Wonderland Burlesque's
Let's All Go To The Movies
Say Gay Edition, Part VI
Boys Will Be Girls Pt. 2
And, yes... I know there's a lot missing, but my attention span isn't much these days, so I tend to go for low hanging fruit and the most obvious suspects. Also, I've taken the liberty of lumping a couple of the franchise films together for the sake of continuity and saving space (and due to laziness.)
Part deux of Boys Will Be Girls is a lot more fun that part uno, because we actually get to see some positive portrayals of LGBTQ+ folk and a move toward mainstream acceptance. Not that we still don't get to play cold-blooded killers, but, hey... I'd like to think we get to do it in better heels!
Enjoy!
Pink Flamingos
It's scentsational!
(Songs in the film were written by Deborah Harry of Blondie with various collaborators. One of the songs is sung by Tab Hunter, while another is sung by Bill Murray. Punk rocker Stiv Bators of The Dead Boys and Lords Of The New Church fame appears as Bo-Bo Belsinger.)
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Every nightmare has a beginning... this one never ends.
Tootsie
"What do you get when you cross a hopelessly straight, starving actor with a dynamite red sequined dress?
"He's Tootsie... She's Dustin Hoffman.
(Patrick Swayze was one of the last actors to audition for Vida. He got the role by strolling around New York dressed as a woman with the director to prove that he could 'pass.')
Revenge Of A Kabuki Actor
AKA: An Actor's Revenge
(1963)
(In this Japanese classic about an onnagata or oyama, a male kabuki actor who plays female roles sets about to avenge the deaths of his mother and father. Like many of the great onnagata, particularly of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the onnagata in this film wears women’s clothes and uses the language and mannerisms of a woman offstage as well as on.)
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(1972)
"An exercise in poor taste."
(Considered a preliminary exponent of abject art, Pink Flamingos is part of what Waters refers to as the 'Trash Trilogy', which includes 1974's Female Trouble and 1977's Desperate Living. Shot on a budget of only $10,000, Pink Flamingos introduced a use of color dubbed as the 'Baltimore aesthetic' by art students at Providence.)
"Repulsive films ever made."
"It has to be seen to be believed."
(The trailer set used in the film operated like a hippie commune. The cast and crew were housed in a nearby farmhouse without hot water. Divine, notorious for demanding high standards and comfort, opted to sleep at actress Susan Lowe's home in Baltimore, waking before dawn to apply makeup before being driven to the set.)
"Is this 'woman' the filthiest person alive?"
"Tarred, feathered and shot in weirdo feud."
"Sex change operation paid for by welfare."
"Get ready for a vile evening."
(The film was initially banned in Switzerland and Australia, as well as in some provinces in Canada and Norway. A sequel, titled Flamingos Forever was planned, with Troma Entertainment set to finance the picture. However, it never came to fruition because Divine refused to be involved, feeling that to appear in such a film would hurt his career, and due to the death of Edith Massey in 1984.)
Female Trouble
(1974)
"Divine and Edy with the Pink Flamingos gang in..."
(Waters dedicated the film to Manson Family member Charles 'Tex' Watson. Waters visited Watson in prison on a regular basis. Their conversations inspired the 'crime is beauty' theme of the film. In the film's opening credits, Waters includes images of a wooden toy helicopter which Watson made for him.)
(The original working title of the film was Rotten Mind, Rotten Face, but Waters changed it because he didn't want to risk having hostile film critics use the headline 'Rotten Mind, Rotten Face, Rotten Movie.')
"About this X: Preview audiences have indicated that Female Trouble includes scenes of extraordinary perversity. The distributor therefore wishes to caution the potential viewer that Female Trouble may be seen as morally and sexually offensive."
Polyester
(1981)
(Polyester satirizes female melodramas from the 1940's and 1950's, in particular, those directed by Douglas Sirk whose work with Lana Turner directly influenced Waters' film. It is also a send up of suburban life in the early 1980's.)
(In a stylistic tribute to the films of William Castle, whose films typically featured some sort of attention-grabbing gimmick. Polyester employed one called Odorama, whereby viewers could smell what they see on screen using scratch and sniff cards.)
"Filmed in Odorama."
(The film marked a departure for Waters; it was his first film to flirt with mainstream success. It even managed to garner an R rating, another first for Waters.)
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Rocky Horror Picture Show
(1975)
"Give yourself over to absolute pleasure."
(Everybody's favorite glam science fiction/B movie parody featuring the world's most beloved transvestite.)
(Filmed in the UK, on a soundstage and an actual manor (in a state of disrepair) which had appeared in a number of Hammer Films. The film also included a number of props from that famed studio, for example: the tank and dummy was originally used in 1958's The Revenge Of Frankenstein. Initial reaction was extremely negative, however, once it hit the midnight circuit and audience participation was thrown into the mix it slowly became a cult sensation.)
"He's the hero - that's right, the hero!!"
(Based on the stage musical written by actor Richard O'Brien, its original working title was They Came From Denton High. The film featured many members from the original cast, though 20th Century insisted that the roles of Janet and Brad be recast using American actors. Make-up artist to the stars, Pierre La Roche - Mick Jagger and David Bowie - was brought on board to redesign the make-up for each character.)
(The Rocky Horror Picture Show is considered to be the longest-running release in film history.)
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"Action packed. Lotsa larfs & sex. Gorgeous gals. Thrills & chills. Transylvanian. Parties. Romance."
"Plus 18 great songs."
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La Cage Aux Folles
(1978)
"The comedy that comes out of the closet!"
(Based on Jean Poiret's 1973 play of the same name, the film version was considered a commercial success, becoming one of the highest-grossing foreign-language films released in the United States of all time. It it went on to win a Golden Globe for Best Foreign film and received three Oscar nominations.)
"Birds of a feather."
(The original film inspired two sequels, a Broadway musical with music by Jerry Herman and, most regrettably, the Nathan Lane/Robin Williams travesty, The Birdcage.)
La Cage Aux Folles II
"...the relationship continues."
(A spy caper.)
La Cage Aux Folles 3
The Wedding
"The good news is they inherit a fortune if they marry."
"The bad news is they have 15 months to have a baby."
(And that pretty much sums up the whole movie!)
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Can't Stop The Music
(1980)
"The movie musical event of the 80's."
(I had to include this because it is my favorite kind of drag. And, no, I don't mean Kaitlyn. So much coke, so little good taste. The dirt on this film could fill a coffee table-sized book.)
(By 1980, the bloom was off this rose. Disco had been declared dead and The Village People were just starting to feel the pinch. That didn't stop Alan Carr, who had just enjoyed a huge success with his film version of the musical Grease, from creating this little gem. Think of it as disco's cinematic kiss of death. Originally titled Discoland... Where the Music Never Ends - not only did it end, it also died.)
(Directed by Rhoda's mom - Nancy Walker, one of my all-time favorite lesbians. It stands as her one and only film directing credit and for good reason. Valerie Perrine and Nancy Walker did not get along, to the point that Walker refused to direct the actress and let her cinematographer take care of all of the actress' scenes.)
(Ray Simpson's role was originally intended for Victor Willis, the original lead singer of the Village People who left the group during pre-production of this film.)
(Olivia Newton John was in talks to play Valerie Perrine's role, but it all fell apart when songwriter and Village People creator Jacques Morali refused to allow John Farrar, ONJ's manager, to write her songs. So, she signed on to do Xanadu instead. Yes, that other nail in the coffin of disco.)
(This was to be the first of a three film deal Carr had signed with EMI. The other two films? A movie version of the musical Chicago and The Josephine Baker Story starring... Diana Ross. When Can't Stop The Music stopped dead in its tracks? The other films were cancelled.)
(Carr took a hands-on role with the production, and 'personally' directed and cast the male athlete extras for the YMCA musical sequence!)
(While it bombed in the US, the soundtrack fared much better elsewhere - going #1 in Australia, where the movie was also a big hit, and #6 in the UK.)
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Dressed To Kill
(1980)
"Brian De Palma, master of the macabre, invites you to a showing of the latest fashion... in murder."
(While stylistically alluring, the film is often deemed little more than a rip-off of Alfred Hitchcock's work. The Hitchcock comparisons are apt, since the film actually contains several direct references to 1960's Psycho.)
(Director De Palma originally wanted Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann to play Kate Miller, but she declined because of all the violence. The role then went to Angie Dickinson. Sean Connery was offered the role of Robert Elliot and was enthusiastic about it, but had to decline due to previous commitments.)
(The film led to controversy and protests upon its release. Women's groups throughout the nation picketed the film, due to its theme of violence against women as entertainment. And the transgender community also took issue with the film repeating the tired trope that all transgender people are psychopathic killers and mentally-ill sexual predators.)
(Angie Dickenson is to this film what Janet Leigh is to Psycho and Drew Barrymore to Scream.)
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(1982)
"This Christmas everyone will know that she's Dustin Hoffman... and he's Tootsie.
"This is a hell of a way to make a living."
(Dustin Hoffman stars as the least convincing woman ever. He basically plays his perfectionist, controlling, self-involved self with a wig on his head.)
(In the early 1970s, Don McGuire's play, Would I Lie to You?, about an unemployed male actor who cross-dresses to get jobs was shopped around Hollywood for several years until it came to the attention of comedian and actor Buddy Hackett in 1978. Interested in playing the talent agent, Hackett showed producer Evans the script. Evans purchased an option on the play, but production delays found him renewing the option more than once. The lead role was offered to Peter Sellers and Michael Caine, but neither was interested. A working script had been cobbled together and shown to Dustin Hoffman, Hoffman was interested, but wanted complete creative control, And Evans, who had been working on the script with two other screenwriters, agreed, moving into the role of producer. The film went through three directors before it a single frame was shot.)
"You get America's hottest new actress."
(It ended up being the most profitable film of 1982 and was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Jessica Lange was the only winner, walking away with the Best Supporting Actress award.)
"Desperate, he took a female role and became a star!"
(Marks the film debut of the lovely Gena Davis.)
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Torch Song Trilogy
"It takes a lot of guts and a helluva sense of humor to live life in Arnold's shoes."
(A two-hour film adaptation by Harvey Fierstein from his four-hour play of the same name, featuring the most unlikely gay couple in all of film history.)
(Broderick originally turned down the role of Alan because he was recuperating from an automobile accident in Ireland which had resulted in the deaths of two women. So, Tate Donovan was cast, but two days into the rehearsals, Broderick changed his mind. Fierstein then fired Donovan.)
(The original play was inspired by the work of legendary female impersonator Charles Pierce.)
(The song This Time the Dream's On Me, sung by Ella Fitzgerald, is featured prominently throughout the film including the closing credits. However, when it came to the soundtrack album, Norman Granz, Fitzgerald's long-time manager invoked a a coupling clause which gave Fitzgerald the right to refuse for her material to appear on any album featuring another artist. This was done out of spite. Seems Granz was deeply unsatisfied with the money offered by PolyGram Records to use the song in the film.)
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The Crying Game
(1992)
(Jordan originally drafted the screenplay in the mid-eighties, but shelved it when a similar film appeared. Dil was originally to be a cis-gender female but, Jordan decided to make the character transgender at the premiere of his 1991 film The Miracle.)
(He struggled for years to secure sufficient funding and the filming process was fraught with financial difficulties. Money was so tight, the costumer had Jaye Davidson wear some of her own clothes, as the two happen to be the same size.)
(The film initially bombed, floundering until Miramax decided to promote it in the US, where it became a sleeper hit. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Director and went on to become a worldwide success.)
(Director Derek Jarman brought Davidson, who had never acted before, to Jordan's attention. Davidson was discovered by a talent agent at the premier party of one of Jarman's films.)
(Davidson would only appear in one additional major role, playing the villainous Ra in the film version of Stargate. After that? He walked away from the industry, stating he didn't enjoy the attention fame generated.)
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Priscilla Queen Of The Desert
(1994)
(A surprise worldwide hit, the film, with its positive portrayals of LGBT folk, introduced mainstream audiences to LGBT themes. Yes... for once, it was fun to be gay. Easy? No. Fun? Yes.)
(Because of the involvement of the Australian FCC, only one non-Australian could appear in the the film. Producer Al Clark initially wanted David Bowie, whom he'd known during the 80's and John Hurt, but neither was available.)
(Tony Curtis was their first choice for the role of Bernadette. The actor read and approved of the script, but proved unavailable. John Cleese was offered the role, but had no interest. Tim Curry was being considered, but Terence Stamp got the nod instead.)
(They wanted Rupert Everett for the role of Tick and Jason Donovan for Adam. However, it became evident at a pre-production casting meeting held at Cannes that Everett and Donovan despised one another and both were openly hostile toward the production staff. The production team then unsuccessfully lobbied Colin Firth to play the role which eventually went to Hugo Weaving. And, at the last minute, the role of Adam went to Australian actor Guy Pearce.)
"Finally a comedy that will change the way you think, the way you feel and, most importantly, the way you dress."
(Its soundtrack was a huge success and the film won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.)
(But not all was feather boas and red roses. The did come under criticism for alleged racist and sexist elements, particularly when it came to the portrayal of the Filipina character, Cynthia.)
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To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar
(1995)
"Attitude Is Everything."
(While not critically as successful as it's predecessor, this film made three times as much at the box office as Priscilla Queen Of The Desert. It was number one at the box office in the United States for its first two weeks in theaters.)
(Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo both immediately said 'yes.' Many actors were considered for the role of Vida Boheme, including Robert Downey Jr., William Baldwin, Gary Oldman, Matthew Broderick, James Spader, John Cusack, Mel Gibson, Robert Sean Leonard, Willem Dafoe, John Turturro, Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe, Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, and Robin Williams.)
(Patrick Swayze was one of the last actors to audition for Vida. He got the role by strolling around New York dressed as a woman with the director to prove that he could 'pass.')
(I have really strong opinions about this film. Stockard Channing and the supporting cast are wonderful. John Leguizamo absolutely brings it. Wesley Snipes, on the other hand, spends the entire film walking around as if to say, "Hey, look. I'm Welsley Snipes trying to be a woman. I am a dude. Gee, high heels are hard to walk in!" And I don't buy Swayze for one second; he's stiff, boring and is dressed all wrong for his body type. And the story is so hackneyed it feels like it was written on a box of corn flakes. Yep. Hated it.)
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And that's all for now.
Tune in next time...
Same time, same channel!
You Can't Stop The Music - The Village People
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