Question: Was Principal McGee only bluffing when she announced that the "pictures" of the mooners were "on their way to Washington" to simply scare the three into admitting? Or was she serious about that and therefore wanted to give those responsible a chance to come in?
Question: After Rizz brings Sandy to Danny as a surprise, Sandy runs off, and Danny looks at Rizz. Is it a look of being annoyed by Rizz, or is it "I'm sorry I hurt you before, I get why you've done this"?
Answer: He's hurt and he gives her a look of "You did this deliberately" - by bringing Sandy to meet him in front of the T-Birds, she blindsided him (and Sandy) and forced him to bring out his T-Bird persona during their surprise reunion. Obviously, that's not how he wanted his reunion with Sandy to go, and Rizzo is loving it. Rizzo is my fave character, but that bit is messed up. She may be doing it to get him back for using her as a one-night stand (before he met Sandy, not recently enough to have been the father of the suspected pregnancy like the other poster suggested). She may simply be doing it to spite Sandy because she dislikes her, and Danny is hurt and annoyed that she upset Sandy.
Question: I had a Grease Novelbook in 1979 (a book version with movie pictures and most of the script from the full movie popular shortly after the movie's release) and in that, during the end of the pep rally scene (before Frenchie's house where Sandy is crying and talking with Frenchie about Danny), the line Frenchie says ("The only man a girl can depend on is her daddy") has the added line "if he doesn't drink." I then noticed the movie didn't have that last line added. Did the play version ever have that line in it?
Answer: The original Broadway show (early-mid 70s) did not have those lines, and it didn't have that early pep rally scene. Also, in the Broadway play, the sleepover pajama party scene was at Marty's house, not Frenchy's. For the film version of Grease (1978), there were many changes, omissions, and additions. As for the book versions (novelization, storybook, fotobook) based on the 1978 film, there can also be some minor discrepancies between them and the film, regarding deleted dialogue or production photos from cut scenes.
Question: The "girl in the purple sweater" is a stone-cold beauty. She overacts madly when on-screen. Does anyone know who she is?
Answer: You might be referring to Stockard Channing, who played "Rizzo." She wore a purple sweater in some scenes.
Question: Why did Vince say "Don't be a slob don't get a job"? How does that make sense for high schoolers? Isn't it a good thing for them to get a job?
Answer: On the radio we hear Vince Fontaine say, "Get out of bed. It's the first day of school. Don't be a slob. Don't get a job. Go back to class. You can pass!" Vince is advising his teen listeners to go back to class on the first day of school. That they should not be a high school drop-out and get a job (full-time), but instead to stay in school and they can pass their classes. Vince doesn't mean the teenagers who have part-time jobs while they're going to high school.
Question: During the beginning of the dance off, Jan is crying (while Vince Fontaine is doing the announcement). Why?
Answer: While Vince is talking mere moments before going live on the air, Jan's getting nervous, keyed-up, and emotional, so she begins to stare and sob, much to the chagrin of Putzie. Then before the 10-second countdown she excitedly tries to get Frenchie's attention.
Question: Did Sonny and Marty become a couple at the end? You see them both dancing together during the finale but for the rest of the film, there's no suggestion that they are a couple, so I was a bit confused.
Question: What is the pink thing Danny is holding in his right hand in the dance scene at the end of the movie? He and Sandy jump into the scene singing and the next time you see them, they are in the car flying off. Is it a pink slip?
Answer: At the beginning of the thunder road scene, the leader of the rival gang, Leo, explains that they are "racing for pinks." When questioned, he clarifies "pinks man: ownership papers" (meaning the winner of the race at thunder road will win ownership of the losers car). Since Danny won the thunder road race, he won Leo's car. I understood the car at the end of the movie to be that car (repainted). The pink thing he was holding on that scene may have been his new ownership papers for Leo's car.
Question: When Sandy is watching the race, she takes her shoes off. Why? It makes no sense, because it's a dirty place. And she's wearing very white socks.
Answer: She was wearing regular shoes, not sandals or sneakers, not made for walking on concrete.
She's wearing Keds. So yeah they're sneakers. It makes no sense.
Answer: I was watching the movie recently. I suddenly thought: she, as Olivia, takes them of because they are not comfortable. In the scene she is not walking much on them.
Question: At the bandstand dance there's an extra who gets a lot of camera time. (Brown jacket, open shirt and tie around his neck). As well as a delayed shot of him, Sandy also bumps into him when leaving. Not sure why he gets so much camera time almost as if he had a part elsewhere that got cut out. Any thoughts?
Answer: I remember watching a commentary when I was young. This woman on the crew pointed out that it was her son, or the son of a different crew member. I can't remember specifics because I watched the commentary over 10-years-ago. She may have been a producer or someone like that.
Answer: That makes sense to me. I've wondered about him too. But I've seen him in many other scenes when watching the movie again tonight on TV to honour the passing of Dame Olivia Newton-John.
Question: Can anybody explain why the T-Birds didn't see each other all summer? Even if Kenickie had a job, wouldn't he still be around after work?
Answer: Well, Danny was out of town, at the beach. It's quite possible that the rest of T-Birds didn't live close enough to each other to see each other during the summer. Also, they may have all had jobs, or been travelling with their families. It's also possible that they DID see each other, although maybe not as "T-Birds". When they saw each other on the first day of school, though, they were Seniors, and they were ready and excited to be T-Bird seniors.
Another possible reason is that not all of them were allowed to see friends during the summer. I had a couple of classmates whose parents were strict about them focusing on schoolwork and/or getting a job. No phone calls or visiting friends on the weekends or during summer: "You can see your friends at school."
Do you really think any of the T-Birds had strict parents?
People quite often rebel against strict parents.
When they asked Kenickie where he was, he said "working, which is more than I can say for any of youse kids" suggesting that the 3 stooges (pun intended for their stupid routine that prompts Danny to tell them to "be cool") didn't work all summer. Also, Sonny needed to borrow money in the dinner until he could get his allowance.
In regards to not living close enough to each other, it is worth mentioning that having access to a vehicle was much less common compared to nowadays.
Answer: During that time, it wasn't uncommon for people to go out of town for the whole summer. Often, it was close enough so that the father could commute on weekends while the mother and kids spent the summer at the vacation spot. Even when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's, I knew a lot of people who did it.
Question: Did Danny and Rizzo have a thing together, or did Rizzo have a crush on Danny?
Answer: It is implied that Danny and Rizzo had a previous romantic relationship of some kind. When Jan says, "Did you guys get a look at Zuk this Morning? Looking pretty good this year, huh, Rizz?" Rizzo replies, "that's ancient history." Later, when Danny says, "you're looking good, Rizz, " her answer, "eat your heart out," also suggests some possible residual feelings on her part. I think that's why Rizzo enjoys tormenting Sandy and Danny by reintroducing them at Rydell at a moment that she knows Danny is going to save face around his friends.
Answer: Yes.
Answer: Yes... after the reunion of Danny and Sandy and Danny playing cool and blowing her off, Rizzo stands back with a stupid grin on her face like she's proud of herself.
Yeah, I noticed that, too. Plus, at the beginning of the movie it's implied that she and Danny were a fling or at least flirting at some point. Could be she was mad at the ending of it if it wasn't her choice. Later, when he calls her Sloppy Seconds, that seems to really shock her, but I'm less sure it implies anything.
Answer: When Rizzo shimmies down the outside of Frenchie's house she first says "what's up Kenick?", and he replies "one guess", followed by Rizzo intimating "You got a lot to offer a girl..." She then turns to Danny saying "What say you Zuck?" This is a clear inference that she would have sex with both men - a threesome, basically. Zuko is uninterested because as he states sloppy-seconds "aren't my style." He jumps out of the car and Kenickie kicks the other T-BIRDS to the sidewalk. The two love-birds head off to the hills.
Question: As Kenickie is getting ready to drive at Thunder Road, he talks to Danny about a movie where a guy's friend acted as his second in a duel, and then asks if Danny would be his second at Thunder Road. Danny asks if Kenickie wants him to ride with him, Kenickie says no, then they seem to have this moment of mutual understanding and they hug. What's all that about, besides showing that they're friends? What did Kenickie want Danny to do as his second if not ride with him?
Answer: Kenickie is basically saying to fill in for him in case something happens to him. At this point in the movie he still thinks that Rizzo is pregnant, basically wanting Danny to be his baby's godfather. So pretty much saying will you be my second, is saying if anything happens to me take care of my child. Because he's his best friend. And Danny understands what he's saying and happily agrees.
Chosen answer: It's a dueling term. Each party would name a trusted representative (a "second") who would, between them, determine a suitable "field of honour". It was also the duty of each party's second to check that the weapons were equal and that the duel was fair. The exact conversation was: "Hey, Danny, uh... We've been friends a long time, right?" "Yeah." "Remember the drive-in the other night. There was the duel. The guy's best friend went with him, like his second?" "Yeah. So?" "Well, uh... I thought that you could be my second at Thunder Road."
Question: When Sandy's skirt gets lifted up at the bonfire, Frenchy comes to her defence and does some weird flappy hand movement. What is it meant to mean? She basically just waves at the girl, but Sandy is very grateful.
Answer: The hand shooing gesture by Frenchie is actually a reference to the 3 stooges, a very popular but juvenile show on American TV. Doodie also makes a reference to it in the beginning of the movie when he makes a whoop whoop whoop noise when he first sees Danny.
Answer: The Pink Ladies were held in a high regard as well as very well respected and feared at Rydell high which means you didn't want to upset them or mess with them. Therefore, if they told you to do something you better do it.
Question: Any idea what the reference to "banging erasers" is all about? I always thought she said "banging your races" or "banging your braces" but never understood what it meant?
Answer: Banging erasers is what kids had to do as punishment. Erasers are used to clear the chalkboards, eventually they will get full of chalk and not work properly anymore so you bang them together to get the chalk out.
Answer: It was a reference to detention. She suggests that he will be banging erasers after school.
Question: Why didn't Sandy immediately telephone Danny when she found out she and her family were not going back to Australia, and that she would be attending his high school?
Answer: Perhaps Sandy didn't know the high school she would be going was the same as Danny's, so she didn't think to call him already, but wanted to do it later. It's all very vague about where it all come from. The point is she never thought she would see Danny again, just like Danny thought he would never see her again. With that in mind they might indeed not have exchanged phone numbers anyway so no way to contact each other.
Answer: Maybe they didn't exchange phone numbers.
Answer: Again, he had his reputation as a Ladies Man, he didn't want the gang to know, he was wimping out and had fall in love. Remember the song, "Summer Lovin" He told of scoring with a hot babe, while Sandy sang of true love.
Answer: More than likely, based on Sandy's demeanor and adherence to etiquette, she would not have exchanged her number with a boy. She even said to Rizzo at the lunch table that she went to the beach to see a boy she met so most likely she and Danny would have made plans in person to meet up like they did.
Answer: I had an exchange student LIVE in my parents house for a month when I was in high school in 1990. I liked her a lot. We were the same age. We got along. I did not have her phone number when she left. Why? Because there was no way my father was letting me call France "long distance" in 1990. In 1959, I'm going to say that calling long distance was probably not on their radar as a viable option. Not to mention - realistically, when you're 17, and you never think you're going to see each other again because you're separated by continent, what would be the point of exchanging numbers?
This was a nice story, but has nothing to with answering the question. Sandy didn't live with Danny, so they would have exchanged local numbers, or at least Danny would have given Sandy his number if she didn't know the number where she was staying so they could call each other during the summer. For your story to be slightly comparable, the exchange student would have had live somewhere else. In that scenario you certainly would have given her your number and she wouldn't give you her number in France but where she was staying.
Question: Why did they change the movie version when it went to VHS/DVD? There was a scene where Sandy was in the office and Kenicky came in and spoke to her... It's lost now?
Answer: It's not uncommon for films to be changed from the theatrical release to the version you can buy for your home collection. Normally the changes are slight and for some older releases were done to secure a more favourable rating - these edits tend to get restored in later releases though. Having said that another version often turns up on the telly one day with scenes that have never been seen before, then there's sometimes a "Director's Cut" on a DVD somewhere which is different still and often significantly longer. TL;DR - there can be multiple versions of a movie.
Question: When Danny is talking to the coach about sports, the coach asks if he likes the rings. After that Danny says something snide about installing rings or something with a hidden meaning. What is he talking about?
Answer: Danny says "yeah I installed a set of rings a couple of weeks ago", rings are a piece on the piston to an engine, something a mechanic would install or fix on your car, Danny was trying to be funny when the coach meant the gymnastics rings.
In this case, would not the "hidden meaning" be an innuendo, such as penis rings? Either he used two rings at once or had sex two times a couple weeks ago (in the back seat of his car)? (This is in a high school setting when norms about pre-marital sex were much stricter and people didn't openly talk about sex toys and the like).
Answer: Coach Calhoun is actually not talking about Olympic Rings. He is talking about the men's gymnastics apparatus.
Question: Toward the beginning of the movie, when Sonny is being chastised by Miss McGee for dawdling in the hallway, he mutters something in Italian when she turns away. It's audible enough to cause her to turn back and suggest a session of "banging erasers." Does anyone know what he's muttering?
Answer: Its not really Italian, but roughly he says something like "Fanabala Puttana" which means "You bitch whore." Again, not fully correctly spoken as the actor knows hardly any Italian.
Answer: Sonny says "un altra brutta putana" which translates to another dirty slut.
Answer: Translates to "another stupid b****".
Answer: It's definitely a bluff. I highly doubt the FBI can identify people by butt.
lionhead