First............yes I am getting notes about my blog and why no recent reviews. I am taking a couple weeks, then getting right back at it after Labor Day. I may drop one review down this week if I have a little time.
Well thirty years ago somebody tried to put Baby in the corner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was an odd film that was booked as a coming of age story in the 60's, fun for the family..
Illegal abortions. Class system. Elderly thieves. Young girl going to bed with an older guy. Great Family Fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The odd thing it worked.
I think the story gets buried under the dancing, the music, the high energy, the satisfying ending.
Well lets do a revisit...30 years later...and see some fun and not so fun facts. However first lets look at the original trailer!!!
Let look at the stars:
Patrick Swayze (Johnny). I think people look back at the life of Swayze now and see he was gold at the box office. He reminds me of Keanu Reeves a bit. Underrated for some reason, but box office gold. Dirty Dancing...........Ghost............Point Break (With Keanu)......Road House. He delivered. Was he a great actor? No. However as years go by we...like his costar in Point Break... look back and find him to be pretty good.
-Jennifer Grey (Baby). As you re-watch Dirty Dancing you see she is rather ...stiff. However she is acting up against some big time stars here. I think she was really good in Ferris Bueller, a little looser. These days she pops in and out of TV shows. Working steady.
-Jerry Orbach (Dr Jake Houseman). He passed away in 2004. He is also widely known for Law And Order, however lets not forget Lumiere in Beauty And The Beast.
-Cynthia Rhodes (Penny). Once married to Richard Marx. She also appeared in the Saturday Night sequel Staying Alive and in Flashdance. She has not appeared in film since 1991. She reportedly lives in Chicago now as a fulltime mom.
-Kelly Bishop (Marjorie Houseman). She did not have much to do in this film but..........EMILY GILMORE!!!!!!! Enough said!!!
-Jane Brucker (Lisa Houseman). Oh poor Lisa!! As for Jane, she really did not do much acting after Dirty Dancing. She was in, what I think is an underrated film called Stealing Home...other than that she did small parts. She last appeared on TV in 2001. She now lives in in LA as a stay at home mom.
NOW TIME FOR FUN AND NOT SO FUN FACTS!!!!! Settle Down!!!
-Swayze had to convince Grey to be in the film because she hated working with him in Red Dawn.
-Swayze was offered 6 million to do a sequel. He turned it down.
-Grey was 27 when this was filmed. She had 5 minutes to convince producers that she could play 17.
-Note Baby always wears light colored clothing...Johnny always wears black or something darker.
-They wanted to have Cynthia Rhodes wear no make up for her distressing scenes. However she was just as beautiful with no makeup...so they had to use makeup to dirty her up.
-Val Kilmer was offered the lead of Johnny but turned it down.
-Yes that was Wayne Knight (Newman!!!), you see in this film.
-During the log scene in the water...Swayze injured his leg so bad it had to be drained of fluid.
-Cynthia Rhodes was the first to be cast for the film
-Sharon Stone auditioned for Baby
-The famous scene where they are crawling on the dance floor messing around was not meant to be in the film. But the director, Emile Ardolino, liked it so much he started filming it and put it in the film.
-The scene where Baby keeps laughing as Johnny touches her side, and Johnny gets upset while they are practicing dance moves, was also not meant to be part of the film. She was actually laughing and he was really upset. Ardolino loved it and added it to the film.
Well...yes it is corny as all get out. And it borderlines bad. yet it may be so bad...it is great. You can judge. 30 years a go today DIRTY DANCING hit the theaters and surprised the critics.
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