Dirty Dancing (1987)

Spending the summer in a holiday camp with her family, Frances "Baby" Houseman falls in love with the camp's dance instructor Johnny Castle.

Director:

Emile Ardolino

Writer:

Eleanor Bergstein

Stars:

Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze, Jerry Orbach

Won 1 Oscar. Another 9 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jennifer Grey	...	Frances 'Baby' Houseman
Patrick Swayze	...	Johnny Castle
Jerry Orbach	...	Dr. Jake Houseman
Cynthia Rhodes	...	Penny Johnson
Jack Weston	...	Max Kellerman
Jane Brucker	...	Lisa Houseman
Kelly Bishop	...	Marjorie Houseman
Lonny Price	...	Neil Kellerman
Max Cantor	...	Robbie Gould
Charles 'Honi' Coles	...	Tito Suarez (as Charles Honi Coles)
Neal Jones	...	Billy Kostecki
'Cousin Brucie' Morrow	...	Magician
Wayne Knight	...	Stan
Paula Trueman	...	Mrs. Schumacher
Alvin Myerovich	...	Mr. Schumacher

Storyline

In 1963, Frances "Baby" Houseman, a sweet daddy's girl, goes with her family to a resort in upstate New York's Catskill Mountains. Baby has grown up in privileged surroundings and all expect her to go on to college, join the Peace Corps and save the world before marrying a doctor, just like her father. Unexpectedly, Baby becomes infatuated with the camp's dance instructor, Johnny Castle, a man whose background is vastly different from her own. Baby lies to her father to get money to pay for an illegal abortion for Johnny's dance partner. She then fills in as Johnny's dance partner and it is as he is teaching her the dance routine that they fall in love. It all comes apart when Johnny's friend falls seriously ill after her abortion and Baby gets her father, who saves the girl's life. He then learns what Baby has been up to, who with and worse - that he funded the illegal abortion. He bans his daughter from any further association with "those people". In the first deliberately willful ...

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Plot Keywords:

dance | abortion | dance instructor | love | resort | 

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Taglines:

First dance. First love. The time of your life.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 August 1987 (USA)

Also Known As:

Baile Caliente

Filming Locations:

Appalachian region, Virginia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$162,378 (USA) (22 August 1997)

Gross:

$63,892,689 (USA) (12 September 1997)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Great American Films Limited Partnership, Vestron Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

DTS (re-release) Dolby Digital (re-release) Dolby (original release) SDDS (re-release)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

During the scene where Baby and Johnny are dancing in the woods and later in the water - since that part of the movie was shot in October at Mountain Lake Virginia, which is when all the leaves on the trees start changing colors - the trees all around the lake and for that scene were spray-painted green due to the fact that the time frame of the movie was set in the summer. If you look closely during that scene in the woods, you can see leaves falling off the trees - this doesn't happen in the summer.

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Goofs

When Johnny is leaving, the trunk of his car is stacked high above the edge. When the POV changes to the passenger side of the car and Johnny closes the trunk, the stuff in the trunk isn't seen.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Radio disc jockey: [on radio] Hi, everybody, this is your Cousin Brucie. Whoa! Our summer romances are in full bloom, and everybody, but everybody's in love. So cousins, here's a great song from The Four Seasons.
Baby: [voiceover] That was the summer of 1963 - when everybody called me Baby, and it didn't occur to me to mind. That was before President Kennedy was shot, before the Beatles came, when I couldn't wait to join the Peace Corps, and I thought I'd never find a guy as great as my dad. That was the ...

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Connections

Referenced in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Episode #19.199 (2011)

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Soundtracks

"You Don't Own Me"
Written by John Madara (uncredited) and Dave White Tricker (uncredited)
Performed by The Blow Monkeys
Produced by Peter Wilson and Doctor Robert
The Blow Monkeys - Courtesy of RCA / Ariola International

User Reviews

Nobody puts Baby in a corner.

80s...........................................Dancing............................Patrick Swayze..............................Baby's in the Corner....................Abortion..........................Lake Dancing

Who wouldn't think this was one of the best movies EVER. Even as a very masculine male I find this film very entertaining. It represents a time when films could be based completely on dancing and music without the modern day clichés. This film represents a time when love could blossom in the summer, and also the unending (yet creative) story of a daughter who grows to be a woman … through dance.

Grade: ***** out of *****