Thoughts I Had... While Rewatching "Grease 2"
Tuesday, March 28, 2017 at 12:40PM Grease 2 gave me such writer's block in the Pfandom series because what to even focus on with such an event? I finally powered through but the focus naturally had to be on LaPfeiff's career. So, herewith a random collections of thoughts and observations from this viewing which I think was my 6th or 7th? The movie is terrible but I'm addicted to early Pfeiffer's lusty bravado in it, hence the multiple revisits.
(This is gif heavy so be warned...)
Dody Goodman & Eve Arden reprising their Grease roles as "Blanche & Miss McGee"
↑ But these are the faces you'll find me making every time I find myself watching it. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS AGAIN?!?!?
...Which come to think of it is also what people say when Hollywood puts out sequels to things that didn't need sequels.
Stunt casting is sometimes the only way to go! 1950s heartthrob Tab Hunter teaching sex-ed is so so perfect. If you haven't yet seen the documentary Tab Hunter: Confidential you really must. It's on Netflix and it's such good background for Hollywood's sorta 'open closet' filled history. So much dish including his romance with Psycho's Tony Perkins. Tab Hunter had a mini revival in the 1980s and a lot of fun sending up his onscreen history as he was used for his retro camp appeal.
More stunt casting! Judy Garland's other daughter alert: Lorna Luft who plays "Paulette" is so adorable in the bowling alley sequence. Half sister Liza Minnelli came with her to the film's premiere! As for the T-Birds 2.0 I think they're the biggest drop-off in quality from the original film. Less endearing than Danny and Kenicki and so obnoxious. But for what it's worth in the gif above that's Christopher McDonald to the left (who will be the world's worst husband a decade later in Thelma & Louise), Adrian Zmed (a TV regular at the time), and Peter Frechette as DiMucci in his film debut. I am ashamed to admit this since he's so douchey in the movie but I had such a crush on DiMucci when I first watched this. It must have been nascent gaydar. I happily discovered long long afterwards that he's openly gay and became a two-time Tony nominated actor.
He was also part of a very controversial episode of thirtysomething (pictured above), the first time network television had shown two men in bed together. It was a huge scandal at the time costing the network over a million with advertisers pulling out of the show.
Frechette's big number is "Let's Do It For Our Country." Early 80s comedies are so fond of date rape and sexual harassment jokes, aren't they? The early 80s haven't aged well in this regard! (See also Hollywood Knights)
One final note on the T-Birds. Can we all agree that "Cruising" is one of the worst musical numbers ever committed to celluloid. It's so painful and it's practically feature film length.
But a few more thoughts on the pretty pretty pretty pretty leads of the movie before we close this Grease 2 chapter.
She's so fun in this movie, such an affected entrance but endearing. Dark shades were instant shorthand for "cool" in the 1980s. See also Tom Cruise in Risky Business the very next year.
Also isn't her mouth just scrumptious? I don't know if we've ever mentioned this (though we surely will have plentiful opportunity in the Pfandom series) but few movie stars are as great with screen kisses. She has so many memorable ones in that filmography! All of her mashing with Maxwell Caulfield in this movie is hot but in totally varied ways.
I present the evidence:
• The comic kiss (to prove a point) when she offers to kiss the first man who walks into a room.
• The postcard cliche clinch
• The romantic happy ending kiss. Honestly that last smooch feels like an R rated liplock snuck into a PG movie. It helps that Maxwell Caulfield is utterly delicious... no matter what one thinks of his acting in this movie.
Although what accounts for how much he reads like a 1970s gay fantasy? The director was a woman, not a gay man. Perhaps it was the costume designer's fault -- for which we thank him. Robert De Mora did design for Bette Midler frequently so maybe. Anyway, Caulfield would fit right into Can't Stop the Music (1980): the bare chested biker in black leather, the biker in shiny silver in the camp dream sequence.
Maxwell Caulfield is officially the worst at pretending to play piano, though. This always cracks me up. His hands just bounce up and down with no variation in the fingers no matter what's happening in the music. Haha
Check out those photoshoots!
For what it's worth, in retrospect I think of Maxwell Caulfield as an early 80s version of a cross between Alex Pettyfer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson for all the reported ego at the time (Pettyfer) mixed with the constant display of his body-ody-ody (both Alex & Aaron) and the early life marriage to a wife who was 20ish years older (Taylor-Johnson married at 22, and Caulfied at 21). For those of you who were not alive or pop culture aware in the early 80s, Caulfield married the actress Juliet Mills (Hayley Mills' older sister) before he even made his first movie. They're still together ♥︎ (he's now 57 and she's 75) and both still working on occasion if not in high profile ways.
And speaking of younger men / older women romances, Matt Lattanzi who plays the preppy dreamboat Brad was 22 at the time and Olivia Newton-John's boyfriend. They'd met on the set of Xanadu (1980), his film debut, and were married by 1984.
Time to wrap up.
Pfeiffer is always the take away.
"Cool Rider," which should be utterly ridiculous, is and always will be ridiculousy sexy instead. That's all thanks to the magic of Michelle Pfeiffer.
That's all.
Share your Grease 2 memories in the comments and please do watch along and comment on Pfandom. It's a big commitment to and we must have encouragement to keep it up all year! Scarface (1983) is next. We'll try to get back to every Saturday.
Reader Comments (20)
Maxwell Caulfield is so easy on the eyes, and I thought he was adorable in this film. I liked him in Empire Records too as Rex Manning.
As terrible as this movie is, I can't not watch it and can sing most of the songs by heart. Saw it in the theater...all the while feeling things I didn't have words for yet...both sexual and actressexual.
I much prefer to watch Grease 2 than Grease!
Of course that's because we watched Grease to death as kids.
Agree on Maxwell Caulfield! delish!
While certainly not *good* by artistic standards, Grease 2 (or "Greasy Mess" as I like to call it) at least is enjoyable. It's not overlong—although fat around the middle definitely could be trimmed—and is energetically sung and choreographed. (The opening number, Charades [yep], Cool Rider, Girl for All Seasons/Love Will [Turn Back the Hands of Time], and, of course, Reproduction are my faves.) No RuPaulogies.
Let's Do It for Our Country (and Prowlin'—not Cruisin', Nat) is indeed execrable, but DiMucci *was* cute in a schnozzy, off-beat, Josh Charles kind of way. Congrats to Peter Frechette, too, who recently married his long-time partner, theater director David Warren. Happy nuptuals!
P.S. I'll *never* get over my mother's saying, re: Pfeiffer (circa Grease 2): "That girl will never amount to anything." LOL
May she rest (my mom, not Pfeiffer.)
As someone who enjoys good, old-fashioned polished trash like Grease 2, I'd been so excited for the Pfandom to reach this point and then you go and give us a double serving. Bless.
I loved every production on stage I have seen of Grease and the movie, too.
But Grease 2 was impossible for me to watch all the way through.
Yay! Been waiting for this new episode. THANK YOU. I really should finally get around to watching GREASE 2. Too me forever to watch the first one (saw it for the first time like 4-5 years ago).
Also, did you guys see that new INTERVIEW cover?!
I have a friend who has a beautiful vacation cabin in middle of nowhere upstate New York. In case of the zombie apocalypse, there is one requirement for entering her sanctuary: you must perform the entirety of "Cool Rider" with choreography to be allowed in, including the ladder sequence. One of the first things we bonded over was our shared love of the best worst movie musical sequel ever.
loved your takes on this classic(?) of the cinema. t's a terrible and wonderful movie, and i remember being blown away by pfeiffer in it at a very young age. maxwell caulfield was physically perfect during that window of time...knee-weakening!
Robert G -- i expect a map to this place because I will need the sanctuary and can pass the test.
The movie's failure must have sank Caufields' career- he was too beautiful to just vanish. Now a movie about the Tab Huter-Tony Perkins romance would be a must see.
Oddly enough, this was on UK TV a couple of days ago. Maybe someone in the Channel Four scheduling department is an avid follower of this site.
I didn't stay up late enough to watch the whole film to the end (I've seen it before), but apart from marvelling at how stunning Michelle looks here (even, maybe especially, whilst speaking with a mouthful of ketchup-drenched burger), the one thing that struck me was the 'light-hearted date-rape scene (an unfortunately common feature among early 1980s 'comedies') where DiMucci conspires with his friends to trick Sharon (played by the lovely Maureen Teefy - whatever happened to her?) into sex by getting her into a fallout shelter on the pretext of a nuclear attack. I never particularly cared for any of the T-Birds (they all struck me as borderline-misogynist meatheads with one thing on their minds), but even by their low standards this was pretty sordid.
Hey, what about Adrian Zmed? That guy is due for a comeback!
oh lovely maureen teefy - her descent into oblivion happened at terrifying speed: from the dizzy heights of fame through the mess of grease 2 to the nadir of supergirl in four short years. brutal
a happier career trajectory belongs to the little girl enduring caulfield's bad piano miming: pamela aldon went on to be the voice of bobby hill on king of the kill, featured on louie and now stars on the excellent fx show better things
my favourite bits from the imdb trivia page: andy gibb was going to play the male lead but failed his screen test. cher signed on to play paulette but backed out due to the low salary. tom cruise auditioned for johnny but the director wanted someone taller
No mention of the outrageously nuts "Reproduction" sequence? Put those stamen tubes to work!
I wish Adrian Zmed aged better. Although he never touched his face with plastic surgery he was once a sex god in a little movie called Bachelor Party.
I am glad the series is finally back! I was surprised that you had a harder time writing something for Grease 2 than her early works. I tried watching "Falling in Love" years ago and I couldn't finish it.
Frechette!!!
Now that I'm (sort of) an adult I must find the time to rewatch Thirtysomething.
A little over two years since my post here, I finally got around to watching this. While not as bad as I thought it’d be, there are some musical sequences that just don’t work/drag. However, I did enjoy a good amount of them (of course the Pfeiffer ones), and it was nice seeing all that choreography. Pfeiffer is effective here, Caulfield is such eye candy, and I was surprised as how much there was a third lead here.