It was the word in 1978 – and this classic adaptation of the stage musical is forgivable for the fact that every single actor in the film is well and truly beyond their high school years when they appeared in it.
Directed by Randal Kleiser, who went on to direct THE BLUE LAGOON, GREASE is the tale of Danny Zuko (John Travolta) whose summer fling with Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John) becomes a source of complication when he returns to Rydell High School as one of the T-Birds, the hip gang of greaser, whose female rivals are the Pink Ladies, led by Betty Rizzo (Stockard Channing),, who happens to be the girlfriend of Kenickie (Jeff Conaway, who subsequently appeared in TV’s hit comedy TAXI)
Danny snubs Sandy out of trying to impress his gang mates, but soon he has to come around and try to impress her. Will he do it and will she be the one that he wants….?
The second of two films Travolta secured in a deal with producer Robert Stigwood after SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977), they cemented him as one of the top leads of the 1970s, a success level that he didn’t repeat afterwards until PULP FICTION brought him back two decades later.