9 to 5 (film)

This article is about the 1980 film. For other uses, see 9 to 5 (disambiguation).

9 to 5
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Colin Higgins
Produced by	Bruce Gilbert
Written by	Patricia Resnick Colin Higgins
Starring	Jane Fonda Lily Tomlin Dolly Parton Dabney Coleman Marian Mercer Colin Higgins Peggy Pope Elizabeth Wilson
Music by	Charles Fox
Cinematography	Reynaldo Villalobos
Editing by	Pembroke J. Herring
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	December 19, 1980 (1980-12-19)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English French
Box office	$103,290,500 (USA)

9 to 5 is a 1980 American comedy film written by Patricia Resnick and Colin Higgins, starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Dabney Coleman. The film concerns three working women living out their fantasy of getting even with, and their successful overthrow of, the company's autocratic, "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" boss.

9 to 5 was a hit, grossing over $3.9 million in its opening weekend in the U.S. and is the 20th highest-grossing comedy film. As a star vehicle for singer Parton, it launched her permanently into mainstream popular culture. Although a television series based on the film was less successful, a musical version of the film (also titled 9 to 5), with new songs written by Parton, opened on Broadway on April 30, 2009.

9 to 5 is number 74 on the American Film Institute's "100 Funniest Movies" and is rated "88% fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes.

Plot

Judy Bernly (Jane Fonda)'s husband of seven years, Dick Radford (Lawrence Pressman), has recently squandered their savings and lost his job (because the company went bankrupt) and dumped her for his secretary Liza...all within the same month. To make ends meet, Judy - who's never had a job before, since she's never needed one - begins her own secretarial career at Consolidated Companies: a very large corporation. The senior office supervisor is Violet Newstead (Lily Tomlin), a feisty widow raising four children on her own. Violet introduces Judy to the procedures of office life – and to the perils of same, particularly their boss and his administrative assistant. The former is sleazy, obnoxious Franklin Hart, Jr. (Dabney Coleman); the latter is the crisp but equally obnoxious Roz Keith (Elizabeth Wilson). Violet reveals to Judy that Hart is supposedly involved with his buxom secretary, Doralee Rhodes (Dolly Parton); in reality the married Doralee refuses his advances.

After pretending to reject Violet's proposals for improving office efficiency - so that he can later submit them as his own and get all the credit for her work - Hart passes Violet over for a promotion (because "clients prefer to deal with men when it comes to figures"). Violet tells Hart what she thinks of this, then goes to drown her sorrows at a local bar, but not before revealing to Doralee, who had just come into Hart's office, that he's the one who has spreading the rumors about them having an affair. Doralee unleashes a scathing diatribe against Hart and warns him about the gun she carries in her purse and warns him that "I'm gonna change you from a rooster to a hen with one shot!", if he ever says another word about her again before storming out of his office. After she leaves, Roz comes in and tattles on Maria, another employee of Hart's, whom she was spying on and overheard her discussing comparisons and estimates of his salary as well as Roz's. Hart orders Roz to fire Maria, which in turn incites Judy's wrath and she leaves the office in anger as well and goes in search of Violet to tell her the news. The women are seen together in a local bar drowning their sorrows.

Violet produces a marijuana cigarette, a gift from her oldest son, and the three women go to Doralee's house for dinner. While smoking marijuana, the three of them fantasize about turning the tables on Hart and destroying him in various ways. Judy's fantasy involves a lynch mob composed of Hart's employees who chase him through the office; he evades them, only to encounter Judy herself, dressed as a big-game hunter and wielding a shotgun. After an extended chase, his head winds up mounted on his own office wall. Doralee's fantasy finds her and Hart switching places as boss and secretary; she makes lewd and suggestive comments about his clothes and cologne, then lassos and hog-ties him, and prepares a barbecue with him as the main course. Violet's fantasy is a fairy-tale parody in which she, dressed as Snow White, provides Hart with poisoned coffee, then shoots him out a window from a booby-trapped office chair. And they lived happily ever after...

The following day, a mix-up leads Violet to accidentally spike Hart's coffee with rat poison (a nod to her fantasy the previous night) after Doralee finds him unconscious in his office. She learns from Roz that he fell out of the faulty chair in his office and bumped his head in the process, unaware that he hadn't drank from the cup before his accident. After they arrive at the hospital, Violet, Doralee and Judy overhear a conversation between a police detective and another doctor about a patient who died of some type of poisoning and assumes they were speaking about Hart. As Doralee and Judy try to get more information, Violet, in a state of panic and desperation, steals what she believes to be Hart's body from the hospital morgue. After a car accident, they discover they've stolen the wrong body and smuggle it back into the hospital...but not before run-ins with hospital staff and a motorcycle cop.

Hart turns up alive the next morning - much to the collective shock of Violet, Doralee and Judy. All three vow to forget the night's troubles... but Roz, ever the snitch, overhears them while hiding in the ladies' room. She misinterprets their conversation and blabs it to Hart - who confronts Doralee about this and demands that she spend the night at his house, or he'll have all three of them prosecuted for attempted murder. Instead, the enraged Doralee binds him with a telephone cord and then gags him with a scarf that he gave her as a gift. After Doralee goes to find Violet, Judy sees Hart and removes his gag. He tricks her into untying him, by pretending to believe Judy when she explains that the poisoning was completely accidental; being Hart, he doesn't really care what the truth is. He is about to leave the office and call the cops when Judy pulls Doralee's gun on him. Hart thinks she's bluffing - until she fires several warning shots at him.

Doralee, Judy and Violet then take Hart prisoner in his own home, a Tudor-style mansion. They decide to blackmail him so he won't have them arrested. The ladies discover that he's been selling Consolidated property behind their backs and keeping the profits for himself. As they await the documentation that proves this, which will take several weeks to arrive, the women fashion a special bondage device to allow Hart to move around, but keep him confined to his home. Hart makes several unsuccessful attempts to escape, and becomes addicted to soap operas in the process.

Since Doralee is able to forge Hart's signature without difficulty, the three women use the occasion of their boss's absence to effect numerous changes around the office, in his name. These include allowing flexible hours, a job-sharing program that allows people to work part-time, and a daycare center in the building (and Maria, the woman Hart had fired, is allowed to return). All the while, they conceal the true reason for his disappearance. As it turns out, Hart is so feared and/or hated around the office that nobody questions his absence... with the exception of Roz, whom Violet and Company send to language school in Hart's name.

One night, Judy discovers a prowler outside Hart's home. It turns out to be ex-husband Dick, whose marriage to Liza lasted only a week. Now he wants Judy to come back to him... until he finds Hart bound and gagged in the upstairs bedroom. He believes, erroneously, that Judy has gotten into perverted sex games. Judy admits that she's into everything, even smoking pot, and that his departure was the best thing that ever happened to her. She then sends him packing.

When Hart's adoring, (the sentiment is far from mutual) rich wife Missy (Marian Mercer) returns from vacation early - to thank him for a floral display he allegedly sent her - the ladies' plan is thrown out of whack. While still pretending to be the women's' prisoner, Hart scrambles to replace the property he stole from Consolidated, at considerable personal expense. Then he commandeers Doralee's handgun from Judy and takes her prisoner, along with Doralee and Violet. Hart is appalled by the changes which have been made in his absence, even though all his employees are delighted with them. Before he can have the three women arrested, Hart receives an unexpected visit from Russell Tinsworthy (Sterling Hayden)...the Chairman of the Board. Panic-stricken, he begs Violet stands by him in this case.

Mr. Tinsworthy has arrived to congratulate Hart for a 20% increase in productivity, which is due to the changes Violet and Company instituted in his name. Hart is only too happy to take credit for everything the ladies have done - although he himself was about to reverse said changes just before Tinsworthy arrived. He lets Violet familiarize Tinsworthy with their latest procedures, which she willingly does. Tinsworthy is so impressed that he recruits Hart to work at Consolidated's Brazilian operation, under Tinsworthy's personal supervision, for the next few years. Hart's last words, before the elevator doors close on him, are: "Brazil?!" Moments after Tinsworthy and Hart depart, Roz returns from language school...and is stunned to discover Violet, Doralee, and Judy sharing a drink in Hart's office.

A pre-credits montage reveals the fate of the major characters. Violet was promoted to Vice President, Hart's prior position. Judy fell in love and married the Xerox representative, an amusing irony since a mishap with a copy machine nearly got her fired earlier on. Doralee left Consolidated and became a country and western singer, which explains why the movie's theme song was done by her. Hart was abducted by a tribe of Amazons in the Brazilian jungle. Given his chauvinistic attitude toward women, it is no surprise that he was never heard from again.

Cast

• Jane Fonda as Judy Bernly
• Lily Tomlin as Violet Newstead
• Dolly Parton as Doralee Rhodes
• Dabney Coleman as Franklin M. Hart Jr.
• Sterling Hayden as Russell Tinsworthy
• Elizabeth Wilson as Roz Keith
• Henry Jones as Mr. Hinkle
• Lawrence Pressman as Dick Bernly
• Marian Mercer as Missy Hart
• Ren Woods as Barbara
• Norma Donaldson as Betty
• Roxanna Bonilla-Giannini as Maria Delgado
• Peggy Pope as Margaret Foster
• Richard Stahl as Meade
• Ray Vitte as Eddie Smith

Theme song

Main article: 9 to 5 (Dolly Parton song)

The movie's theme song, "9 to 5", became one of Parton's biggest hits of the decade. It went to number one for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Song. It won the 1981 People's Choice Award for "Favorite Motion Picture Song", and two 1982 Grammy Awards: for "Country Song of the Year" and "Female Country Vocal of the Year" (it was nominated for four Grammys). Additionally, it was certified platinum by the RIAA.

At the same time, newcomer Sheena Easton was enjoying her first major hit in United Kingdom with a song also titled "9 to 5". With the success of Parton's song, Easton was forced to rename her recording "Morning Train (9 to 5)" for its North American release.

Television series

Main article: 9 to 5 (TV series)

The movie inspired a sitcom version which aired from 1982 to 1983 and from 1986 to 1988. The show, which aired on ABC (1982–83) and in first run syndication (1986–88), featured Parton's younger sister, Rachel Dennison, in Parton's role; Rita Moreno and Valerie Curtin took over Tomlin and Fonda's roles, respectively. In the second version of the show, Sally Struthers replaced Moreno. A total of 85 episodes were filmed.

2009 Broadway musical

Main article: 9 to 5 (musical)

In an interview aired September 30, 2005 on Larry King Live, Parton revealed that she was writing the songs for a musical stage adaptation of the film. A private reading of the musical took place on January 19, 2007 Further private presentations were held in New York City in summer 2007.

In early March 2008, Center Theatre Group artistic director Michael Ritchie announced that 9 to 5 would have its pre-Broadway run at the Center's Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles beginning September 21, 2008, with Allison Janney starring as Violet, joined by Stephanie J. Block as Judy, Megan Hilty as Doralee, and Marc Kudisch as Franklin Hart Jr. The book for 9 to 5: The Musical was written by Patricia Resnick, who co-authored the film. Andy Blankenbuehler choreographed the show, and Joe Mantello directed.

According to playbill.com, the musical opened on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre in previews on April 7, 2009, and officially on April 30, 2009. However, due to low ticket sales and gross, the production closed on September 6, 2009. A National Tour began in September 2010.

Possible sequel

In a TV interview broadcast on BBC1 in the UK in 2005, the movie's stars Fonda, Tomlin and Dolly Parton all expressed interest in starring in a sequel. Fonda said if the right script was written she would definitely do it, suggesting a suitable name for a 21st century sequel would be 24/7. Parton suggested they had better hurry up before they reach retirement age. In the DVD commentary, the three reiterate their enthusiasm, Fonda suggests a sequel should cover outsourcing, and they agree Frank Hart would have to return as their nemesis.

American Film Institute lists

• 2000: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs—#74
• 2004: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs—#78 (for 9 to 5)

External links

• Nine to Five at the Internet Movie Database
• Nine to Five at AllRovi