Thank God It’s Friday (1978) Columbia/Comedy-Musical RT: 89 minutes Rated PG (language, drugs) Director: Robert Klane Screenplay: Barry Armyan Bernstein Music: Giorgio Moroder Cinematographer: James Crabe Release date: May 19, 1978 (US) Cast: Valerie Landsburg, Terri Nunn, Chick Vennera, Donna Summer, Ray Vitte, Mark Lonow, Andrea Howard, Jeff Goldblum, Robin Menken, Debra Winger, John Friedrich, Paul Jabara, Marya Small, Chuck Sacci, Hilary Beane, DeWayne Jessie (Otis Day), The Commodores. Box Office: $7.3M (US)
Rating: ***
Ah, the disco craze of the 70s! I remember it well despite being nowhere near old enough to legally set foot in a discotheque. The trend was reflected everywhere from the music on the radio to the wild fashions worn by dance-crazy teens to the disco classes for middle-agers at the local Y. It didn’t take Hollywood long to latch onto the craze with Saturday Night Fever, the definitive movie of the disco era. It was soon followed by imitators like Thank God It’s Friday, a dopey comedy set over the course of a single night at an L.A. discotheque called The Zoo where the staff wears animal costumes and a guy dressed like Tarzan swings from a vine over the dance floor. It’s not exactly Studio 54, but it still seems to do decent business.
Directed by Robert Klane (Weekend at Bernie’s II), Thank God It’s Friday is best described as Saturday Night Fever meets American Graffiti without the depth of character of the former or the pathos of the latter. It’s a mindless little comedy that moves to a disco beat. There’s no actual plot. Instead, it has multiple plotlines. It follows a group of colorful characters on the night of the big dance contest where The Commodores are set to perform provided their instruments arrive in time. Their roadie Floyd (Jessie, Animal House) is having a hell of a time getting to the place. He’s lost and keeps getting pulled over by police demanding proof he didn’t steal the instruments. This means unloading and playing them as onlookers gather. This is just one of several story threads.
I suppose the best place to start is Bobby Speed (Vitte, Car Wash), the club’s star DJ doing his first live broadcast. In addition to the whole mess with The Commodores (playing themselves), he must also contend with clumsy aspiring disco singer Nicole (disco queen Summer) looking for her first big break. He has a bet going with womanizing club owner Tony (Goldblum, The Big Chill) over whether he can successfully seduce a female patron. That would be Sue (Howard, The Nude Bomb), a suburban housewife celebrating her fifth anniversary with her husband Dave (Lonow, The Last Married Couple in America), an uptight accountant who doesn’t want to be there. When Sue falls prey to Tony’s oily charm, Dave retaliates by picking up Jackie (Small, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), a zany disco freak who renames him “Babbakazoo” after drugging him.
Two teens, Frannie (Landsburg, TV’s Fame) and Jeannie (future Berlin lead singer Nunn), repeatedly try to sneak into the club for the contest. They finally succeed with the help of Marv (Vennera, High Risk), a self-described “leather guy” and king of the dance floor. Extremely near-sighted Carl (Jabara, Honky Tonk Freeway) and his mild-mannered friend Ken (Friedrich, The Final Terror) are there to meet girls. Jennifer (Winger, An Officer and a Gentleman) and Maddy (Menken, Body Rock) are there to meet guys. Finally, an angry little guy named Gus (Sacci, The Choirboys) is infuriated when he discovers his computer-matched blind date Shirley (Beane, Zapped!) is a foot taller than him.
In its defense, Thank God It’s Friday is easy to take. Sure, it’s dumb and pointless. It’s also kind of fun in the right frame of mind. Not all of the jokes land, but some of it is quite amusing. One of the better running jokes is the punishment Tony’s prized car (a 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera) takes in the parking lot. Everybody keeps hitting it. Foul-tempered Gus is good for a few chuckles. Then there’s Marv, a fellow who can only be described as a jokey Tony Manero clone. He’s so ridiculous and non-threatening that you have to like him. He’s the only one who gets a sustained dance number as well. The scene where he dances and flips on car roofs in the parking lot is great; it’s one of the movie’s best scenes. I’d even say it’s worthy of Fred Astaire if Fred did disco.
The thing about movies like Thank God It’s Friday is that people were expected to go right out and buy the soundtracks. At the time, I didn’t know a single person who didn’t have a copy of either the Saturday Night Fever and/or Grease soundtrack (I had both). I didn’t own the Thank God It’s Friday soundtrack, but I sure knew some of the tunes. Donna Summer won an Oscar for “Last Dance”, a number she performs right before The Commodores do “Too Hot to Trot” in the climax. Other than the title song by Love & Kisses and the two I mentioned, there aren’t a whole lot of memorable songs. It’s a decent soundtrack, it’s just mostly forgettable.
Should I even comment on the acting? It hardly seems necessary. It’s cool seeing actors like Goldblum and Winger early in their careers. It’s also cool seeing familiar faces like Friedrich and Beane. I liked seeing a young pre-Berlin Terri Nunn. Ms. Summer proves that she’s better at singing than acting. She’s pretty self-conscious here. Vitte commands the dance floor and the movie as the DJ who literally holds the world in his hands, a point made abundantly clear by his booth’s design. Most of the characters are likable, what else is there to say.
While disposable, Thank God It’s Friday makes for decent entertainment if you’re not looking to tax your brain. It’s the kind of silly comedy you can watch with your brain shut off. And you can dance to it too.
