Xanadu (film) actual order in the film: The plot of the 1947 film "Down to Earth" was used as the basis for "Xanadu". In the film, Rita Hayworth played Terpsichore, opposite male lead Larry Parks, who played a producer of stage plays. The film was originally conceived as a relatively low-budget roller disco picture. As a number of prominent, A-list performers joined the production, it evolved into a much larger project, while retaining rollerskating as a recurring theme, especially in the final scenes of the club's opening night. Earlier versions of the story established that Sonny was the artist who created the
Xanadu (film) foreground. With a combination of contemporaneous and modern reviews, "Xanadu" today holds a "Rotten" rating of 38% from the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The German television show "Die schlechtesten Filme aller Zeiten" (in English "The worst movies of all time"), in which the hosts Oliver Kalkofe and Peter Rütten present a bad movie in each episode, featured the movie in its third season. Janet Maslin wrote in her review "Like "The Wiz"..."Xanadu" is desperately stylish without having any real style." A double feature of "Xanadu" and another musical released at about the same time, "Can't Stop the Music", inspired