Annie (1982 film)

Plot

In 1933, during the Great Depression, a young orphan named Annie is living in the Hudson Street Orphanage in New York City. She remains optimistic that her parents, who left her on the doorstep as a baby, will return for her, clinging to half of a locket left with her. The orphanage is run by Miss Hannigan, a cruel alcoholic who forces the orphans to clean the building daily. Annie sneaks out with help from laundry man, Mr. Bundles, adopting a stray dog which she names Sandy. Annie is returned to the orphanage shortly after by a police officer.

Shortly after, Grace Farrell, secretary to billionaire Oliver Warbucks, arrives to invite an orphan to live with Warbucks for a week to improve his public image. Annie is chosen, she and Sandy travelling to Warbucks’ mansion, meeting his many servants including his bodyguards Punjab and the Asp. Warbucks is at first dismissive of Annie, preferring a boy, but Annie charms him into letting her stay. He takes Annie and Grace to Radio City Music Hall to watch a film, Warbucks developing affection for Annie. Grace convinces him to adopt Annie, Warbucks convincing Miss Hannigan to sign the adoption papers.

However, upon revealing his plans to Annie, even offering her a new locket, Annie declines, explaining the purpose of her broken locket, hoping her parents will return with the other half. Warbucks appears on the radio show of Bert Healy, offering $50,000 to find Annie’s parents, causing mass hysteria with many would-be parents appearing to claim the money. To escape the madness, Warbucks flies Annie to the White House, introducing her to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor. Roosevelt informs them of his plan to introduce a social welfare program to help America’s impoverished, asking Warbucks to head it, who is encouraged by Annie to help. Upon returning home, Annie is disheartened when Grace reveals none of the potential parents knew about the locket.

Miss Hannigan is visited by her brother, Rooster, a con artist, and his girlfriend Lily St. Regis, plotting to pose as Annie’s parents to gain the reward. The trio search the orphans’ belongings, Miss Hannigan revealing Annie’s parents died, and she possesses the other half of the locket. Annie’s friends overhear the conversation and try to sneak out, but are caught and locked away. Rooster and Lily proceed with the plan, but Annie’s departure from Warbucks is sombre. Annie is kidnapped minutes after leaving. Her friends reach Warbucks, informing him of the ruse. Warbucks informs the police, who begin a city-wide search, Punjab looking from the sky in Warbucks’ helicopter.

Annie convinces the felons to pull over, only to escape and tear apart Warbucks’ cheque. A murderous Rooster chases Annie, trying to kill her, Miss Hannigan trying to stop him. Punjab rescues Annie and she reunites with Warbucks and Grace, Rooster and Lily being arrested. Later, Annie is officially adopted by Warbucks, throwing a party which the orphans, a redeemed Miss Hannigan, and the Roosevelts attend. Warbucks gives Annie a new locket, who embraces her new father.

Cast

Several singer-actresses made their debuts in this film as Annie's fellow orphans and principal dancers:

According to Robert Osbourne of Turner Classic Movies, Drew Barrymore had auditioned for the role of Annie while Bette Midler was an early choice for Miss Hannigan, and Jack Nicholson had been considered for the role of Daddy Warbucks.

Sean Connery and Cary Grant were also considered for the role of Daddy Warbucks.

Production

Ray Stark wanted both John Huston and Joe Layton while working as the director and choreographer respectively, to also be executive producer on the film, because it was too large an enterprise for one person. Regarding Huston being given the job of directing the first (and what would be the only) musical in his 40-year directing career, screenwriter Carol Sobieski said: "Hiring John [Huston] is an outsider risk, and Ray's [Stark] a major gambler. He loves this kind of high risk situation."

Writing

Carol Sobieski, who wrote the screenplay, introduced major differences between the stage musical and the film version. In the stage musical, it is Christmas when Miss Hannigan, Rooster, and Lily are caught at the Warbucks mansion by the United States Secret Service, foiling their plan to kidnap Annie. But in the film, due to summertime shooting, Annie is kidnapped on the Fourth of July leading to Warbucks organizing a citywide search and a climactic ending on the B&O Bridge. Punjab and The Asp, Warbucks' servants/bodyguards, from the original comic strip appear in the film in supporting roles.

Miss Hannigan's redemption at the end is also a new development on the part of the movie - in the musical, Miss Hannigan briefly baulks at Rooster's intention to make Annie "disappear" with his switchblade but is soon lured by his promises of a life on Easy Street. In Meehan's 1980 novelisation, Miss Hannigan shows no qualms whatsoever about Annie being killed. In both of these media, Miss Hannigan ends up being duly arrested along with Rooster and Lily at the Warbucks mansion.

The film also featured five new songs, "Dumb Dog", "Sandy", "Let's Go to the Movies", "Sign", and "We Got Annie", and cut "We'd like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover", "N.Y.C", "You Won't Be an Orphan for Long", "Something Was Missing", "Annie", and "New Deal for Christmas". In addition, the song "Maybe" has two reprises whereas "Little Girls" and "Easy Street" do not.

Martin Charnin, the lyricist of Annie, was not impressed with the cinematic interpretation. In a 1996 article, he dismissed the adaptation and its production. "The movie distorted what this musical was", Charnin reported. "And we were culpable for the reason that we did not exercise any kind of creative control because we sold the rights for a considerable amount of money." Charnin even said that John Huston, who never directed a musical before, and producer Ray Stark made major changes in the film that destroyed the essence of Annie. Warbucks, played by Finney, "was an Englishman who screamed". Hannigan, played by Burnett, was "a man-crazy drunk". And Annie was "cute-ed up". Worse, the emotional relationship between Annie and Warbucks was distorted. They even downplayed the hit song Tomorrow because "Stark thought it was corny".

Filming

Principal photography took place over the course of six weeks at Monmouth University in New Jersey, which has two mansions that were used in the film, one of which is the Shadow Lawn Mansion (now known as Woodrow Wilson Hall). The NX Bridge, an abandoned railroad bridge over the Passaic River in Newark, was used for location shooting of one of the climactic scenes.

Originally, the intimate song "Easy Street" was going to be the biggest number in the film. For this purpose, a specially-created outdoor street set was built costing more than $1 million. It took one week to shoot the scene. However, on reviewing the dailies, the scene was considered to be "overstuffed" and "sour." Therefore, a re-shoot was undertaken nearly two months after principal filming had been completed. The scene was replaced with a more intimate number and was shot indoors in a style that mimicked the ambience portrayed in the original 1977 stage musical.

Soundtrack

Annie is a soundtrack album for the 1982 film of the same name.

All lyrics written by Martin Charnin; all music composed by Charles Strouse.

Reception

Annie received mixed reviews from critics; it currently holds a 52% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 25 reviews and an average rating of 5.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "John Huston proves an odd choice to direct, miring Annie in a sluggish, stagebound mess of an adaptation, but the kids are cute and the songs are memorable." The film also has a score of 39/100 on Metacritic. Annie grossed $57 million in the United States, making it the 10th highest-grossing film of 1982.

Awards and honors

Annie received Academy Award nominations for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score. Additionally, Carol Burnett and Aileen Quinn each received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical and New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture – Female (Quinn). Quinn won the Young Artist Award, Best Young Motion Picture Actress. The movie was nominated for a Stinkers Bad Movie Awards for Worst Picture.

Home media

The film was released on VHS, Betamax and CED Videodisc on November 5, 1982 by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video. It was re-issued in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1994, and 1997 (in a "Broadway Tribute Edition" to coincide with the original play's Broadway 20th anniversary revival that year). There were two widescreen LaserDiscs released, one in 1989 and another in 1994. The film was released in a widescreen DVD edition on December 12, 2000.

A "Special Anniversary Edition" DVD was released on January 13, 2004 (four days before producer Stark's death). Despite the fact that the first DVD was widescreen, the DVD was in pan and scan (but with DTS sound). Reviewing the disc for DVD Talk, Glenn Erickson, while praising the film overall, called the pan and scan transfer an "abomination that's grainy and lacking in color." He also noted that the short retrospective featurette with Ms. Quinn contained clips from the film in the correct aspect ratio. Erickson also called the music video of "It's the Hard-Knock Life" by Play "pretty dreary" and attacked the other, child-oriented extras by saying "Musicals and kids' films aren't just for tots ... and this disc is little more than a headache." However, several countries in Region 2 received widescreen versions of this edition including the United Kingdom. The film is set for a "sing-along edition" release on Blu-ray on October 2, 2012 in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the film and the 35th anniversary of the Broadway version set a revival in November 2012.

Adaptations

Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation of the film by writer Tom DeFalco and artists Win Mortimer and Vince Colletta in Marvel Super Special #23 (Summer 1982). The adaptation was also available as an Annie Treasury Edition and as a limited series.

The 1993 Hindi film, King Uncle, starring Jackie Shroff, Shahrukh Khan, Anu Agarwal, and Naghma, is loosely based on this film.

A sequel, Annie: A Royal Adventure! was made for television and aired on ABC on November 18, 1995. It starred Ashley Johnson, Joan Collins, George Hearn, and Ian McDiarmid. Aside from a reprise of "Tomorrow," there are no songs in it. No cast members from the 1982 film appeared in this sequel. Rooster, Lily and Grace Farrell were cut out of the sequel.

In the film, Warbucks (Hearn), Annie (Johnson), an eccentric scientist (McDiarmid), and one of the orphans travel to England, where Warbucks is to be knighted by the King. However, the kids get mixed up in the scheme of an evil noblewoman (Collins) to blow up Buckingham Palace while all the heirs to the throne are present for Warbucks' knighting, thus making her queen.

A made-for-TV movie version was broadcast on ABC on November 7, 1999, starring Kathy Bates as Miss Hannigan, Victor Garber as Daddy Warbucks, Alan Cumming as Rooster, Audra McDonald as Grace, Kristin Chenoweth as Lily, and newcomer Alicia Morton as Annie. Produced by The Walt Disney Company in association with Columbia TriStar Television, it received generally positive reviews and high ratings. It also earned two Emmy Awards and a 1999 George Foster Peabody Award. Although truer to the original stage musical than the 1982 version, it condensed much of the full story in an attempt to make it more viewable for children. The film also featured a special appearance by Andrea McArdle, star of the original Broadway production.

The film has aired on cable on Hallmark Channel, ABC Family, and Starz after its premiere on ABC.

The 1999 version is more comical than the 1982 version's slightly darker tone.

On January 20, 2011 it was announced that Will Smith was planning to produce Annie, a remake of The 1982 film. On May 25, 2012 it was announced that Jay-Z was writing new songs for the film. In January 2013, Sony Pictures selected Will Gluck to direct the film. Oscar nominee, Quvenzhané Wallis was cast as the title character. The film was released on December 19, 2014.

Parodies