Grease (1978) is the name of a film directed by Randal Kleiser and based on Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey 's musical, Grease. The film stars John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Jeff Conaway and Stockard Channing.

Plot Outline

In the summer of 1958, Danny (Travolta), leader of Rydell High School's boy gang the T-Birds, meets Sandy (Newton-John), an innocent girl from Australia, at the beach and they fall in love. When Autumn nears, Sandy must return to Australia.

However, Sandy's plans are changed and she ends up attending Rydell High as an exchange student. She meets a group of girls named the Pink Ladies and quickly befriends them. Not knowing what has happened, both Danny and Sandy let their friends know of their romantic conquest over the summer.

Eventually, Danny and Sandy are re-introduced by Rizzo (Channing), the leader of the Pink Ladies, and they decide to revive their romance, but not without constant interference from the T-Birds, Pink Ladies and a rival gang, The Scorpions.

Danny and Sandy are separated again at the school dance contest. Although they arrive together, the T-Birds conspire to get Danny back together with his old girl friend and dance partner, Cha-Cha. They succeed and Danny and Cha-Cha go on to win the contest. Feeling betrayed, Sandy leaves the dance in disgust.

In an effort to reconcile with Sandy, Danny asks her to "be his girl" and offers her a ring. She initially accepts but then Danny tries to kiss and grope her as he feels that is what he should do with his girl. Sandy throws his ring back at him and again leaves in disgust.

But at the school year end graduation carnival, a new, badder looking Sandy emerges. She seems to have decided to "loosen up" in an effort to be with Danny. Meanwhile, Danny has received a letterman's sweater in track in an effort to impress Sandy. The two meet in the middle and Danny and Sandy fly off arm in arm in a shiny roadster.

Effects

Although Travolta was already famous for the movie Saturday Night Fever, Grease reconfirmed his status as a super star. Newton-John's fame also reached new heights after the movie released. The movie received five Golden Globe Award nominations in 1979. The film was re-released to theaters in 1998 for the film's 20th anniversary.

The movie's soundtrack was a number 1 album in many different countries. In the United Kingdom, the two Travolta/Newton-John duets, You're The One That I Want and Summer Nights were both number one hits and appear eighth and 21st respectively in the official all-time UK best-selling singles list issued in 2002. The song Hopelessly Devoted to You was nominated for an Academy Award (1979) for Best Music - Original Song.

Grease spawned a sequel, Grease 2 (1982 with an entirely different cast) which was much less successful.

Cast

• Frankie Avalon, the teen angel
• Sid Caesar, Coach Calhoun
• Stockard Channing, Betty Rizzo
• Annette Charles , Cha Cha DiGregorio
• Jeff Conaway, Kenickie
• Didi Conn, Frenchie
• Eddie Deezen, Eugene
• Lorenzo Lamas, Tom Cushin
• Olivia Newton-John, Sandy Olson
• Dennis Steward , Leo
• Ellen Travolta , waitress
• John Travolta, Danny

Resources

• IMDb entry on Grease