Annie is a 1982 American musical comedy-drama film based on the 1977 Broadway musical of the same name by Charles Strouse, Martin Charnin and Thomas Meehan, which in turn is based on the Little Orphan Annie comic strip created by Harold Gray. Directed by John Huston and written by Carol Sobieski, it stars Albert Finney, Carol Burnett, Bernadette Peters, Ann Reinking, Tim Curry, Geoffrey Holder, Edward Herrmann, and Aileen Quinn in her film debut as the title character. It is the first film adaptation of the musical.
Set during the Great Depression in 1933, the film tells the story of Annie, an orphan from New York City who is taken in by America's richest billionaire, Oliver Warbucks. Principal photography took place for six weeks at Monmouth University in 1981.
Produced by Ray Stark's Rastar and released by Columbia Pictures on May 21, 1982, Annie received mixed reviews from film critics and grossed $57 million on a $35 million budget. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Song Score and its Adaptation. A television film sequel, titled Annie: A Royal Adventure!, was released in 1995. It was followed by three additional adaptations of the musical. In their first film collaboration, Disney and Columbia Pictures produced a second film adaptation made-for-television in 1999. Columbia released a third film adaptation on December 19, 2014. A fourth adaptation, which was a live production of the musical, was performed on December 2, 2021, on NBC.
Plot
In 1933 during the Great Depression, a young orphan named Annie is living in the Hudson Street Orphanage in New York City. It is run by Agatha Hannigan, a cruel alcoholic who forces the orphans to clean the building daily. With half of a locket as her only possession, Annie remains optimistic that her parents, who left her on the doorstep as a baby, will return for her. One evening, Annie sneaks out with help from laundry man, Mr. Bundles, adopting a stray dog which she names Sandy. However, she is escorted back to the orphanage by Weasel, a policeman.
Grace Farrell, secretary to billionaire Oliver Warbucks, arrives to invite an orphan to live with Warbucks for a week, to improve his public image. Annie is chosen and she and Sandy travel to Warbucks' mansion, meeting his many servants and two bodyguards, Punjab and the Asp. Warbucks, at first dismissive of Annie due to her being female, is charmed into letting her stay. He takes Annie and Grace to Radio City Music Hall to watch a movie, Camille, and Warbucks begins to develop affection for Annie. Grace urges him to adopt Annie and he meets with Miss Hannigan, convincing her to sign the adoption papers.
Warbucks reveals his plans to Annie, even offering her a new locket, but she declines. She explains the purpose of her broken locket and her hope that her parents will return with the other half. Warbucks appears on Bert Healy's radio show and offers $50,000 to find Annie's parents. This causes mass hysteria with many would-be parents appearing to claim the money. To escape the madness, Warbucks flies Annie to the White House in Washington, D.C., introducing her to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor. Roosevelt informs them of his plan to introduce a social welfare program to help America's impoverished and asks Warbucks to head it; Annie encourages him to help. Upon returning home, Annie is disheartened when Grace reveals none of the potential parents knew about the locket.
Hannigan is visited by her con artist brother Rooster and his girlfriend, Lily St. Regis; they plot to pose as Annie's parents to gain the reward. The trio searches the orphans' belongings and Hannigan reveals that Annie's real parents were killed in a fire when Annie was a baby. Hannigan herself possesses the other half of the locket. Annie's friends overhear the conversation and try sneaking out, but are discovered and locked away. Rooster and Lily succeed with the ruse, and Annie's departure from Warbucks is somber. She is kidnapped minutes after they leave the mansion, but her friends, having managed to escape, ultimately reach Warbucks and tell him the truth; shocked and stunned, he informs the police, beginning a city-wide search.
Annie convinces the felons to pull over only to escape and destroy Warbucks' check. Outraged, Rooster chases Annie up a raised drawbridge planning to kill her. Horrified by her brother's intentions, Hannigan desperately tries to stop him but he knocks her unconscious. Punjab arrives in a helicopter and rescues Annie. Rooster and Lily are arrested and Annie is adopted by Grace and Warbucks.
At a party that the orphans, a redeemed Hannigan, and the Roosevelts attend, Warbucks gives Annie the new locket as they embrace.
Cast Aileen Quinn as Annie, a 10-year-old orphan girl. Quinn was chosen out of 9,000 girls who were interviewed at casting calls in the United States, Canada and Europe. Albert Finney as Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks, a billionaire businessman who adopts Annie and Molly. Sean Connery and Cary Grant were also considered for the role before Finney was chosen. Carol Burnett as Miss Agatha Hannigan, a cruel alcoholic proprietor of an all-girls orphanage where Annie and the other orphans live. She is shown to create bathtub gin and engage in other illegal activities such as child abuse. Bette Midler was considered for the role before Burnett was chosen. Ann Reinking as Grace Farrell, Warbucks's personal secretary and love interest. Tim Curry as Daniel Francis "Rooster" Hannigan, Miss Hannigan's sociopathic con-artist younger brother. Jack Nicholson, Mickey Rooney, Mick Jagger, and Steve Martin were considered for the role before Curry was chosen. Bernadette Peters as Lily St. Regis, a petty thief and co-conspirator girlfriend of "Rooster" Hannigan. Edward Herrmann as Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, depicted as being in a wheelchair. Lois de Banzie as Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady of the United States. Geoffrey Holder as Punjab, Warbucks's turban-donning bodyguard. Roger Minami as The Asp, Warbucks's Japanese chauffeur and bodyguard who teaches Annie karate. Toni Ann Gisondi as Molly, a fellow orphan who is six years old. Rosanne Sorrentino as Pepper, a 14-year-old fellow orphan who commands others, but then becomes nicer. Lara Berk as Tessie, a fellow orphan who is eight years old and exclaims, "Oh my goodness!" throughout the film. April Lerman as Kate, an orphan who is thirteen years old, cares for the younger orphans, and often wears her hair in pigtail braids. Robin Ignico as Duffy, an eleven year old fellow orphan who is Pepper's best friend. Lucie Stewart as July, a fellow orphan who is nine years old and rarely speaks. Peter Marshall as Bert Healy, a prominent radio show host. Loni Ackerman, Murphy Cross, and Nancy Sinclair as the Boylan Sisters, who sing on the Bert Healy Show. Larry Hankin as the man from the dog pound. Irving Metzman as Mr. Bundles, a man who works for a Chinese laundry company, whose truck Annie stows away in. Mr. Bundles is implied to be a romantic interest of Miss Hannigan. Ken Swofford as Weasel, a greasy uniformed police officer who chases down Annie when she escapes. He is based on Lt. Ward from the musical and is implied to be a romantic interest of Miss Hannigan. I. M. Hobson as Drake, Warbucks's head butler who hides his allergy to dogs. Colleen Zenk and Pamela Blair as Cecille and Annette, Warbucks's French maids. Lu Leonard as Mrs. Pugh, Warbucks's cook. Mavis Ray as Mrs. Greer, Warbucks's housekeeper. The Rockettes as Themselves (uncredited). Bingo the dog as Sandy, a stray dog who becomes the family pet. Angela Martin as Freda McKracky, a ventriloquist who performs with a dummy named Wacky. Kari Baca, Tina Maria Caspary, Jamie Flowers, Sonja Haney, Victoria Hartman, Janet Marie Jones, Lisa Kieldrup, Angela Lee, Jan Mackie, Liz Marsh, Martika, Cherie Michan, Danielle Miller, Barry Morse, Christi Nicholls, Tammy O'Rourke, Amanda Peterson, Carolyn Poppert, Meredith Salenger, Linda Saputo, Shawnee Smith, and Julie Whitman as orphans/backup dancers.
Director John Huston has a voice-over cameo on a radio program Miss Hannigan listens to. Ray Bolger plays a foley artist at a Bert Healy radio event.
Production Following the stage musical in 1977, the writers of the stage play asked $5 million for the rights and requested Mike Nichols to direct the film, After winning a bidding war with Paramount Pictures, Columbia purchased the rights to the Broadway musical for a record $9.5 million. Film producer Ray Stark wanted both John Huston and Joe Layton (while working as the director and choreographer, respectively) to also be the executive producers on the film, because it was too large an enterprise for one person. Regarding Huston being given the job of directing the first (and what would be the only) musical in his 40-year directing career, screenwriter Carol Sobieski stated: "Hiring John [Huston] is an outsider risk, and Ray's [Stark] a major gambler. He loves this kind of high risk situation."Turan, Kenneth. "Annie" , The New York Times, p. SM 40, May 2, 1982. The film cost over $35 million, with some suggesting it cost as much as $59 million after marketing and distribution, making it one of the most expensive films at the time, and the most expensive project financed by Columbia Pictures up to that point.
Casting Auditions for the title role took place all over the United States, Canada and Europe. Quinn was chosen out of 9,000 girls who were interviewed at casting calls. Among young hopefuls included Drew Barrymore, and Kristin Chenoweth, who would subsequently be cast in the role of Lily in the 1999 film. Sean Connery and Cary Grant were considered for the role of Oliver Warbucks, before Albert Finney was chosen. Bette Midler was considered for the role of Miss Hannigan, before Burnett was chosen. Jack Nicholson, Mickey Rooney, Mick Jagger, and Steve Martin were considered for the role of Rooster before Tim Curry was chosen.
Writing Sobieski, who wrote the screenplay, introduced major differences between the stage musical and the film adaptation. In the stage musical, it is Christmas when Miss Agatha Hannigan, Rooster Hannigan and Lily St. Regis are caught at the Warbucks mansion by the United States Secret Service thus foiling their plan to kidnap Annie, while in the film (due to summertime shooting) Annie (Aileen Quinn) is kidnapped and on the eve of the Fourth of July, leading to Oliver Warbucks (Albert Finney) organizing a citywide search and a climactic ending on the Former Erie Railroad Bridge. Punjab and The Asp, Warbucks' servants/bodyguards from the original comic strip, appear in the film in supporting roles played by Geoffrey Holder and Roger Minami.
Miss Hannigan (Carol Burnett)'s redemption at the end in which she tries to save Annie from Rooster (Tim Curry) changed the usual ending of the musical to that date. In the stage musical, Miss Hannigan is always portrayed as fully aware that Rooster intends to kill Annie, and is arrested with Rooster and Lily at the end at Warbucks' mansion. In Thomas Meehan's 1980 novelization, Miss Hannigan shows no qualms whatsoever about Annie being killed.
The film also featured five new songs, "Dumb Dog", "Sandy", "Let's Go to the Movies", "Sign" and "We Got Annie", and cut "We'd like to Thank You, Herbert Hoover", "N.Y.C", "You Won't Be an Orphan for Long", "Something Was Missing", "Annie" and "New Deal for Christmas". In addition, the song "Maybe" has two reprises whereas "Little Girls" and "Easy Street" do not.