9 to 5 (film)


9 to 5 is a 1980 American comedy film produced by Bruce Gilbert, story by Patricia Resnick, screenplay by Resnick and Colin Higgins, and directed by Higgins. It stars Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton as three working women who live out their fantasies of getting even with, and their overthrow of, the company's autocratic, "sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot" boss, played by Dabney Coleman.
The film grossed over $103.9 million and is the 20th-highest-grossing comedy film. As a star vehicle for Parton—already established as a successful singer, musician and songwriter—it launched her permanently into mainstream popular culture. A television series of the same name based on the film ran for five seasons, and a musical version of the film, with new songs written by Parton, opened on Broadway on April 30, 2009.
9 to 5 is number 74 on the American Film Institute's "100 Funniest Movies" and has an 82% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

Plot

Judy Bernly is forced to find work after her husband, Dick, runs off with his secretary. She finds employment as a secretary at Consolidated Companies. Her opportunistic boss, Franklin Hart Jr., exploits and mistreats his female subordinates with backstabbing and sexist remarks; he takes credit for ideas from his senior office supervisor Violet Newstead, cruelly yells at and threatens to fire Judy on her first day after an equipment malfunction, and sexually harasses Doralee Rhodes, his secretary, spreading rumors about an affair that never happened.
Violet discovers that a promotion she was hoping to receive was instead given to a man because of sexist hiring practices and confronts Hart about it. Doralee likewise takes Hart to task over the rumors he has been spreading. After one of Judy's co-workers is fired by Hart due to an unfair workplace policy, Judy joins the two women in storming out of the office and head to a local bar, where Violet produces a marijuana joint and suggests they have "an old-fashioned ladies' pot party". The three women smoke and bond over fantasies of getting revenge on their boss. The following day, Hart hits his head when he falls out of his desk chair. Violet, mistakenly thinking he is being taken to the hospital because of rat poison that she'd accidentally spiked his coffee with, rushes to the hospital with Judy and Doralee. They mistake a dead police witness for their boss and steal the body to prevent an autopsy before smuggling it back into the hospital when they discover they've stolen the wrong body.
Hart turns up alive the next morning, much to the shock of Violet, Doralee, and Judy. Hearing word of their shenanigans through his executive assistant, Roz Keith, he demands that Doralee spend the night at his house, threatening to have all three of them prosecuted for attempted murder. They kidnap him and, upon bringing him to his Tudor-style mansion, discover he has been involved in an embezzlement scheme. They must keep Hart tied up at home while they collect evidence on it to blackmail him into silence. The women use Hart's absence to effect numerous changes around the office in his name, including flexible work hours, equal pay for male and female employees, a job-sharing program, and an onsite daycare center for employees with children. Hart is so disliked around the office by male and female employees alike that the only person to question Hart's absence is Roz, whom Violet sends away to Paris for a multi-week language training seminar.
Judy's ex-husband, Dick, comes to ask her to take him back. However, he discovers Hart tied up and jumps to the wrong conclusion about Judy, leading her to shed her meek ways and throw him out. Hart manages to secretly break free and undo the embezzlement, eliminating the leverage that the three women had over him and giving him the upper hand to prosecute them. Although Hart is appalled by the changes that have been made in his absence, an unexpected visit from company chairman Russell Tinsworthy reveals that these changes have led to substantial increases in productivity. Tinsworthy is so impressed that he recruits Hart to work at Consolidated's Brazilian operation for the next few years. A graphic reveals that Violet is later promoted to Hart's job, Judy falls in love with and marries a Xerox representative, Doralee quits Consolidated to become a country and western singer, and Hart is abducted in the Brazilian jungle and never heard from again.

Cast

The film was based on an idea by Jane Fonda, who had recently formed her own production company, IPC. Fonda:
My ideas for films always come from things that I hear and perceive in my daily life... A very old friend of mine had started an organization in Boston called "Nine To Five", which was an association of women office workers. I heard them talking about their work and they had some great stories. And I've always been attracted to those 1940s films with three female stars.

Fonda says the film was at first going to be a drama, but "any way we did it, it seemed too preachy, too much of a feminist line. I'd wanted to work with Lily for some time, and it suddenly occurred to Bruce and me that we should make it a comedy."
Patricia Resnick wrote the first draft drama, and Fonda cast herself, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton in the leads, the last in her first film role.
Then Colin Higgins came on board to direct and rewrite the script. Part of his job was to make room for all three in the script. Higgins says Jane Fonda was a very encouraging producer, who allowed him to push back production while the script was being rewritten.
"He's a very nice, quiet, low-key guy", said Parton of Higgins. "I don't know what I would have done if I'd had one of those mean directors on my first film."
Higgins admitted "he expected some tension", from working with three stars, "but they were totally professional, great fun and a joy to work with. I just wish everything would be as easy."
"It remains a 'labour film', but I hope of a new kind, different from the Grapes of Wrath or Salt of the Earth", says Fonda. "We took out a lot of stuff that was filmed, even stuff the director, Colin Higgins, thought worked but which I asked to have taken out. I'm just super-sensitive to anything that smacks of the soapbox or lecturing the audience".
Fonda says she did a deal of research, focusing on women who had begun work late in life due to divorce or being widowed.
What I found was that secretaries know the work they do is important, is skilled, but they also know they're not treated with respect. They call themselves "office wives". They have to put gas in the boss's car, get his coffee, buy the presents for his wife and mistress. So when we came to do the film, we said to Colin , OK, what you have to do is write a screenplay which shows you can run an office without a boss, but you can't run an office without the secretaries!

Filming locations

The home of Franklin Hart is located at 10431 Bellagio Road in Bel Air, Los Angeles. According to commentary included in the DVD release of the film, the home was, at the time, owned by the Chandler family, publishers of the Los Angeles Times. The Consolidated offices were presumably in the Pacific Financial Center located at 800 W 6th Street, at South Flower Street in Los Angeles. Although the story appears to be set in Los Angeles, the opening credit montage, set to the title song, is mostly composed of shots from downtown San Francisco. These shots include an electric MUNI bus fitted with a KFOG 104.5 FM advertisement, the Market Street clock, and a brief glimpse of the San Francisco twins, Marian and Vivian Brown.

Soundtrack

Theme song

The film's theme song, "9 to 5", written and recorded by Parton, became one of her biggest hits of the decade. While filming the 9 to 5 movie, Parton found she could use her long acrylic fingernails to simulate the sound of a typewriter. She wrote the song on set by clicking her nails together and forming the beat. The song went to number one for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as the U.S. country singles charts, and was nominated for several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It won the 1981 People's Choice Award for "Favorite Motion Picture Song", and two 1982 Grammy Awards: for "Country Song of the Year" and "Female Country Vocal of the Year". Additionally, it was certified platinum by the RIAA.

Reception

gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and called it "pleasant entertainment, and I liked it, despite its uneven qualities and a plot that's almost too preposterous for the material." Ebert singled out Dolly Parton as "a natural-born movie star" who "contains so much energy, so much life and unstudied natural exuberance that watching her do anything in this movie is a pleasure." Vincent Canby of The New York Times was less enthused, writing, "It's clearly a movie that began as someone's bright idea, which then went into production before anyone had time to give it a well-defined personality."
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4 and wrote, "The most pleasant surprise is the appearance of Dolly Parton, who with this one film establishes herself as a thoroughly engaging movie star. The biggest disappointment is that this Jane Fonda comedy about a trio of secretaries out to get their boss doesn't have more bite... Instead of getting darker and darker, 'Nine to Five' gets lighter and lighter until it loses most of the energy it established so well early on." Variety stated, "Although it can probably be argued that Patricia Resnick and director Colin Higgins' script at times borders on the inane, the bottom line is that this picture is a lot of fun." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film "appears to be an audience pleaser that never misses an intended laugh. However, it strays so far from reality for so long that it threatens to become mired in overly complicated silliness and to lose sight of the serious satirical points it wants to make. Happily, it does pull together for a finish that's as strong as it is funny."
Gary Arnold of The Washington Post thought the film "runs a merely weak comic premise into the ground with coarse, laborious execution." Arnold thought that Dolly Parton was the film's "only reassuring aspect," as she seemed "an instantly likable natural on the movie screen, too." David Ansen of Newsweek called the film "a disappointment... It's not wild or dark enough to qualify as a truly disturbing farce and it's too fanciful and silly to succeed as realistic satire. Politically and esthetically, it's harmless—a mildly amusing romp that tends to get swallowed up by its own overly intricate plot."
Ronald Reagan wrote in his Presidential diary that he and his wife Nancy watched the film on Valentine's Day 1981. He wrote, "Funny—but one scene made me mad. A truly funny scene if the 3 gals had played getting drunk but no they had to get stoned on pot. It was an endorsement of Pot smoking for any young person who sees the picture."
The film holds a score of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 39 reviews. Metacritic gave the film a score of 58 based on 12 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Television series

The film inspired a sitcom version which aired from 1982 to 1983 and from 1986 to 1988. The show, which aired on ABC and in first-run syndication, featured Parton's younger sister, Rachel Dennison, in Parton's role, and Rita Moreno and Valerie Curtin took over Tomlin and Fonda's roles, respectively. In the second version of the show, Sally Struthers replaced Moreno. A total of 85 episodes were filmed.

2009 Broadway musical

In an interview aired September 30, 2005 on Larry King Live, Parton revealed that she was writing the songs for a musical stage adaptation of the film. A private reading of the musical took place on January 19, 2007. Further private presentations were held in New York City in summer 2007.
In early March 2008, Center Theatre Group artistic director Michael Ritchie announced that 9 to 5 would have its pre-Broadway run at the Center's Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles beginning September 21, 2008, with Allison Janney starring as Violet, joined by Stephanie J. Block as Judy, Megan Hilty as Doralee, and Marc Kudisch as Franklin Hart Jr. The book for 9 to 5: The Musical was written by Patricia Resnick, who co-authored the film. Andy Blankenbuehler choreographed the show, and Joe Mantello directed.
According to playbill.com, the musical opened on Broadway at the Marquis Theatre in previews on April 7, 2009, and officially on April 30, 2009. However, due to low ticket sales and gross, the production closed on September 6, 2009. A national tour began in September 2010.

Possible sequel

In the 1980s, Universal developed a sequel with Colin Higgins. Tom Mankiewicz worked on it for a while and says that while Dolly Parton was enthusiastic, Jane Fonda was not and Higgins' heart was not in it.
In a TV interview broadcast on BBC1 in the UK in 2005, the movie's stars Fonda, Tomlin, and Dolly Parton all expressed interest in starring in a sequel. Fonda said if the right script was written she would definitely do it, suggesting a suitable name for a 21st-century sequel would be 24/7. Parton suggested they had better hurry up before they reach retirement age. In the DVD commentary, the three reiterate their enthusiasm; Fonda suggests a sequel should cover outsourcing and they agree Hart would have to return as their nemesis.
In a 2018 interview, Dolly Parton announced that a sequel is in the works to bring the story into a modern-day setting. In July 2018, Jane Fonda also confirmed that a sequel was in the works with herself, Tomlin and Parton returning to their roles as mentors to a new generation of women. Fonda revealed that she is also an executive producer on the project. Rashida Jones and Pat Resnick have been attached to write a script. On October 23, 2018, Fonda reiterated news about the development of a sequel on GMA Day.
On October 30, 2019, Parton announced the sequel had been dropped.

Accolades

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
Wins:
Nominations: