Victor/Victoria | |
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Theatrical release poster by John Alvin
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Directed by | Blake Edwards |
Produced by |
Tony Adams Blake Edwards |
Screenplay by |
Blake Edwards Hans Hoemburg (concept) |
Based on | 1933 script by Reinhold Schünzel |
Starring | |
Music by |
Songs: Henry Mancini Leslie Bricusse (Lyrics) Score: Henry Mancini |
Cinematography | Dick Bush |
Edited by | Ralph E. Winters |
Production
company |
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Distributed by | MGM/UA Entertainment Company |
Release date
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Running time
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132 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $28,215,453 |
Victor/Victoria is a 1982 British-American musical comedy film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston, Lesley Ann Warren, Alex Karras, and John Rhys-Davies. The film was produced by Tony Adams, directed by Blake Edwards, and scored by Henry Mancini, with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. It was adapted in 1995 as a Broadway musical. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won the Academy Award for Original Music Score. It is a remake of the 1933 German film Viktor und Viktoria.
Set in 1934 Paris, the film opens with Richard di Nardo, a young hustler, emerging from the bed of gay middle-aged Carroll Todd (Robert Preston), a.k.a. Toddy; Richard dresses, takes money from Toddy's wallet and leaves Toddy's apartment. Going about his day, Toddy, a performer at Chez Lui in Paris, sees Labisse, the club owner, auditioning a frail, impoverished soprano, Victoria Grant (Julie Andrews). After the audition, Labisse drily writes her off, and she responds by sustaining a pitch to shatter his wine glass using resonant frequency. That night, Richard comes to Chez Lui as part of a straight foursome and Toddy incites a brawl by insulting Richard and the women in his group. Labisse fires Toddy and bans him from the club. Walking home, he spots Victoria dining at a restaurant, and she invites him to join her. As neither of them can pay for the meal, she dumps a cockroach in her salad to avoid paying their check, but it escapes and the whole place breaks out in havoc.