”ANNIE is big, colorful... with high-spirited performances.” - Vincent Canby, THE NEW YORK TIMES

ANNIE, the story of America’s favorite orphan finally makes the leap from DVD to Blu-ray! Based on the smash hit Broadway musical, it’s the story of a plucky, red-haired girl who dreams of a life outside her dingy orphanage. Annie (newcomer Aileen Quinn) plans several escapades, but is always foiled by the gin-soaked ruler of the orphanage, Miss Hannigan (played to hilarious perfection by Carol Burnett in a Golden Globe-nominated performance). One day Annie is chosen to live for one week with the famous billionaire, ”Daddy” Warbucks (Oscar nominee Albert Finney). Because of Annie’s special charm, the week turns into many and she and Daddy Warbucks are sharing spectacular times in the New York City of the 1930s. Meanwhile, Miss Hannigan and her zany, villainous colleagues are plotting to kidnap Annie. Will they succeed? All the terrific songs are here, too, including ”It’s a Hard-Knock Life”, ”Maybe”, ”Easy Street” and ”Tomorrow”. Sing along to the unforgettable songs and experience this beloved musical like never before!

TRIVIA:

• Steve Martin was offered the role of Rooster. However, he turned it down when he heard he would be working alongside Bernadette Peters. They were breaking up at the time and Martin feel it would be too painful to work with her for several months.

• Aileen Quinn’s red curly wig was so itchy that the producers gave her a special comb for scratching her head.

• Drew Barrymore auditioned for the title role of Annie.

• In the play, Grace Farrell brought the adoption papers to the orphanage. After the film script had Oliver Warbucks do it, Carol Burnett and Albert Finney lobbied to have the songwriters for a song to sing together to flesh out the only meeting between Warbucks and Hannigan. Their duet, ”Sign,” was written in two days and turned out to be a major highlight of the film.

• Kristen Chenoweth auditioned for Annie, but was turned down because of her thick Southern accent. However, she later went on to play Lilly St Regis in Disney’s TV remake in November 1999.

• Supervising editor Margaret Booth was also the original editor of CAMILLE, the movie that Annie, Grace and Warbucks see in the ”Let’s Go to the Movie’s” sequence.

• Auditions for the title role spanned two years, 22 cities, 8,000 interviews and 70 actresses. Nine young actresses made it to the second round.

• Daddy Warbucks’ mansion was built in 1929 by Hubert Parson, the president of F.W. Woolworth. He called it Shadow Lawn. It is now Woodrow Wilson Hall, owned by Monmouth University in West Long Beach, NJ.

• Despite being the 10th biggest grossing film of 1982, and being regarded today as a film classic, the film didn’t make a profit due to its exorbitant production costs.

• The songs ”Dumb Dog,” ”Sandy,” ”Let’s Go to the Movies,” ”We Got Annie,” and ”Sign” were written expressway for the film adaptation. The songs from the original play that were dropped were ”NYC”, ”We’d Like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover”, ”You Won’t Be an Orphan for Long” ”Annie” and ”A New Deal for Christmas”. The last four songs are not in either the film or TV adaptations.

• Bette Midler was offered the role of Miss Hannigan, but she declined. The part ultimately went to comedic icon Carol Burnett.

• In the comic strip, Oliver Warbucks made his fortune through the sale of weapons and ammunition during the Great War (WWI), hence the name ”war bucks”. He was originally a guest character, but he was so popular that Harold Gray brought him back as a regular.

• The film took over two years to produce, had a budget over $35 million and utilized over 1,900 personnel.

• When Miss Hannigan says, ”Wrap it up, I’m listening to Helen Trent,” she is referring to THE ROMANCE OF HELEN TRENT, a radio soap opera about a middle-aged woman seeking romance. It ran 27 years, from 1933 to 1960.

• Tim Curry said he based his performance of Rooster on a stagehand he knew while performing a play in New York City.

• ANNIE opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theater (now the Neil Simon Theater) on April 8, 1977 and closed on January 2, 1983 after 2,377 performances (it’s currently tied with the 1998 revival of CABARET as the 26th longest running show in Broadway history). The original cast included Reid Shelton as Oliver Warbucks, Dorothy London as Miss Hannigan and Andrea McArdle as Annie. It won seven Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, Best Score, Best Choreography and Best Actress in a Musical for Dorothy Loudon.

• Amanda Peterson auditioned for the title role and made the top seven, but she was ultimately offered a smaller role. In the ”Dumb Dog” reprise, she sings ”Rover, when you think it over.”

• The stage version of ANNIE takes place at Christmas. The film changed it to the 4th of July as it was shot during the summer, and getting fake snow to cover the grounds of the New York mansion was far too expensive.

• The film takes place in 1933 -- the year that Carol Burnett was born.

• Jack Nicholson signed on to play Oliver Warbucks, but dropped out after the original producer left.

• At the time of her death on February 10, 2014, Shirley Temple was the last surviving film star mentioned in the song ”Let’s Go to the Movie’s”.

• The top three candidates for the title role were Aileen Quinn, Robin Ignico, who played Duffy, and Angela Lee Sloan, who was told she looked too much like Quinn to play a lead orphan, but was offered a smaller role. In the ”Hard-Knock Life” sequence, Lee is a sleeping orphan

• One deleted scene, in which Annie confronts Miss Hannigan in her room, appeared in promotional lobby cards for the film and on the box of the video release.

• The film premiered at Radio City Music Hall, where the ”Let’s Go to the Movie’s” sequence was filmed.

1982

PG

No

043396095328

Movie

1982

2.20:1

127

United States

1982-06-18

MPEG-2

480i

1.33:1

4.7 GB (DVD)

1

1

Snap Case

1

No

No

2023-05-06 14:32:04