably been much more successful had the original choices for Grace and Miss Hannigan, Lucie Arnaz and her mother agreed to star in the film. Nobody would have done Miss Hannigan as well as Lucy and she would have added a lot of physical stuff that Burnett wouldn't have been capable of. Lucie is/was a triple threat and could have really sold the heck out We Got Annie...

R180, a second Lucy musical eight years AFTER Mame? The horror, the horror!

I recall when the film was released, the reviewer for Time magazine compared the experience of watching it to “….like being buried alive under an avalanche of balloons”.

My cock will come out tomorrow

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