Party Girl (1958) on Netflix
Approved19581h 39mCrimeDramaFilm-Noir
Thomas Farrell spends his career defending Chicago mobsters in court. A party for the racketeer Rico Angelo brings chorus girl Vicki Gaye into his life, and Farrell wants out of the racket.
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- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.0/104,154 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
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Plot summary
Thomas Farrell has built a career in Chicago defending men tied to the mob. At a party for racketeer Rico Angelo he is introduced to Vicki Gaye, a chorus girl paid to attend who also took money from the gambler Louis Canetto. Farrell drives her home and the two trade complaints about how each of them earns a living. After Vicki's roommate Joy is found dead, police questioning holds them through the night, and Farrell asks Rico to give Vicki a raise and a featured spot at the Golden Rooster, a club Rico owns. The lawyer and the dancer begin a romance as Farrell keeps working the courtroom. He wants out of the racket, and Rico answers by threatening to hurt Vicki if he leaves.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Party Girl (1958)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- A musicians' strike forced choreographer Robert Sidney to rehearse the musical numbers in Mexico with stand-ins, and when Cyd Charisse filmed her dances she performed to a pre-recorded drum track in one number and to miming performers in the other. The strike ultimately caused the studios to disband their in-house orchestras.
- MGM's protocols barred director Nicholas Ray from being involved in directing the musical numbers, even to the point of discussing Cyd Charisse's character in relation to them, and the studio also rejected his wish to use period music, fearing it would limit the film's appeal.
- Robert Taylor's lawyer Tom Farrell was loosely based on Dixie Davis, a lawyer for mob boss Dutch Schultz who later became an informant; film historian Eddie Muller instead names Louie Cuttner, a lawyer for Al Capone, as the model. Ray later hired Cuttner himself without knowing the connection.
- Lee J. Cobb's mob boss Rico Angelo was, according to film historian Eddie Muller, a "not too veiled caricature of Al Capone", and the scene where Angelo beats up Frankie Gasto was based on an incident supposedly involving Capone. David Mamet reused that scene in his screenplay for the 1987 film The Untouchables.
- Party Girl was Cyd Charisse's last film at MGM after 14 years at the studio and the penultimate of Robert Taylor's 25 years there, his last shot in Hollywood. The two were the studio's last contract stars.
