Victor/Victoria (1982)

Directed co-produced with a screenplay co-written by Blake Edwards (for which he received his only Academy Award nomination) this hilarious Musical Comedy features Julie Andrews in the title role (both characters) as a woman masquerading as a man pretending to be a woman (e.g. as a female impersonator). Sound confusing? It is. And it is difficult to "see" Julie Andrews’s character as a man in this one too. However it doesn’t detract from the incredibly clever script nor the film’s other terrific performances by James Garner Robert Preston and Lesley Anne Warren. Football player-turned actor Alex Karras John Rhys-Davies and Graham Stark (playing a waiter naturally) among others also appear.

Preston plays Andrews’s agent who comes up with the idea (that of her pretending to be a man who’s a female impersonator) to help his struggling client find work. Garner plays a man’s man a Chicago nightclub owner who’s uncomfortable with his attraction to a man the one Andrews is pretending to be. Warren plays Garner’s bimbo blonde girlfriend who finds herself jealous of another and a man at that (at least Andrews pretending to be one)! Karras plays Garner’s "heavy" or bodyguard if you will. Rhys-Davies plays a Paris impresario who’s also not in on the secret of Victor’s gender. Of course there’s lots of fodder for sexual innuendo battle of the sexes and other trans-gender humor.

The film’s Henry Mancini-Leslie Bricusse Score won an Oscar. Andrews’s leading performance earned her the third and last Best Actress nomination (to date) in her outstanding career. Preston’s gay agent earned him his only nomination (Supporting) as did Warren’s performance (also Supporting). The film’s Art Direction-Set Decoration and Costume Design were also nominated. #76 on AFI’s 100 Funniest Movies list.

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