Grease (1978) on Netflix
Greaser Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson, a new student from Australia, fell for each other one summer. Back at Rydell High, his tough-guy image and their two cliques pull them apart.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.2/10330,086 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes66%
Trailer
Plot summary
On a beach in the summer of 1958, Danny Zuko, a greaser, and Sandy Olsson, an Australian girl preparing to go home, fall in love. That fall, Danny begins his senior year at Rydell High with his gang, the T-Birds, and Sandy turns up at the same school. Frenchy brings her into the Pink Ladies, the girls' clique led by Rizzo. At lunch, each describes the summer, and the Pink Ladies recognize Danny's name when Sandy says it. At a pep rally they reunite the pair. Sandy is thrilled, but Danny, protecting his tough reputation in front of his friends, brushes her off, and she leaves upset.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Grease (1978)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Travolta was given the lead role after Henry Winkler, then starring as Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli in the TV series Happy Days, turned it down for fear of becoming typecast as a greaser character. Winkler would later regret the decision.
- Before Newton-John was hired, Allan Carr considered Carrie Fisher, Ann-Margret, Deborah Raffin, Susan Dey and Marie Osmond for the lead; Fisher was rejected because neither Stigwood nor Carr knew if she could sing, and Osmond turned it down for Goin' Coconuts once she realized how far her character turns rebel.
- Newton-John thought she would not be cast at all, as she was 28 years old, and agreed to a reduced asking price in exchange for star billing and the right to rewrite the script, changing her character's origin to an Australian immigrant to avoid simulating an American accent.
- Lorna Luft and Lucie Arnaz both auditioned for the part of Rizzo before Stockard Channing was cast; at 33 she was the oldest cast member to play a high school student, and Kleiser made the actors playing students take a “crow's feet test” to see whether they could pass for younger in close-ups, with softer focus used on some faces.
- Elvis Presley was considered for the role of the Teen Angel but died before production; Donny Osmond was another candidate, and Frankie Valli was given the choice of singing the theme or appearing as the Teen Angel, choosing the theme because he believed it the better song and more likely hit.
- Producer Allan Carr had made a product placement deal with Pepsi, then saw Coca-Cola products and signage in the Frosty Palace footage; reshoots were judged too expensive, so optical mattes were used to blur out the Coca-Cola references, though a red cooler with the logo could not be sufficiently altered and was left unchanged.
- Because of an editing error, a closing scene in which Danny and Sandy kiss was removed from the finished print and lost before its theatrical release; it survives only in black-and-white, and Kleiser's attempt to have it colorized for the 1998 re-release left him dissatisfied with the results.
- The song “Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee” refers to Sal Mineo in the original stage version. Mineo was stabbed to death a year before filming, so the line was changed to refer to Elvis Presley instead.
