Sweet Charity is a 1969 American musical comedy-drama film directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse in his feature directorial debut, written by Peter Stone, and featuring music by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields.
The film stars Shirley MacLaine and features John McMartin, Chita Rivera, Paula Kelly, Stubby Kaye, Ricardo Montalbán, Sammy Davis Jr., and Barbara Bouchet. It is based on the 1966 stage musical of the same name – also directed and choreographed by Fosse – which in turn is based on Federico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, and Tullio Pinelli’s screenplay for Fellini’s film Nights of Cabiria (Le Notti di Cabiria, 1957). Whereas Fellini’s film concerns the romantic ups-and-downs of an ever-hopeful prostitute, the musical makes the central character a dancer-for-hire at a Times Square dance-hall.
One of the most iconic of his career, the Rich Man’s Frug scene (from 26 min) in 1969’s Sweet Charity not only offered up three different interpretations of the Frug dance craze, but put the power ponytail on the map to extraordinary effect. In fact, in Beyoncé’s music video for her 2007 single “Get Me Bodied,” she recreated the groovy dance sequence complete with an itsy-bitsy mini dress and a high-slung undo rivalling that of lead dancer, Suzanne Charny.