Victor/Victoria (1982)

This is How Movies Should Be Made

Admirable film.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The film "Victor Victoria", which means man versus female, deals with gender stereotyping, double standards, homosexuality, and appearance versus reality. The film was directed by Blake Edwards. There are three keys actors in the movie, which is Victoria (a female singer who is eager for a gig), Toddy (a flashy night singer with comedic abilities), and King Marchan (a Chicago nightclub proprietor and mobster).Victoria is kind-hearted, authentic, eager and very creative at being Victor but she is in the low class, lower than Norma and eventually there's growth in the social class. Toddy is humorous, sensitive, curious, careless, yet he speaks his mind. King Marchan pretends to be happy at first but he is a criminal, superior, swanky, and prosperous. There are two scenes that focus heavily on the theme of the movie. The first scene is where King Marchan sneaks into Victoria and Toddy's hotel in order to figure out her identity. In this scene there were medium shots, close-up shots, subjective shots and long shots. The editing's were jump cuts. The camera movements were tracking, pan, and tilt. The camera angles were high angle camera and low angle camera. The sound was a score but it felt sneaky and stalker. The second scene is where King Marchan sneaks out of Victoria and Toddy's hotel because he came to a conclusion about her identity. In this scene there were long shots, close-up shots, medium shots, and subjective shots. The editing's were jump cuts. The camera movements were pan, tracking, and tilt. The camera angles were low angle camera and high angle camera. The sound was a score but it felt sneaky, calm, stalker, and under-control.The first scene is where King Marchan sneaks into Victoria and Toddy's hotel in order to figure out her identity. Firstly, there are black and white colors, which means mystery and simplicity. Secondly, there are brown, darkness, and light, which means stability, ignorance, and safety. Furthermore, it is winter, there's snow, and the color is black, which means obscures, despair, and mourning. The second scene is where King Marchan sneaks out of Victoria and Toddy's hotel because he came to a conclusion about her identity. Firstly, there are black, white, orange, green, pink, blue, and red colors, which means sophistication, surrender, enthusiasm, inexperience, feminist, stability, and danger. Secondly, there is snow, it is winter, gold and brown colors, which means obscure, hibernate, power, and outdoor. Moreover, there's orange, darkness, and light, which means warmth, ignorant, and safety.If you really want a good laughter (suspense as belief), I will recommend this film to you because comedy is amusing; there are issues that can occur in reality and you shall enjoy it, eventually.

People of this generation might not appreciate the fact that in 1982, the subject matter of this mainstream movie was fairly "adult"! In other words, mainstream movies featuring gay characters and gay lifestyles just weren't being made. So, the tolerance that the straight main characters show the gay characters seems "normal" now but wasn't the case back in the early 80s in American culture... (and honestly, I'm not sure gay characters lived so openly with one another as depicted in 1930s Paris...) This is one of those movies where the trailer is spectacular and really makes the movie look more brilliant than it is. In reality, it's a typically bloated Blake Edwards production which is about a half hour longer than it needs to be. The premise is delicious and easy to grasp, so why does it take... an HOUR for the romantic complication, King Marchand, to show up? And was it really necessary to spend so much time on the not-so-hidden double life that Victoria and King lead together once they finally become a couple? (for example, it was not necessary to spend several minutes of screen time on King picking a fight in a bar because he was feeling not so masculine) Robert Preston's performance in this movie is legendary and I have to agree he was dreadfully robbed at Oscar time. However, this is probably an unpopular opinion but I felt Lesley Anne Warren's performance was really quite overrated and grating (not in a good way).The screenplay makes some choices at the expense of others - for instance, having King discover fairly early on that Victoria is in fact a woman. (In truth... James Garner related in his memoir that he wanted King to NOT know if Victoria was female before kissing her, but the studio felt that no one would ever believe that manly James Garner could ever play a character potentially attracted to a man.) However, it's worth the early reveal, for the scene where King is breathlessly waiting to see if his hunch is true by watching Victoria get ready for her bath.A great premise that unfortunately didn't really perfectly "gel" as a story... but what the hell, it is a fun and delightful movie (loved Alex Karras the best!) Robert Preston's final number in drag is the the most fun scene I have watched in a long time.

Movie was way ahead of it's time as first saw it as a eight-year old back in Fla at the time. As it showed Julie Andrews being directed by her husband, the late and great Blake Edwards.He helped revive her career after Mary Popppins was typecasting her. As this proved to really help her shake that image. As she plays a poor female singer who is struggling to make ends meet. As she meets a gay singer who would become her manager, played by the great and late, Robert Preston.As after an argument with Preston's lover and Andrews punching him out, they make up her being a man pretending to be a woman singer. In order to make ends meet and it helps along the way winning both of them, fame and fortune.But Andrews finds out her personal life will clash when she meets the handsome James Gardner, who's bodyguard is also gay, played by the late great Alex Karras and his nagging girlfriend, Leslie Ann Warren.Gardner sees right through Andrews and the two fall in love as Andrews must maintain this image despite a snooping PI wanting to expose her. The film really helped out her career in the 1980s with Edwards.Seen this movie thousands of times, as it was ahead of it's time for the taboo 1980s. RIP Alex Karras, Blake Edwards, and Robert Edwards!

Julie Andrews plays an out of work starving artist. However, when she meets a gay man (Robert Preston), he convinces her to fake being a cross-dresser and then she'll hit it big. This turns out to be true but also creates serious problems in regard to her love life.I read through the many very positive reviews for "Victor Victoria" and felt a bit lost. In some ways I wondered exactly what they saw in this film. I mean that "Victor Victoria" was kind of cute and enjoyable--but not much more. Perhaps the earlier versions would might have been a bit better.Although the film is set in France in the 1930s, you might no know that by listening to everyone. James Garner, Julie Andrews and Robert Preston are the leads....and are not exactly French. No one sounded or looked French. I wonder what French folks think when they see films like this... Also, while I know that the film is about a cross-dressing cabaret singer, I STILL felt that there were too many musical numbers. They tended to slow the film down and deflected the comedy. However, overall it's still an enjoyable little comedy that is a bit better than a time-passer.I know I am the odd reviewer here, but I just didn't see this as a really funny film nor did it seem all that special--especially with it coming out the same time as a better cross-dressing film, "Tootsie".