Victor/Victoria (1982) ENF Nightclub Act in Detail

[mastophilus]

Victor/Victoria is a 1982 comedy starring Julie Andrews, Robert Preston, John Rhys-Davies, James Garner, Alex Karras, and Leslie Ann Warren and directed by Blake Edwards. Nominated for seven Oscars—including acting nods for Andrews, Preston, and Warren—this is a decent movie in its own right.

The film is set in 1930s Paris and starts with Andrews as an out-of-work singer. She meets up with Preston, who is gay and also has a regular gig at a nightclub owned by Rhys-Davies. Preston comes up with the idea to have Andrews pose as a female impersonator, and gets her a job at the club. She’s a hit. Meanwhile, Garner is a Chicago nightclub owner visiting Paris. One night Garner, his bimbo girlfriend Warren, and his bodyguard Karras come into the club and see Andrews' act. Garner is quite smitten with her at first, but then has a bit of a freak-out when he realizes that Andrews is “actually” a guy, but that he’s still attracted to her. Complications ensue, mostly involving confusion over who is a man, who is a woman, and therefore who is straight, who is gay, and who is attracted to whom.

The video here is Warren’s nightclub act “Chicago, Illinois”. In her act, her skirt repeatedly “blows” up as part of the act, because what better way to pay tribute to the Windy City than with some skirt blowing ? I put “blows” in quotes because it looks more like her skirt is actually being lifted with wires or something similar. Throughout her act, she gives some good ENF reactions to her skirt flying up. At one point, her dress comes entirely off, leaving her in a teddy/leotard outfit. She is then joined on stage by backup dancers in their underwear squealing, trying to cover themselves, and acting as if their dresses had just been blown off as well.

There is both a video of the full act, and a shorter video showing just the parts of the act with skirt lifting and ENF reactions.

A few other observations:

1) If all movie ENF is staged, then this is staged ENF within the staged ENF of a movie. In-universe staged ENF, perhaps?

2) Given all the women are still in their underwear, maybe this is better described as an EUF scene instead of an ENF scene?

3) Even though her voice is squawky and annoying, Warren is still pretty hot in this movie.

4) In the high kicking near the end of the full routine, is that bush peeking out of Warren’s costume?

5) None of the background dancers seem to be credited. None of them stand out that much, anyway.

6) There’s a Broadway version of this movie from 1995, but the “Chicago, Illinois” number no longer has a skirt blowing ENF theme. If you still want to see it you can find it on Youtube.

7) I’m a little surprised this movie is rated only PG given how adult so much of the humor is. Then again, there’s basically no nudity, little swearing, no violence beyond a couple of punches to the face, and the PG-13 rating wouldn’t be invented for another 2 years.

[lonmol]

If memory serves, there's another scene in this movie in which Leslie Ann Warren has her dress ripped open (or she may rip it open herself), when the James Garner character tries to put her on a train against her will.

[mastophilus]

Originally Posted by lonmol

If memory serves, there's another scene in this movie in which Leslie Ann Warren has her dress ripped open (or she may rip it open herself), when the James Garner character tries to put her on a train against her will.

Garner decides to send Warren back to Chicago because of her uncontrollable temper, so he has Karras escort her to the rail station. All the while Warren is cursing out Garner while Karras quietly listens. At the end, she stands on the back of the railroad car, opens her coat, and flashes the world (even though she's in fairly modest 30s underwear), basically telling Karras to tell Garner he'll never be able to tap her ass again.

I didn't bring it up because Warren's intentionally flashing herself in her underwear rather than seeming to be exposed against her will.