[Sweet Charity] is Bob Fosse's first film as a director, and the result is breathtaking…. [While] one would expect the staging of the musical numbers to be exceptional I wasn't prepared for the instinctive and sensitively imaginative way Fosse works with film as a visual medium. He shows more understanding of images and technique than any director of a musical before. (p. 39)

Sweet Charity represents the Hollywood musical at its very best, and is possibly the greatest one. Inventive, invigorating, fresh, never letting up for one moment, it makes [Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins's] West Side Story seem very unsatisfying in retrospect; though the latter had a brilliant score, visually it lacked the dynamic impact which Fosse achieves. For Fosse, Sweet Charity is a great achievement…. By the time the flower children arrive, the cinema is almost awash—and that is a remarkable thing these days. (p. 40)

Robin...