Goodbye Charlie

Infobox Film
name = Goodbye Charlie


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director = Vincente Minnelli
producer = David Weisbart
writer = George Axelrod (play)
Harry Kurnitz
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starring = Debbie Reynolds
Tony Curtis
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released = 1964
runtime = 116 minutes
country = USA
language = English
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imdb_id = 0058154

"Goodbye Charlie" is a 1964 comedy film about a callous womanizer who gets his just reward. It was adapted from George Axelrod's play "Goodbye, Charlie" and starred Debbie Reynolds and Tony Curtis.

The play also provided the basis for "Switch", with Ellen Barkin and Jimmy Smits.

Plot summary

Charlie Sorrel is shot and killed by Sir Leopold Sartori (Walter Matthau) when he is caught fooling around with Sartori's wife. Later, passerby Bruce Minton III (Pat Boone) comes to the aid of a dazed woman (Debbie Reynolds) wandering on a beach. She doesn't remember much other than directions to Charlie's residence.

The next morning, it all comes back to her: she is the reincarnation of Charlie. After getting over the shock, she convinces her best (and only) friend, George Tracy (Tony Curtis), of her identity. All manner of complications arise as she first accepts the situation and then decides to take advantage of it, with Tracy's reluctant help.

Charlie has changed his sex, but he cannot change his ways, and eventually he gets murdered again ... only to be reincarnated one more time: as a dog.

Differences from the play

The film version of "Goodbye Charlie" has a brief prologue showing the male incarnation of Charlie Sorrell committing the flirtation which causes his murder and his reincarnation as a woman. George Axelrod's stage play "Goodbye Charlie", which opened on Broadway in December 1959 and ran briefly into 1960, does not include this prologue and Charlie is played throughout by Lauren Bacall. Debbie Reynolds was a surprising choice for the film version, since she and Bacall have vastly different screen personas.

imilarities to other plays

In 1952, Matthau (Charlie's murderer) had briefly starred on Broadway with Leueen MacGrath in another comedy about reincarnation, "Fancy Meeting You Again". Like "Goodbye Charlie", this play also ends with a character dying (Matthau this time) and coming back as a dog.