LET THERE BE LIGHT. LET THERE BE LAUGHTER. LET THERE BE LEGS. LET THERE BE LUST. LET THERE BE LIPS.
A few weeks ago I walked by a smaller theater and noticed a sign advertising an upcoming sing-along screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, right in time for Halloween. It was sold out, as expected. It’s an amazing legacy for a small-budget musical that came out 50 years ago. Quite the time warp.
A mad scientist
After watching their friends get married, young couple Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick, Susan Sarandon) decide to get engaged. On their way to a friend’s house, they get lost in a rainstorm and end up at a castle where there’s a party. Brad and Janet are invited and intend to call for help to get their flat tyre fixed, but soon they’re drawn into the strange activities in the castle. There’s a mad scientist, who’s also a transvestite, called Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) and he has a special ”monster” that he brings to life: a blond hunk named Rocky (Peter Hinwood). Can the doctor make a real man out of him, and can Brad and Janet avoid his seductive tricks while they’re staying the night?
The longest-running release in history
The film got a cool reception at the time of its premiere in 1975, even hostile in certain places. I’m sure no one expected it to become the kind of cult classic it has evolved into over the decades, nor that it would be preserved in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. No other movie matches it as the longest-running release in history, attracting crowds who like to dress up as the characters and sing along with the catchy tunes. But the reception 50 years ago is kind of curious. After all, why people liked the film was no mystery – except perhaps to the largely heterosexual male critics.
The story behind it is a true success saga, with its creator Richard O’Brien spending a winter in London writing a musical inspired by the B horror movies, muscle flicks and sci-fi tales of his 1950s youth; as an unemployed actor, he didn’t have much else to do. The music would of course stay true to that era as well, cleverly combined with the glam rock that was all the rage in Britain at the time. Director Jim Sharman brought it to the stage where, as “The Rocky Horror Show”, it was a smash hit; in 1974, the musical made the journey overseas.
Tim Curry is one of the best things here, having perfected his outlandish character on stage.
The film adaptation is fairly close to the stage version, with several cast members also appearing in the movie, most notably Curry, whose film debut this was. He’s one of the best things here, having perfected his outlandish character on stage, complete with a way of speaking inspired by Queen Elizabeth II. He’s arresting in each one of his scenes; highly sexual, very strange, catty and supremely confident. Curry gets decent help from Bostwick and Sarandon as the naive, straight-laced couple, and Charles Gray as our distinguished narrator/criminologist. The second half of the film is more uneven, but overall this is a lovably campy experience, with irresistible song numbers, including the classic ”Time Warp”, Curry’s showy ”Sweet Transvestite”, and ”Hot Patootie”, a rowdy contribution by Meat Loaf.
I used the word ”lovable”, and that’s a good way of describing The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a film which is equally successful in its attempts to send up the movies that O’Brien loved as a kid, as it is in paying tribute to them.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show 1975-U.K.-U.S. 100 min. Color. Directed by Jim Sharman. Screenplay: Richard O’Brien, Jim Sharman. Songs: Richard Hartley, Richard O’Brien (”Dammit Janet”, ”The Time Warp”, ”Sweet Transvestite”, ”Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul”. Cast: Tim Curry (Frank-N-Furter), Susan Sarandon (Janet Weiss), Barry Bostwick (Brad Majors), Richard O’Brien, Patricia Quinn, Little Nell, Meat Loaf, Charles Gray.
Trivia: Shock Treatment (1981) is not a direct sequel, but features some of the same characters and cast. Remade as a TV movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again (2016).
Quote: “A mental mind fuck can be nice.” (Curry)
Last word: “I was doing a production of ‘Love for Love’, and it was taken to Vienna for British Week, and we played at the Burgtheater. Prince Charles and Princess Diana were the guests of honor. She said that she very much wanted to meet me. And so they sort of put me at the end of the receiving line. And Prince Charles said, ‘I think I’ve seen you on television. Haven’t I seen you on television?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir, I’m sure you’ve seen me on television.’ ‘Yes, I think – I thought I’d seen you on television’. But Diana said, ‘You were in The Rocky Horror Show’. And I said, ‘Yes, ma’am, I was, but I’m sure that you haven’t seen it’. She said, ‘Oh, yes’. She said, ‘It quite completed my education’.” (Curry, NPR)