Victor/Victoria
Directed by Blake Edwards
Written by Blake Edwards from a screenplay by Reinhold Schunzel
1982/US
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube rental
Norma: You two-timing son of a bitch! He’s a woman!
This could have gone badly off the rails. That it did not is tribute to the director and his cast.
The setting is Depression-era Paris. Victoria Grant (Julie Andrews) is a classically trained soprano with a beautiful voice. This is not what Paris nightclubs are looking for and she is down to her last sou. As she is preparing to run out on a dinner tab, she meets Carole “Toddy” Todd (Robert Preston). He is also flat broke after he started a riot while performing at a gay club. The two immediately like each other. He gets a brilliant idea after Victoria has to dress in a male lover’s clothes when hers shrink.
Toddy decides for some mysterious reason that Victoria will be convincing as a female impersonator and he is right. She becomes the toast of the town. But her cover may be blown with the arrival of gangster King Marchand (James Garner). King is so attracted to the “gay man” that he becomes obsessed with proving he is a she.
First you have to get past the major sticking point that Andrews is far too feminine for this to work. And yet it does. It’s not a musical but Andrews and Preston do several numbers on stage as part of the story. Preston is a total delight in this film – very lovable and very arch. His relationship with Andrews is central to the film and it is sincere and even touching. James Garner plays himself but what a self. I always like him.
Missing theme song about another Victoria
