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Grease 2

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Grease 2
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPatricia Birch
Written byKen Finkleman
Produced byRobert Stigwood
Allan Carr
StarringMaxwell Caulfield
Michelle Pfeiffer
Adrian Zmed
Lorna Luft
CinematographyFrank Stanley
Edited byJohn F. Burnett
Music byLouis St. Louis
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
June 11, 1982
Running time
115 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$13.2 million
Box office$15,171,476
$6,500,000 (Rentals)

Grease 2 is a 1982 American musical film and sequel to Grease, which is based upon the musical of the same name by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Grease 2 was produced by Allan Carr and Robert Stigwood, and directed and choreographed by Patricia Birch, who also choreographed the first film. It takes place two years after the original film at Rydell High School, with an almost entirely new cast, led by actors Maxwell Caulfield and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Plot

It is 1961, two years after the original Grease gang were Rydell High seniors in the first movie and a new academic year is just beginning at Rydell High School. The Pink Ladies are now led by the beautiful Stephanie Zinone (Michelle Pfeiffer), who feels she has outgrown her relationship with the arrogant leader of the The T-Birds, Johnny Nogerelli (Adrian Zmed). A new student arrives in the form of clean-cut English student Michael Carrington (Maxwell Caulfield), the cousin of Sandy Olson (the character played by Olivia Newton-John in Grease). Michael quickly becomes smitten with Stephanie, despite the warning that she will not date him since he is not a T-Bird.

Michael attempts to ask her out but discovers that she has a specific vision of her ideal man - a "cool rider". He realizes that he will only win her affection if he turns himself into a cool rider, and begins saving up for a motorcycle. Michael buys the bike, fixes it up and spends all his spare time learning to ride it. Michael transforms himself into a lone anonymous biker, wearing all black clothing as well as a motorcycle helmet and dark goggles to cover his face and performing impressive stunts such as leaping over police cars to escape. Stephanie is instantly fascinated with the stranger.

The night of the school talent show, Stephanie is crowned the queen of the upcoming luau, with Johnny hailed as king. The school year ends with the graduation luau the next day. The Cycle Lords gang appear at the luau and begin to destroy the celebration, but are stopped by the Cool Rider. After defeating the Cycle Lords and leaping over the pool on his motorcycle, he finally reveals himself to all in attendance to be Michael. After initial shock, Johnny offers him a T-Bird jacket and welcomes him into the gang and Stephanie and Michael kiss. All of the couples pair off (Michael/Stephanie, Johnny/Paulette, Lewis/Sharon, Davey/Dolores and Rhonda/Goose), happily at graduation as the class of 1962 sings.

Cast

  • Maxwell Caulfield as Michael Carrington, a British exchange student and the protagonist of the film. Caulfield had already made his Broadway début with roles in The Elephant Man and Entertaining Mr. Sloane. Having seen his performances, Allan Carr offered Caulfield the role of Michael over thousands of applicants.[1] Unlike co-star Michelle Pfeiffer, Caulfield's career following Grease 2 was damaged by the film's failure. He has been quoted as saying: "Before Grease 2 came out, I was being hailed as the next Richard Gere or John Travolta. However, when Grease 2 flopped, nobody would touch me. It felt like a bucket of cold water had been thrown in my face. It took me 10 years to get over Grease 2".[2]
  • Michelle Pfeiffer as Stephanie Zinone, the leader of the Pink Ladies. With only a few television roles and small film appearances, 23-year-old Pfeiffer was an unknown actress when she attended the casting call audition for the role of Stephanie. Other better-known actresses up for the part included Lisa Hartman, Kristy McNichol, Andrea McArdle and singer Pat Benatar.[3] Pfeiffer was a wild card choice, but according to Patricia Birch, she won the part because she "has a quirky quality you don't expect."[4] Despite the disappointing reception of the film, Pfeiffer's meteoric rise to the Hollywood A-list began the following year when she played Elvira Hancock in Scarface.
The Pink Ladies
The T-Birds
Returning from the original Grease
  • Didi Conn as Frenchy
  • Eddie Deezen as Eugene Felsnic
  • Eve Arden as Principal McGee (this was Arden's final film appearance before retiring from a five-decade career on stage and screen.[5] She made a few more television appearances before her death in 1990)
  • Sid Caesar as Coach Calhoun
  • Dody Goodman as Blanche Hodel
  • Dennis C. Stewart as Balmudo (appeared in the first film as Leo)
  • Dick Patterson as Mr. Spears (appeared in the first film as Mr. Rudie)
Supporting cast

Production

Grease 2 was intended to be the second film (and first sequel) in a proposed Grease franchise of four films and a television series (The third and fourth films were to take place in the sixties and during the counter culture era.), however, the projects were scrapped due to the underwhelming box office performance of Grease 2.[6] The sequel's working title, Son of Grease, was changed to the more straightforward current title by producers, much to the annoyance of leading man Maxwell Caulfield, who unsuccessfully tried to have it reinstated.[6]

Filming took place entirely on location in California,[7] working to a 58-day shooting schedule.[6] According to director Patricia Birch, the script was still incomplete when filming commenced.[6] Sequences that were filmed but cut during post-production include scenes in which Frenchy (Didi Conn) helps Michael become a motorcycle rider, and a sequence at the end of the film showing Michael and Stephanie flying off into the sky on a motorcycle.[6]

In the film, after Stephanie wins the contest, it goes on to show the stakeout in the final scene. Originally, there were a few minutes dedicated to a scene in which Michael (believed to be dead in his alter ego, by Stephanie) comes out on stage as Stephanie is exiting the stage, unbeknownst to her that he is the cool rider and he is alive. He attempts to ask her what's wrong and she storms past him and runs off crying, then it cuts to the stakeout. There was a scene in the film within the "Who's that Guy?" number in which Goose (Christopher McDonald) accidentally smashes Rhonda's nose at the Bowl-A-Rama door. That footage ended up on the cutting room floor.

Reception

The sequel was a huge disappointment, but still was a minor box office success taking just over $15 million on a $13.2 million budget (which was more than double than the first film). Some sources say that it was overshadowed by E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Tootsie, which were the major 1982 smashes,[8] as well as other musical films like The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Annie. Other sources (namely fans) say it was because the original main cast did not reprise their roles.

The film currently has a rating of 19% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 18 critics' reviews.[9] Janet Maslin for the New York Times condemned the film as "dizzy and slight, with an even more negligible plot than its predecessor had. This time the story can't even masquerade as an excuse for stringing the songs together. Songs? What songs? The numbers in Grease 2 are so hopelessly insubstantial that the cast is forced to burst into melody about pastimes like bowling."[10] Variety, on the other hand, commended the staging of the musical numbers, writing that "Patricia Birch has come up with some unusual settings (a bowling alley, a bomb shelter) for some of the scenes, and employs some sharp montage to give most of the songs and dances a fair amount of punch."[11] The film's one possible contribution was in shoring up what had been a flagging bowling interest in the US. Prior to the film's release, the past-time had been in considerable decline from its noted "golden age" of 1840-1960 with hundreds of alleys closing across the country.[12] Although the musical numbers have been alleged as "hopelessly insubstantial," the number "Score Tonight" has been credited as almost singlehandedly reviving interest in the sport leading possibly to the second "golden age" of bowling of the late 1980s-present. It is largely unknown that the film is responsible for this renaissance the sport has enjoyed. [13] [14] [15]

Michelle Pfeiffer received positive notice for her first major role. The New York Times review cited her performance as the "one improvement" on the original film: "Miss Pfeiffer is as gorgeous as any cover girl, and she has a sullen quality that's more fitting to a Grease character than Miss Newton-John's sunniness was."[10] Variety wrote that she was "all anyone could ask for in the looks department, and she fills Olivia Newton-John's shoes and tight pants very well."[11] She was nominated for a 1983 Young Artist Award in the category of Best Young Motion Picture Actress.

Soundtrack

Untitled
  1. "Back to School Again" – Cast, The Four Tops
  2. "Score Tonight" – Cast
  3. "Brad" – Sorority girls
  4. "Cool Rider" – Stephanie
  5. "Reproduction" - Mr. Stuart, Cast
  6. "Who's That Guy?" – Michael, T-Birds, Pink Ladies, Cycle Lords, Cast
  7. "Do It for Our Country" – Louis, Sharon (Sharon's part is absent from the soundtrack)
  8. "Prowlin'" – Johnny, T-Birds
  9. "Charades" – Michael
  10. "Girl for All Seasons" – Sharon, Paulette, Rhonda, Stephanie
  11. "(Love Will) Turn Back the Hands of Time" – Stephanie, Michael
  12. "Rock-a-Hula Luau (Summer Is Coming)" – Cast
  13. "We'll Be Together" – Michael, Stephanie, Johnny, Paulette, Cast

Featured as background music at the bowling alley:

  1. "Our Day Will Come" - Ruby & The Romantics (Grease 2 takes place in 1961 and "Our Day Will Come" did not come out until 1963)
  2. "Rebel Walk" - Duane Eddy (this was the B-side of his biggest hit "Because They're Young")

Featured at the beginning:

  1. "Alma Mater" - Instrumental (this song was played at the beginning when Principal McGee and Blanche put up the 1961 Rydell flag)

References

  1. ^ http://www.superiorpics.com/maxwell_caulfield/
  2. ^ Maxwell Caulfield trivia at movietome.com
  3. ^ http://www.pfeiffertheface.com/Bio_014.htm
  4. ^ http://www.pfeiffertheface.com/Bio_013.htm
  5. ^ Eve Arden Biography at the Internet Movie Database
  6. ^ a b c d e f Grease 2 Trivia at the Internet Movie Database
  7. ^ http://www.grease2.net/
  8. ^ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=1982&p=.htm
  9. ^ Grease 2 at Rotten Tomatoes
  10. ^ a b Maslin, Janet. Movie Review: Grease 2 (1982): More Grease, The New York Times, 11 June 1982.
  11. ^ a b Grease 2 review, Variety, 1 January 1982.
  12. ^ Ten-pin bowling#1960 to the present
  13. ^ http://www.amazines.com/Sports/article_detail.cfm/2338852?articleid=2338852
  14. ^ http://researchabout.com/bowling/2010/12/30/uk-bowling-centres-market-research/
  15. ^ http://www.mahalo.com/ten-pin-bowling
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