Saturday Night Fever

1 9 7 7 (USA)

This film both capitalized on, and helped to create, the disco craze, and propelled little-known TV actor John Travolta into movie stardom.

Based on British-born writer Nik Cohn's short story The Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night, this is the story of Tony Manero (Travolta), a 19-year old-Brooklyn boy with a dead end job. Most of the week he's a nobody but on Saturday night he is top dog at the local disco. He sees his chance to 'make it' across the bridge to Manhattan in the disco's upcoming dance contest.

The Brooklyn scenes have a gritty reality and the dance scenes are electrifying. The score featured songs by the (at the time) hugely popular Bee Gees - In the four shopping days between Christmas 1977 and the New Year, the soundtrack album sold 750, 000 copies in America alone.

Sylvester Stallone directed Travolta in a sequel called Staying Alive but the film was a disappointment. Saturday Night Fever was ultimately lampooned in the Hollywood mainstream in films like Airplane! and in British TV comedies like The Goodies.