Grease (1978) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Randal Kleiser

Starring:  John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Didi Conn, Jeff Conaway, Stockard Channing, Barry Pearl, Dinah Manoff, Michael Tucci, Eve Arden, Sid Caesar, Lorenzo Lamas

What sets Grease apart from other movie musicals is that the songs are mostly very good.   They're catchy and memorable, with a smooth 50's feel as it should be.    This is one of the few musicals in which we don't mind when they stop the dialogue to belt out a number.    John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John are great singers and dancers, complemented by a cast which may be a little long in the tooth to play teenagers, but we buy it anyway.    These teens seem much too sure of themselves to be teens, most likely because most were in their 20's or even early 30's at the time. 

Based on the Broadway play, Grease takes place in late 1950's California at Rydell High School (likely named for 50's teen idol Bobby Rydell, although I may be mistaken, it's a safe bet).    As the film opens, it is summer and Danny (Travolta) and Sandy (Newton-John) are teenagers in love.   They walk the beach, swim in the surf, and bathe in the glorious sunsets.   But, Sandy is due to return to her native Australia, and they part assuming they will never see each other again.

Fast forward to September, and Sandy indeed stays in California and attends Rydell, unbeknownst at first to Danny.    Danny is the leader of the T-Birds, a school gang with cool leather jackets who fix and ride souped-up hot rods.    Their female counterparts are the Pink Ladies, led by sarcastic Betty Rizzo (Channing), and it seems their group exists simply to provide make-out partners for T-Birds.   Sandy falls in with the Pink Ladies, who at first think of her as square, but soon she endears herself to them, especially when they learn her summer fling was with Danny.  

When Sandy finally reunites with Danny, he treats her coolly in order not to appear like he, gasp, actually digs her.   That is frowned upon in the macho culture of the T-Birds.   The rest of the film involves Danny and Sandy getting together, breaking up, and then getting back together again during the school year.     Somewhere in there, they actually fall in love too.    Travolta, fresh off his triumphant Saturday Night Fever performance, once again exudes cool and charisma which he brings to many of his roles.    Newton-John, already a popular singer at the time, gives us a cute, innocent Sandy whose love for Danny persists despite his attempts to reject her.    "Hopelessly Devoted to You" is her signature song in the film, and pretty much says it all.

Grease is mostly nostalgic fun, made at a time when the 50's weren't that long ago, and the teen idols of the time were still only in their 40's.    Frankie Avalon belts out a stylish number with "Beauty School Dropout", as a guardian angel with tough love advice for Frenchie (Conn), who wants to drop out of high school.    Grease 2 came along four years after this one, and except for a few cast holdovers, starred a whole new cast but mostly covered the same ground.    A third Grease film was proposed to star Travolta and Newton-John to take place during the disco era, but it never got off the ground.    That's kind of a shame.    It would've been interesting to see Travolta and Newton-John, two disco era icons, giving the 1970's a try.