The legend of Leigh Bowery 2002 directed by Charles Atlas

Leigh Bowery was one of those 80s club and fashion legends whose name seems to have been, like too many others, lost because of time and the avalanche of death caused by the AIDS crisis. This movie goes a long way to remedy that and give the current generation a better idea of the world that allowed people like him to flourish, a world that is lost forever it seems.

The 80s were crazy in ways the 60s and 70s were not, they were self-aware and in your face - all things Bowery exemplified. He was outrageous, but his work was his art and he was a true artist. I would put him in the same drawer as Klaus Nomi as they were both outcasts with immense talent that were able to steer their eccentricities into a sort of fame. It's impossible to believe that if they came around today that they would succeed at all in their world of easy offence, nuance and context. Watching this documentary brought back memories of how subjects like Nazism, black face, gay sex and fashion were sometimes combined as a form a parody and the back lash was minimal because we at the time knew the context and intent of what was being presented, but not promoted.

He made the way for some current drag performers and fashionistas but was able to go much farther than they could dream of going.

Thanks to Michael Z. Keamy for finding this complete documentary online.

I Heart The 80s!

The 80s were a magical time for me. As I was entering adulthood, America was entering the information age and we were both going through an awkward phase. How else can you explain this commercial where a porn star not only tries to sell you erotica, but acts as tech support, too?

In Search of Suki Goodwin and The Stick

Two people with two credits each on IMDB who I would LOVE to see now are:

1. Suki Goodwin - The British tart in slasher film HELL NIGHT (1981) who gets murdered before she can enjoy sex with a yummy Vince Van Patten.

Her genius line: "These qualuudes are murder on my skin."



2. "The Stick" - The double-jointed bean-pole comic actor who played nerdy janitor Malvert in the slasher film spoof STUDENT BODIES (1981).

His genius line: "Sometimes Malvert pee blood."



If you know of their whereabouts - please comment - there are surprisingly numerous people who want to find them and would love to know what they are doing 30 years after their big screen glory.

Found Footage Festival! Fab,Freaky & FUN!

This is coming tomorrow to Wilmywood and I'm excited. As a former video vixen (along with DL), I have seen the heights and depths of instructional, informational and inspirational videotapes. These fellas pillage thrift stores and yard sales to bring you the best of the worst...or the worst of the best? Fans of Tim and Eric (AWESOME SHOW! GREAT JOB!) will see some major influences here.




THIS movie is a must-see...(who is that NILF in the pink polo?)

Long Live The New Flesh!

One of my favorite movies is Videodrome, mainly because it deals with the horrors of Cable TV and home taping (on Beta!!!), which are two things that scared 1983 Hollywood more than the average person. Never before has Hollywood so nakedly laid out it's fears for the world to see.

Remembering John Hughes

I frequently talk about David lynch and John Waters, but I also like mainstream movies and my favorite mainstream film maker is John Hughes. John Hughes, in my opinion, was the film maker for my generation and no other epitomizes the 80s like he does. I believe that his movies are so rooted in the culture, mores and norms of the 80s that younger viewers may have trouble relating to them, but if they didn't try they'd be missing out on the universal truths that he put in every movie: question authority, opposites attract, and there's someone for everyone. So, let's raise our glasses to John Hughes, a man who entertained and educated as well.

This is so wrong...

Only in the 80s could a movie about two guys defiling a corpse over a long holiday weekend be considered a great comedy. Oh, who am I kidding. It is a great comedy.

I can't believe this is the best version of the trailer I can find on YouTube.

"Which one of you bitches is my mother?"

It was 25 years ago, that a cunning euroslut-turned-legit-film-star named LILI (played by Phoebe Cates using a crazed accent) brought together Maxine, Pagan and Judy - three former boarding school chums turned socialites. They convened in Manhattan all seeking favors from this International Film Star, LILI. She had them right where she wanted them when she asked the immortal 1984 TV miniseries question: "Incidentally, which one of you bitches is my mother?"

blurry mini clip below -- followed by a clear longer one (go to 1:42 mark for the immortal line)





I recall another gem of a line where LILI explains her plot to find the three women who conspired to keep her a downtrodden waif and says:
"They sent me to HELL and now I am back to teach them what I learned there."

Best of all -- this was a HUGE ratings smash. It spawned a sequel: LACE II
where LILI now seeks to learn her paternity and (I think) calls the 3 contenders "bastards" instead of "bitches".

Gimme that Old Time Religion

Anthony Perkins as Rev. Peter Shayne-style

with lines like "You wear your anger like a breakaway chastity belt."
-- I knew we had an instant classic in 1984's CRIMES OF PASSION.

RIP dear Dom Deluise

Dom DeLuise died in his sleep around 6 p.m. on May 4, 2009. He was very funny, and very well-liked.

His film FATSO (1980) is a real gem. It stars Dom DeLuise as Dominick DiNapoli, and co-stars the terrific Candy Azzara and Ron Carey. It was written and directed by Ann Bancroft.

Creepy Love

This song creeps me out. It takes me back to 1981 and that movie about fifteen-year-old (looking about 12) Brooke Shields getting deflowered by an older dude, while her cool mom catches a glimpse and then sits and watches them from the stairs. Mom is shocked, embarrassed then caught up in her own memories of young passion. ewwww. Lady, it's your daughter for chrissakes! Leave it to Franco Zeffirelli - he loved filming those nubile actors (and you wonder why Brooke doesn't speak to her former agent/mama anymore?).

Atleast the intellectual, artsy family pays for their progressiveness later on in the film- when the volatile boyfriend sets their house on fire. Good Times.



For me, the song makes me feel like an awkward pimply teenager with feathered hair, braces and lots to learn. Ugh! Please anything but that time again !! Now I know what The Dashers meant in Female Trouble about never wanting to be caught in any of those "ludicrous positions."

The song is even creepier when a young teen sings it -- example: Andrea ('Annie #1') McArdle on The Merv Griffin Show.



post script: Endless Love would pretty much be Brooke Shield's swan song to her string of nymphette roles that she had been doing since 1978's Pretty Baby (when she was 12). Endless Love was panned despite the hit theme song. Her film career tanked but she was paid $1 million in 1981 to endorse Wella Balsam shampoo and even more for those Calvin Klein ads. She stayed famous and cutesy thanks to Bob Hope's NBC Specials while she was on school vacations from Princeton. She was able to re-invent herself as a normal person in the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan in 1996. Her endless lover Martin Hewitt would eventually star in 1990's Skinemax indie film erotica and scattered tv guest shots through 2003. He is now age 51 with a wife and 2 kids and in the home inspection business.

Open the Goddamn Door

The DVD featurette has Marty Scorsese saying that the butler's door sticking blooper was left in final cut because Jerry entered with a great ad-lib "(Will ya) open the god damn door!?! I'm standing out there 8 minutes..."

Oh !! this movie is better than ever. Delusional Rupert and his lady friend taking train to Jerry's house in The Hamptons without an invitation? Genius!



Kim Chan (Jonno the Butler) died 5 months ago, October 2008. He was in his nineties.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/arts/television/10chan.html

From a 2007 NY Times profile:

Mr. Chan’s career path was an unlikely one. His father, Lem Chan, a philosopher, fled China in 1928, bringing young Kim and his two older sisters first to Rhode Island, then to New York, where the family got into the restaurant and laundry businesses.

One day, the father caught the son lying to cover up an afternoon whiled away at the movies. Presented with an ultimatum, Kim Chan chose to leave his family, only to end up homeless in Central Park before moving on to other laundries. He never fully reconciled with his father, who died in 1952. Both his sisters have also died.

It took nearly four decades in inconsequential television, film and stage productions for Mr. Chan to shake free of the day labor grind.

He spent those years adrift, working at restaurants and laundries. He made movie contacts by day, and hustled cards and slept at night on ironing boards crawling with bedbugs.

His big break came in 1983 in “The King of Comedy.”

Alcoholism was never so funny!

I just heard on Howard Stern that UK comic/actor Russell Brand will be starring in a remake of ARTHUR (or "Arfa" as Brand says in his accent).

Here's a toast to the one and only Arthur Bach -- Mr. Dudley Moore !!
His charm and wit and acting chops (at age 46) helped make the $7 mil dollar budgeted 1981 "small picture" into a boffo $95 million dollar Oscar-winning hit & classic.

Plus - Moore's supporting cast was superb: Liza as Linda Marolla, the likeable poor waitress with her loveable slob live-in Dad, fabulous John Gielguld as Arthur's tart-tongued fatherly butler Hobson, and screen vet Geraldine Fitzgerald as Arthur's concerned Aunt Martha.

The lines delivered by Moore are so witty and fun that the film plays like a giggly drunk's private jokes delivered to a buddy, ie: they're not hammered home to the audience which gives the film an adult vibe. This element was sort of lost on me as a 14-year- old at the film's 1981 opening weekend. I remember being more into Bill Murray's Stripes that summer.

But now (in middle-age) if I had to choose between watching Arthur and Stripes on cable today ...Arthur would win out.

Thanks Dudley for the laughs -- and for the great movie lines:
"Don't you hate Perry's wife?!"
"You're a hooker? Jesus, I forgot! I just thought I was doing GREAT with you!"
"You must've hated this moose."

Ad Nauseum

The new T.V. ad for J. C Penney is a somewhat faithful recreation of The Breakfast Club, which begs the question,"Why?" The target demographic, high school kids, would have been -10 years old when this movie came out in theaters. Maybe it's an ad directed at the parents, because we all know teenagers will wear whatever their parents think is cool. And if it is directed at the parents, are they supposed to forget that it's a movie about social misfits that are trapped in detention? Is that what they want for their kids? Where's Principal Vernon? I'm so confused.

They've all got it comin'...

"Top 10" Classic Spanking Scenes of the Eighties

For more on this delicate art, swing by my place for a little One-Oh-One (or two)!