Hairspray (1988 film) film version of "Hairspray", an adaptation of the stage musical, was also released by New Line Cinema in 2007, which included many changes of scripted items from the original. In Baltimore, Maryland in the year 1962, Tracy Turnblad and her best friend, Penny Pingleton, audition for "The Corny Collins Show", a popular Baltimore teenage dance show (based on the real-life "Buddy Deane Show"). Penny is too nervous and stumbles over her answers, and another girl, Nadine, is cut for being black (the show has a "Negro Day" on the last Thursday of every month, she is told). However, despite being
Spencer Tracy film garnered Tracy some of the strongest reviews of his career—he was nominated for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award for the performance—but it was not a commercial hit. In the volcano disaster movie "The Devil at 4 O'Clock" (1961), Tracy played a priest for the fourth time in his career. His co-star, Frank Sinatra, ceded top-billing to guarantee Tracy for the picture. Continuing his pattern of indecisiveness, Tracy briefly pulled out of the production before recommitting. Critics were unenthusiastic about the film, which was nevertheless Tracy's most successful box office outing since "Father of the Bride".