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Victor/Victoria

  • 1982
  • 12
  • 2h 14m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
24K
YOUR RATING
Victor/Victoria (1982)
Watch Official Trailer
Play trailer2:18
3 Videos
82 Photos
ComedyMusicRomance

A struggling female soprano finds work playing a male female impersonator, but it complicates her personal life.A struggling female soprano finds work playing a male female impersonator, but it complicates her personal life.A struggling female soprano finds work playing a male female impersonator, but it complicates her personal life.

  • Director
    • Blake Edwards
  • Writers
    • Blake Edwards
    • Hans Hoemburg
    • Reinhold Schünzel
  • Stars
    • Julie Andrews
    • James Garner
    • Robert Preston
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.6/10
    24K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Blake Edwards
    • Writers
      • Blake Edwards
      • Hans Hoemburg
      • Reinhold Schünzel
    • Stars
      • Julie Andrews
      • James Garner
      • Robert Preston
    • 147User reviews
    • 41Critic reviews
    • 84Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Won 1 Oscar
      • 11 wins & 18 nominations total

    Videos3

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:18
    Watch Official Trailer
    Original Theatrical Trailer
    Trailer 1:36
    Watch Original Theatrical Trailer
    Victor Victoria
    Trailer 2:22
    Watch Victor Victoria

    Photos82

    Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria (1982)
    Lesley Ann Warren in Victor/Victoria (1982)
    Julie Andrews, James Garner, and Robert Preston in Victor/Victoria (1982)
    "Victor / Victoria" Julie Andrews 1981 MGM/UA
    Julie Andrews, James Garner, and Robert Preston in Victor/Victoria (1982)
    Victor/Victoria (1982)
    Victor/Victoria (1982)
    Victor/Victoria (1982)
    Victor/Victoria (1982)
    Julie Andrews, James Garner, and Robert Preston in Victor/Victoria (1982)
    Victor/Victoria (1982)
    Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria (1982)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Julie Andrews
    Julie Andrews
    • Victoria Grant
    James Garner
    James Garner
    • King Marchand
    Robert Preston
    Robert Preston
    • Carole "Toddy" Todd
    Lesley Ann Warren
    Lesley Ann Warren
    • Norma Cassady
    Alex Karras
    Alex Karras
    • 'Squash' Bernstein
    John Rhys-Davies
    John Rhys-Davies
    • Andre Cassell
    Graham Stark
    Graham Stark
    • Waiter
    Peter Arne
    Peter Arne
    • Labisse
    Herb Tanney
    • Charles Bovin
    • (as Sherloque Tanney)
    Michael Robbins
    Michael Robbins
    • Manager of Victoria's Hotel
    Norman Chancer
    • Sal Andratti
    David Gant
    David Gant
    • Restaurant Manager
    Maria Charles
    • Madame President
    Malcolm Jamieson
    Malcolm Jamieson
    • Richard DiNardo
    John Cassady
    John Cassady
    • Juke
    Mike Tezcan
    • Clam
    Christopher Good
    Christopher Good
    • Stage Manager
    Matyelok Gibbs
    • Cassell's Receptionist
    • (as Matyelock Gibbs)
    • Director
      • Blake Edwards
    • Writers
      • Blake Edwards
      • Hans Hoemburg
      • Reinhold Schünzel(1933 script)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Robert Preston did the final musical number in one take, which explains why he was so clearly out of breath, physically stressed, and sweating profusely during the second half of the number.
    • Goofs
      In the one scene when King turns on the radio, the sound comes right on. In the old vacuum tube radios of the day, the filaments of the tubes would have to warm up before any sound emanates.
    • Quotes

      Victoria: How long have you been a homosexual?

      Toddy: How long have you been a soprano?

      Victoria: Since I was 12.

      Toddy: I was a late bloomer.

    • Crazy credits
      The opening credits are a montage of Art Deco illustrations, with most of them reflecting the functions of the credited persons.
    • Connections
      Featured in Sneak Previews: Victor Victoria/Silent Rage/Cat People/I Ought to Be In Pictures (1982)
    • Soundtracks
      Gay Paree
      (uncredited)

      Music by Henry Mancini

      Lyrics by Leslie Bricusse

      Performed by Robert Preston

    User reviews147

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    Victor, Victoria and Victory... over Gender Stereotyping...
    Ever since I heard about "Victor Victoria", I tried to visualize how a movie from Blake Edwards, "The Pink Panther" director, about cross-dressing in 1930s "Gay Paris" would look. My intuition was that the film would either be a period version of French comedy hit "La Cage aux Folles" (or its American remake "The Birdcage") or something in the more realistic vein of Bob Fosse's "Cabaret". Where does "Victor Victoria" stand between these classics?

    In fact, these comparisons though valid (a hilarious gag involving a popping champagne seems to have been borrowed from the French classic) are marginal when confronted to the musical's satirical edge and the way it handles an important subject like gender roles, so fitting from the same year that provided "Tootsie" or "The World According to Garp". In "Tootsie", an Oscar-nominated Dustin Hoffman played a man who learned the ordeal of being a woman trying to fit in a male-driven world, and in the latter, John Littgow was Oscar-nominated for playing an ex-football athlete who became Roberta, the sweetest and most complex character of the film.

    So, the 1982 Oscar wasn't a "drag-race" but an interesting year that questioned for the first time the kind of stuff that was usually taken for granted: men and women were different... as if they were supposed to be identical within their respective gender.

    This is why you can't cover issues like men and woman's relationship or feminism without inevitably spreading it to homosexuality, gender identity and stuff that are compacted today into initials. While the notion of LGBTQ etc. wasn't as socially preeminent in 1982, there was a Gay culture nonetheless dating back to history and that found a "micro-Golden Age" in the interwar period (they weren't called "Les Années Folles" for nothing) as if Europe, worn down by endless battles down the mud, wanted jazz, swing, love and a little "je ne sais quoi" of eccentricity, living life like a cabaret in Berlin, puttin' on the Ritz in Paris or putting the "Chic" in Chicago! "Victor Victoria" takes this context into consideration, respects its audience's maturity and portray homosexuality in the most straightforward way.

    So Blake Edwards lays the cards with the first shot where we see Toddy (Robert Preston) sleeping, face in profile, and then a man's head rises behind him. We understand the relationship is purely sexual, neither of them is pulling a "birdcage" and the thought that the film would indulge to such portrayals vanished instantly. Edwards finds the perfect way to put the viewers at ease, even those who can be 'bothered', he just shows from the start without sugarcoating or overplaying it. I don't mean he's "throwing" it at our faces so we're "done with it", in fact, just like heterosexual love, homosexuality is displayed within numerous layers: physical, emotional, platonic etc. In fact, sometimes, you feel like both loves are intertwined.

    Take that scene for instance where King Marchand, James Garner as a charming but roguish American business, gets smitten by the new sensation of Gay Paris, look at how his jaw slowly drop when "Victoria" (Julie Andrews) puts off her apparel revealing short hair, which means that she's "Victor", which means a transvestite. At the same moment, Norma, Marchand's ditzy moll, played by a scene-stealing Lesley Ann Warren goes from bitter jealousy to ecstatic cheerfulness. That simple scene seems to show how truly insecure gender issues made 'average' persons feel ... maybe was it a nod to the audience?

    Or maybe the bottom-line is that only someone with the true sensitivity of an artist would be able to question the way laws of attractions function for him or her. Look at the transvestite numbers, they're sophisticated, elegant, they do involve men but they actually put femininity into a true pedestal, the approach is equally in adoration of the woman figure than any proud macho. And once again, this 'relativeness' goes the same way around, when Julie Andrews plays the man and asks herself how she can be credible, Toddy reassures her, there's no proper way to be a man, she's just got to pretend to be some Polish count so the suspicion won't dig further than that lie (pretty smart actually).

    It turns out that the best way to be a man is just not to be too feminine enough to never give up the illusion entirely, one must know it's a man for the sake of the show's own "reason-to-be". Interestingly, the notion of man is less sexualized than the woman, if you compare it to the overly sexy "Chicago" song performed by Norma. The exhilaration of being a man is played outside the realm of show-business, like a reverse "Tootsie", the way Victoria finds all door opens once she becomes a man. But see how once again King Marchand gets so obsessed by her impersonation and defensive about his manhood, many of his actions are less guided by love than his macho pride, which is saying a lot.

    I might have been too analytical for a film that is essentially an entertaining, moderately eccentric, but ultimately fun story about fun-loving and sympathetic people... but I was surprised by how enjoyable it was. And just when I tried to predict some situation, something funnier or smarter or more touching came all the way, like that bit involving Marchand's bodyguard Squash (Alex Karras) that I didn't see coming.

    Now, to say that "Victor Victoria" has a message would be too far-fetched but it does say something about gender and life in general: we take ourselves too seriously and anyone should be free to do whatever he loves... the film embraces its own approach by injecting a fair dose of slapstick (well, I think there was one or two brawls too many) but the Edwards' touch, the 'atmosphere', the casting (especially Preston and Warren) not to mention the musical, contribute to a spectacular and solid entertainment, that aged up very well like some good Parisian wine.
    helpful•10
    1
    • ElMaruecan82
    • Oct 16, 2018

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    FAQ19

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 7, 1983 (West Germany)
    • Countries of origin
      • United Kingdom
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • French
    • Also known as
      • Віктор Вікторія
    • Filming locations
      • Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK(Studio)
    • Production companies
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
      • Buckhantz-NMC Company
      • Peerford Ltd.
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $28,215,453
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $139,634
      • Mar 21, 1982
    • Gross worldwide
      • $28,229,046
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 14 minutes
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Stereo
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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