|
Saturday Night
Fever, motion picture about the New York City disco scene in the
1970s, based on the June 7, 1976 New York Magazine article "Tribal Rites
of the New Saturday Night" by Nik Cohn. Released in 1977, this box-office hit
stars John Travolta as Tony Manero, a poor Italian boy from
Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, who dreams of success through his talent
as a dancer. Manero and his buddies are regulars at the dance club Disco 2001,
where they dance and work off the stress of their low-paying, dead-end jobs.
When the club sponsors a big dance contest, Manero drops his usual dance
partner, Stephanie, and gets together with another woman whom he considers more
successful. This film features one of the best-selling album soundtracks in
motion-picture history, featuring the songs “Stayin’ Alive,” “If I Can’t Have
You,” “Disco Inferno,” “How Deep is Your Love,” and many others.
Director
John
Badham
Cast
John Travolta (Tony
Manero)
Karen Lynn Gorney (Stephanie)
Barry Miller (Bobby C.)
Joseph
Cali (Joey)
Paul Pape (Double J)
Donna Pescow (Annette)
Bruce Ornstein
(Gus)
Julie Bovasso (Flo)
Martin Shakar (Frank)
Sam Coppola
(Fusco)
Nina Hansen (Grandmother)
Lisa Peluso (Linda)
Denny Dillon
(Doreen)
Bert Michaels (Pete)
Robert Costanzo (Paint store customer)
Robert Weil (Becker)
Shelly Batt (Girl in
disco)
Fran Drescher (Connie)
Donald Gantry (Jay Langhart)
Murray
Moston (Haberdashery salesman)
William Andrews
(Detective)
Ann Travolta (Pizza girl)
Monti Rock III (Deejay)
Val
Bisoglio (Frank, Sr.)
Ellen Marca (Bartender)
Helen Travolta (Woman in paint store)
Trivia
This film marked
actor Travolta’s first major film appearance. The actor’s sister appears in a
cameo role as the pizza lady, and his mother appears as a woman in the paint
store where Manero works.
Cohn, who wrote the
purported true story on which the film was based, admitted in the December 8,
1997 issue of New York Magazine that he made the story up. For an article
celebrating the 20th anniversary of the movie, Cohn said, “There was no excuse
for it …I knew the rules of magazine reporting, and I knew that I was breaking
them. Bluntly put, I cheated.”
Quote
Deejay (regarding
the disco fashion sense): “I like that polyester look, man.” |
