I’ve always loved this movie, it suffers a bit from being more than thirty years old, but I still have love for it. The music is beautiful, Swayze is so handsome, the story is sweet, and most importantly the message is as current as ever because people are still the same and probably won’t ever change. It’s very much real when Baby towards the end has her talk with her father, telling him that maybe yes, she did disappoint him, but he did it too because he always told her that people are all the same, but he really meant people like him, and he told her to save the world and help the people, but he only meant to go to Harvard and get married. That’s so true.
The story actually occurs in the summer of 1963. Baby goes on vacation with her family but is still young enough to think nothing of being called Baby by everyone. Her sister is vain, her mom elegant, her father more like her. They’re ‘good people’. The waiters are all college boys with orders to entertain all the girls, while ‘the entertainment guys’ can only dance and teach but are treated like sub-standards. Baby is fascinated by them and goes to see them dancing when they are among themselves and free to dance without reserve in whatever way they want. She dances a bit with Johnny.
One night she sees Penny the dancer crying, so she runs to tell Johnny’s cousin Billy who calls him of course. Billy tells Baby that Penny’s pregnant and she thinks Johnny’s the father. He’s not pleased.
He cares for her but they’re not a couple. He takes care of her. Robbie got her pregnant, the waiter that now flirts with her sister. He knows about it but doesn’t care and won’t help her. Baby tries to talk with him but he’s a jerk.
Baby asks her dad for money, 250$, but can’t tell him it’s for Penny’s abortion. She gives it to Penny as soon as she has it, but Penny doesn’t want her money. Well, I guess Johnny convinced her to accept it, because they go through with it.
Still, the ‘doctor’ can only come the night they have a big mambo dance at another hotel, so they convince Johnny to teach Baby the moves and she practices a lot and gets better at it quickly. She’s also having lots of fun and Johnny’s so very cute and charming. They also spend lots of time trying to make her ‘jump’, so he can lift her up high.
She becomes friends with Penny too. She finally does the dance with Johnny and it goes well, but she doesn’t do the lift. When they’re back they learn things didn’t go well, Penny’s unwell, the guy that worked on her wasn’t a real doctor, or a very bad one, so Baby runs to get her father. She wakes him up, takes his bag and carries it for him to Penny. He heals her. Johnny says that he’s ‘responsible’ for Penny so of course Baby’s dad thinks he’s the father, and forbids her to see him again. Baby goes straight back to Johnny though, and confesses she has feelings for him, and they dance together. Her dad would like to leave right away but his family don’t agree so they stay for the weekend’s final show. Penny understands there’s something between Johnny and Baby and tells him to stop, but he keeps seeing her and sleeps with her. Frances is her real name.
Her sister tells her she wants to do it with Robbie, and Baby is worried about her.
Baby tells Johnny to fight harder for his ideas, but then she hides not wanting her father to see them together, and he takes offence. Robbie sees them together and has rude words for her, and Johnny fights him.
A rich woman (one of the rich women Johnny feels used by) is not pleased when he refuses her husband’s money to give her private lessons while he’s busy. Baby’s sister Lisa goes to Robbie to spend the night together but finds him in bed with another woman - lucky for her, I tell you.
It appears there’s been a wallet stolen and Johnny is blamed for it. Baby tells the boss Johnny’s innocent because he was with her all night that night, so he could not have stolen anything, but then he is fired for being with her.
Baby has the talk with her father saying some very true things. It turns out it really was the old couple Baby thought it was, who stole wallets. Johnny must leave and it’s a heartfelt goodbye.
The final night, all the dancing staff is down because Johnny is not with them.
Baby’s dad gives Robbie some money for his medical school, but takes it back when he unwittingly admits he got Penny pregnant then abandoned her. He thought Baby had told her father.
Johnny comes back, he sees Baby, says “nobody puts Baby in a corner”, takes her hand and goes on stage to dance with her. She follows him without even knowing what he wants to do.
They do their dance, their mambo of course, then he gets all the dancers involved and Baby does the lift. Then the dancers get all the guests to dance and the boss can see people like this ‘new way’.
Lisa dances with Billy and everyone is dancing. Baby’s dad tells her she was wonderful and they’re all at peace.
Everybody dances to “I’ve had the time of my life”
Baby Houseman - Jennifer Grey
Johnny Castle - Patrick Swayze
Jake - Jerry Orbach
Penny - Cynthia Rhodes
Lisa - Jane Brucker
Marge - Kelly Bishop
Robbie - Max Cantor
Billy - Neal Jones
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