Annie (1982 film)

In 1933, during the Great Depression, a young orphan named Annie is living in the Hudson Street Orphanage in New York City. It is run by Agatha Hannigan, a cruel alcoholic who forces the orphans to clean the building daily. With half of a locket as her only possession, she remains optimistic that her parents, who left her on the doorstep as a baby, will return for her. Annie sneaks out with help from laundry man, Mr. Bundles, adopting a stray dog which she names Sandy. However, Annie is caught by a police officer and escorted back to the orphanage.

Grace Farrell, secretary to billionaire Oliver Warbucks, arrives to invite an orphan to live with Warbucks for a week, to improve his public image. Annie is chosen and she and Sandy travel to Warbucks' mansion, meeting his many servants and two bodyguards, Punjab and the Asp. Warbucks, at first dismissive of Annie due to her being female, is charmed into letting her stay. He takes Annie and Grace to Radio City Music Hall to watch a movie, Camille, and Warbucks begin to develop affection for Annie. Grace urges him to adopt Annie and he meets with Miss Hannigan, convincing her to sign the adoption papers.

Warbucks reveals his plans to Annie, even offering her a new locket, but she declines. She explains the purpose of her broken locket and her hope that her parents will return with the other half. Warbucks appears on Bert Healy's radio show and offers $50,000 to find Annie's parents. This causes mass hysteria with many would-be parents appearing to claim the money. To escape the madness, Warbucks flies Annie to the White House in Washington D.C., introducing her to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor. Roosevelt informs them of his plan to introduce a social welfare program to help America's impoverished and asks Warbucks to head it; Annie encourages him to help. Upon returning home, Annie is disheartened when Grace reveals none of the potential parents knew about the locket.

Hannigan is visited by her con artist brother Rooster and his girlfriend, Lily St. Regis; they plot to pose as Annie's parents to gain the reward. The trio searches the orphans' belongings and Hannigan reveals Annie's parents were killed in a fire; she possesses the other half of the locket. Annie's friends overhear the conversation and try sneaking out, but are discovered and locked away. Rooster and Lily succeed with the ruse, and Annie's departure from Warbucks is somber. Annie is kidnapped minutes after leaving, but her friends reach Warbucks and tell him the truth; he informs the police, beginning a city-wide search.

Annie convinces the felons to pull over, only to escape and destroy Warbucks' check. Rooster chases Annie up a raised drawbridge in an effort to kill her; when Hannigan realizes his intentions, she desperately tries to stop him, but Rooster easily knocks her out and continues climbing. Punjab rescues Annie from Rooster and reunites her with Warbucks and Grace. Rooster and Lily are arrested and Annie is officially adopted by Warbucks. At a party that the orphans, a redeemed Hannigan, and the Roosevelts attend, Warbucks gives Annie the new locket as they embrace.

• Aileen Quinn as Annie Bennett Warbucks, a 10-year-old orphan girl. Quinn was chosen out of 9,000 girls who were interviewed at casting calls in the United States, Canada and Europe.[5][6]
• Albert Finney as Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks, a billionaire businessman who adopts Annie. Sean Connery and Cary Grant were also considered for the role before Finney was chosen.[5]
• Carol Burnett as Miss Agatha "Aggy" Hannigan, a cruel alcoholic and the older sister of Rooster who manages the all-girls orphanage where Annie and the other orphans live.[7] She is shown to create bathtub gin and engage in other illegal activities. Bette Midler was considered for the role before Burnett was chosen.[5]
• Ann Reinking as Grace Farrell, personal secretary to Mr. Warbucks, who decides to take Annie in.
• Tim Curry as Daniel Francis "Rooster" Hannigan, Aggy's con-artist younger brother.
• Bernadette Peters as Lily St. Regis, petty thief and co-conspirator girlfriend of Rooster.
• Edward Herrmann as Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, usually portrayed in a wheelchair.
• Lois de Banzie as Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States.
• Geoffrey Holder as Punjab, Warbucks's turban-donning bodyguard, named for Pakistan's and India’s Punjab province and/or Punjabi culture.
• Roger Minami as The Asp, Warbucks's Japanese chauffeur and bodyguard, who teaches Annie karate.
• Toni Ann Gisondi as Molly, a fellow orphan who is six years old and gets adopted by Warbucks and becomes Annie's little sister.
• Rosanne Sorrentino as Pepper, a 14-year-old fellow orphan who commands others, but then becomes nicer. She also gets adopted by Warbucks and becomes Annie and Molly's sister.
• Lara Berk as Tessie, a fellow orphan who is eight years old and exclaims "Oh my goodness!" throughout the film. Also, she gets adopted by Warbucks and becomes Annie, Molly and Pepper's sister.
• April Lerman as Kate, an orphan who is thirteen years old and cares for the younger orphans and often wears her hair in pigtail braids. She gets adopted by Warbucks and becomes Annie, Molly, Pepper, and Tessie's sister.
• Robin Ignico as Duffy, an eleven year old fellow orphan who is Pepper's best friend. She gets adopted by Warbucks and becomes Annie, Molly, Pepper, Tessie and Kate's sister.
• Lucie Stewart as July, a fellow orphan who is nine years old and rarely speaks. She gets adopted by Warbucks and becomes Annie, Molly, Pepper, Tessie, Kate and Duffy's sister.
• Peter Marshall as Bert Healy, a radio show host.
• Larry Hankin as the pound man.
• Irving Metzman as Mr. Bundles, a man who works for a Chinese laundry company, whose truck Annie stows away in. Mr. Bundles is implied to be a love interest of Miss Hannigan. It is unclear whether he is portraying a stereotypically Asian role.
• Ken Swofford as Weasel, a greasy uniformed police officer who chases down Annie when she escapes. He is based on Officer Wald from the musical. He is implied to be a love interest of Miss Hannigan.
• I. M. Hobson as Drake, Warbucks's head butler who hides his allergy to dogs.
• Colleen Zenk, Mavis Ray, and Pamela Blair as Cecile, Mrs. Greer and Annette, Warbucks's maids.
• Lu Leonard as Mrs. Pugh, Warbucks's maid and cook.
• Victor Griffin as Saunders, one of Warbucks's servants.
• Angela Lee, Martika, Amanda Peterson, and Shawnee Smith as orphans/backup dancers.
• The Rockettes as Themselves (uncredited).
• Bingo the dog as Sandy, a stray dog who becomes the family pet.

After winning a bidding war with Paramount Pictures, Columbia purchased the rights to the broadway musical for $9.5 million.[8] Film producer Ray Stark wanted both John Huston and Joe Layton (while working as the director and choreographer, respectively) to also be the executive producer on the film, because it was too large an enterprise for one person. Regarding Huston being given the job of directing the first (and what would be the only) musical in his 40-year directing career, screenwriter Carol Sobieski stated: "Hiring John [Huston] is an outsider risk, and Ray's [Stark] a major gambler. He loves this kind of high risk situation."[9] The film cost over $35 million, with some suggesting it cost as much as $59 million after marketing and distribution, making it one of the most expensive films at the time, and the most expensive project financed by Columbia Pictures up to that point.[8]

Filming

Wilson Hall, at Monmouth University campus, New Jersey, was used as the exteriors of Oliver Warbucks's mansion.

The NX Bridge over the Passaic River in New Jersey where the climax was filmed.

Principal photography took place in 1981 over the course of six weeks at Monmouth College, now Monmouth University, in West Long Branch, New Jersey, which has two mansions that were used in the film, one of which is the Shadow Lawn Mansion.[9][11] The NX Bridge, an abandoned railroad bridge over the Passaic River in Newark, was used for location shooting of one of the climactic scenes.[12][13]

Many of the street sets were filmed at Warner Bros. Burbank Studios, 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California. Production designer Dale Hennesy overhauled the old "Tenement Street" back lot set at Warner Bros. by outfitting many of the New York styled apartment and store front facades with actual New York fire escapes and other treatments specifically brought in for this production. Hennesy died during filming and the back lot set was renamed "Hennesy Street" in honor of the late production designer.

Originally, the song "Easy Street" was going to be the biggest musical number in the film. For this purpose, a specially-created outdoor street set was built, costing more than $1 million. It took one week to shoot the scene, but on reviewing the dailies, the scene was considered to be "overstuffed" and "sour." Therefore, a re-shoot was undertaken nearly two months after principal filming had been completed. The scene was replaced with a version shot indoors in a style that mimicked the ambience portrayed in the original stage musical.[9]

Annie is a soundtrack album for the 1982 film of the same name.

Annie opened theatrically on May 21, 1982, in 14 theatres, including in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Toronto.[8][3] It expanded to 1,102 theatres on June 18, 1982.[3]

The film was released on VHS, Betamax and CED Videodisc on November 5, 1982, by RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video. It was re-issued in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1994, and 1997 (in a "Broadway Tribute Edition" to coincide with the original play's Broadway 20th anniversary revival that year). There were two widescreen LaserDiscs released, one in 1989 and another in 1994. The film was released in a widescreen DVD edition on December 12, 2000.

A "Special Anniversary Edition" DVD was released on January 13, 2004 (four days before producer Stark's death). Despite the fact that the first DVD was widescreen, the DVD was in pan and scan (but with DTS sound). Reviewing the disc for DVD Talk, Glenn Erickson, while praising the film overall, called the pan and scan transfer an "abomination that's grainy and lacking in color." He also noted that the short retrospective featurette with Ms. Quinn contained clips from the film in the correct aspect ratio. Erickson also called the music video of "It's the Hard-Knock Life" by Play "pretty dreary" and attacked the other, child-oriented extras by saying "Musicals and kids' films aren't just for tots ... and this disc is little more than a headache."[32] However, several countries in Region 2 received widescreen versions of this edition including the United Kingdom. The film was released as a "sing-along edition" on Blu-ray on October 2, 2012, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the film and the 35th anniversary of the Broadway version set a revival in November 2012.

On October 25th, 2022, the film was released on 4K Blu-ray as part of "Columbia Classics Collection: Volume 3," including the full 1932 film Little Orphan Annie and several new special features for the newly-remastered Blu-ray.

The film had its national television debut on February 24, 1986, on the NBC Monday Night Movie. To accommodate the broadcast restrictions, the film was shown in pan-and-scan and had its running time cut from 128 minutes to 96 minutes to run in the two-hour time slot with commercials.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Annie (1982 film).

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