GREASE (1978) **1/2 Apparently, back in the old days, high school students were much older. No one that could pass for a pensioner, but a couple of these guys must have failed at least ten years running. No matter, there are far more important issues to consider: despite a catchy pop number or two this could have easily been one of the worst films in the history of mankind were it not for John Travolta's beyond-all-boundaries camp body movements (what's he doing? gay Elvis? ex-lax desperado without a commode? laugh if you want, he gets to kiss Oliva Newton-John). The question remains: did he do it on purpose, or was it someone's (Randall Kleiser) idea of good? No matter, it's very funny, and executed with a smile so winning that even schlocky schmaltz of this magnitude can be...not overlooked or enjoyed certainly, but tolerated. A cartoon in the formative phase, it couldn't have possibly turned out to be more of one. Still, it was a generational landmark, a cross-generational landmark. Me, I had no idea why we should be sentimental about the fifties, when we were the seventies, and so clearly so much cooler. Others gave it less thought (as it demanded), and just enjoyed it for the strange energies like the closing glory & sillifest. Were the fifties even like this? It seems likely to those of us who weren't there. So, like so much in life, even the fifties was fun if you let it. Jeff Conaway is even better than he would be in TV's “Taxi,” though obviously it wasn't possible for Alice Ghostley to improve on her work in “Bewitched” in this particular milieu.