Post by kg redhead on Dec 10, 2005 10:35:21 GMT -5
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (RHPS) (first released in the United Kingdom on 14 August 1975) is a comedy-horror musical film directed by Jim Sharman from a screenplay by Sharman and Richard O'Brien, who also composed the songs. The film was based on O'Brien's long-running stage production The Rocky Horror Show.
The film stars Barry Bostwick, Susan Sarandon, and Tim Curry. "Little" Nell Campbell, Patricia Quinn, Peter Hinwood, Jonathan Adams, Charles Gray, and O'Brien are featured in supporting roles. Rock singer Meat Loaf makes a brief appearance for one song. Curry, O'Brien, Quinn, Campbell and Adams were in the original cast of the play, and Meat Loaf joined them when the show originally came to the United States at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles.
The story begins with a straitlaced couple, Brad Majors (Bostwick) and Janet Weiss (Sarandon), musically pledging their engagement after attending the wedding of their friends, the Hapschatts. The church wardens later appear as major characters in the main part of the film (as shown on the cut to the slide with the narrator). They decide to pay a visit to Dr. Everett Scott (Adams), their academic mentor and the man who introduced them to each other.
While driving to Dr. Scott's residence, they get a flat tire. With the spare also flat, they must walk back to a remote castle in the woods in hopes of finding a telephone. At the castle, Dr. Frank N. Furter (Curry), a gender-bending scientist from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania, is throwing a party to celebrate the creation of his new strongman playmate, Rocky Horror (Hinwood). Frank N. Furter immediately takes a sexual interest in both Janet and Brad which eventually leads the couple to question their loyalty to each other. To the despair of Dr. Furter, Rocky becomes more interested in Janet than him.
Dr. Scott's nephew Eddie (Meat Loaf), a motorcycle-riding rocker and delivery boy, has been captured in the castle by Dr. Furter, who apparently used him for the basis of Rocky's brain. Dr. Furter murders Eddie for his reckless behaviour, right in front of Janet, Brad, and all the guests of his house. Dr. Furter's groupie Columbia (Campbell), who loved Eddie and once loved Dr. Furter, has conflicting feelings about the two of them. Dr. Scott arrives at the castle looking for Eddie, and is soon at Frank's mercy. The servants of the castle, Magenta (Quinn) and Riff-Raff (O'Brien), release Brad, Janet, and Dr. Scott from the spell of the castle (not for any reasons of compassion; simply that they don't care about them), kill the others out of annoyance, and return home to their home planet of Transsexual. A criminologist (Gray) narrates the story and appears from time to time to provide commentary on the actions.
Songs
* "Science Fiction/Double Feature"
* "Damnit Janet"
* "Over at the Frankenstein Place"
* "The Time Warp"
* "Sweet Transvestite"
* "The Sword of Damocles" (not released on soundtrack)
* "I Can Make You a Man"
* "Hot Patootie - Bless My Soul"
* "I Can Make You a Man: Reprise"
* "Once in a While" (scene cut from film)
* "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me"
* "Eddie"
* "Planet Schmanet Janet" (not released on soundtrack)
* "Rose Tints My World"
* "Don't Dream It, Be It"
* "Wild And Untamed Thing"
* "I'm Going Home"
* "Superheroes" (song cut from some versions of film)
* "Science Fiction/Double Feature: Reprise"
Taken at face value, the film could be considered as ground-breaking for its frank (albeit comical) depiction of subjects such as transvestism, homosexuality, cannibalism, voyeurism, adultery, and even incest. In addition, the scripting and design displays the writers' knowledge of the history of cinema even beyond the horror and science fiction film genres; for example, there are references to films as diverse as What's Up, Doc?, Rope, and Triumph of the Will. Nevertheless, the film did not do well initially when released, perhaps because the critics did not know what to make of it or what genre it might be placed in. The other reason was probably poor choice of theater placement, with the studio booking the film in politically conservative towns such as Santa Barbara, California.
In spite of (or perhaps because of) its initial luke-warm critical and commercial reception, the film developed a cult following and it began playing at midnight at the Waverly Theater in New York City. People began shouting responses to the characters' statements on the screen. These mostly include melodramatic abuse of the characters or actors, vulgar sex jokes, puns, or pop culture references.
Other audience participation includes dancing the Time Warp, throwing toast, water, toilet paper, hot dogs, and rice at the appropriate points in the movie (many theatres forbid throwing things that are difficult to clean up, such as confetti or buttered toast). Casts of fans dress up as the characters and act out the movie in front of the screen, usually with great accuracy. At the defunct Key Theater in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., the theatre manager would ride his motorcycle down the aisle during Meat Loaf's/Eddie's song, "Hot Patootie." At the Tower Theater in Houston, people would celebrate Ralph and Betty's wedding by throwing rice. Audience members also use newspapers to cover their heads and squirt guns for rain during the "There's A Light" musical sequence, and use noise makers during the scene in which Rocky is unveiled. The whole phenomenon got a boost in 1980, with the release of the movie Fame, in which some characters attend a screening of RHPS at the Waverly.
Shock Treatment, a follow-up to RHPS, was made but, despite its appeal to cult audiences and campy nature, it has not caught on as well as the original. It features O'Brien, Quinn, Campbell and Gray in different roles and the characters Brad and Janet, played by different actors. A third film, Revenge of the Old Queen, was alleged to have been written by O'Brien but never filmed.
Trivia
* For the 25th anniversary edition, the song dubs are replaced by the 5.1 songs from the soundtrack record; Rocky's voice part is sung by a completely different actor.
* The surround mixes themselves did not appear on early prints of the movie; it was remixed into Chace Surround Stereo in the 1980s, and later prints tend to have this soundtrack (identifiable primarily because Rocky sings through most of the Floor Show, instead of speaking his lines) as well as the often missing "Superheroes" scene at the end, where Brad, Janet, and Dr Scott are lost in a foggy glen.
* On the 25th Anniversary DVD, scroll down to Special Features (don't select it) and push left. This should highlight a pair of lips, which, when selected, will play the director's intended vision; the first 20 minutes are black and white, turning to colour when Riff Raff swings open the door, revealing Transylvanians (a la The Wizard of Oz). Richard O'Brien originally intended for the film to be in black and white until Frank's appearance in the lift, the only colour in that particular shot being his red lipstick.
* The entire laboratory set was constructed with access only via an elevator (lift) before the team realised that Doctor Scott would need to reach it extremely quickly in a wheelchair. This is the sole reason for his appearance through a wall.
* In the stage play, Doctor Scott does not have a German accent. Richard O'Brien claims that he advised the Fox team that Tim Curry's line "or should I say Doctor von Scott?!" would make no sense if everyone already knew he was German. They ignored him and the line remains one of the most baffling in the film, particularly since they left in Barry Bostwick's pun "Great Scott" (the nickname of a famous British explorer), which was originally designed to give a British theatre audience the opposite impression. The parallel to Stanley Kubrick's character of Doctor Strangelove is easily recognisable, up to and including the attempted Nazi salute. In many theatres, Tim Curry's line is often followed with people doing the Nazi salute and shouting "sieg heil".
* Fox refused permission for the backdrop of the "stage show" scene to contain the 20th Century Fox logo.
* Susan Sarandon was unwell during the entire shooting of the film, suffering high temperatures and fever due to a severe case of influenza.
* An adventure game called Rocky Horror Interactive Picture Show was released to much hype but very little success. It was criticised for having a clumsy interface and outdated (2D) graphics.
* There are at least three adult videos with names parodying the movie: The Rock Horror Porno Show, the Rocky Porno Video Show (which, surprisingly, actually does a creditable job parodying the movie as well, as unlikely as that may sound), and the Rock Erotic Video Show, whose box has characters costumed in a fashion which might suggest that it follows the plot of the movie somewhat... but does not.
* Tim Curry was the guest host of Saturday Night Live with Meatloaf as the musical guest in 1981. This show included a sketch with Tim and Meat together called "Tim And Meat's One Stop Rocky Horror Shop" Eddie Murphy also alluded heavily to Rocky Horror in the shows' opening monologue with Tim Curry.
The film stars Barry Bostwick, Susan Sarandon, and Tim Curry. "Little" Nell Campbell, Patricia Quinn, Peter Hinwood, Jonathan Adams, Charles Gray, and O'Brien are featured in supporting roles. Rock singer Meat Loaf makes a brief appearance for one song. Curry, O'Brien, Quinn, Campbell and Adams were in the original cast of the play, and Meat Loaf joined them when the show originally came to the United States at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles.
The story begins with a straitlaced couple, Brad Majors (Bostwick) and Janet Weiss (Sarandon), musically pledging their engagement after attending the wedding of their friends, the Hapschatts. The church wardens later appear as major characters in the main part of the film (as shown on the cut to the slide with the narrator). They decide to pay a visit to Dr. Everett Scott (Adams), their academic mentor and the man who introduced them to each other.
While driving to Dr. Scott's residence, they get a flat tire. With the spare also flat, they must walk back to a remote castle in the woods in hopes of finding a telephone. At the castle, Dr. Frank N. Furter (Curry), a gender-bending scientist from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania, is throwing a party to celebrate the creation of his new strongman playmate, Rocky Horror (Hinwood). Frank N. Furter immediately takes a sexual interest in both Janet and Brad which eventually leads the couple to question their loyalty to each other. To the despair of Dr. Furter, Rocky becomes more interested in Janet than him.
Dr. Scott's nephew Eddie (Meat Loaf), a motorcycle-riding rocker and delivery boy, has been captured in the castle by Dr. Furter, who apparently used him for the basis of Rocky's brain. Dr. Furter murders Eddie for his reckless behaviour, right in front of Janet, Brad, and all the guests of his house. Dr. Furter's groupie Columbia (Campbell), who loved Eddie and once loved Dr. Furter, has conflicting feelings about the two of them. Dr. Scott arrives at the castle looking for Eddie, and is soon at Frank's mercy. The servants of the castle, Magenta (Quinn) and Riff-Raff (O'Brien), release Brad, Janet, and Dr. Scott from the spell of the castle (not for any reasons of compassion; simply that they don't care about them), kill the others out of annoyance, and return home to their home planet of Transsexual. A criminologist (Gray) narrates the story and appears from time to time to provide commentary on the actions.
Songs
* "Science Fiction/Double Feature"
* "Damnit Janet"
* "Over at the Frankenstein Place"
* "The Time Warp"
* "Sweet Transvestite"
* "The Sword of Damocles" (not released on soundtrack)
* "I Can Make You a Man"
* "Hot Patootie - Bless My Soul"
* "I Can Make You a Man: Reprise"
* "Once in a While" (scene cut from film)
* "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me"
* "Eddie"
* "Planet Schmanet Janet" (not released on soundtrack)
* "Rose Tints My World"
* "Don't Dream It, Be It"
* "Wild And Untamed Thing"
* "I'm Going Home"
* "Superheroes" (song cut from some versions of film)
* "Science Fiction/Double Feature: Reprise"
Taken at face value, the film could be considered as ground-breaking for its frank (albeit comical) depiction of subjects such as transvestism, homosexuality, cannibalism, voyeurism, adultery, and even incest. In addition, the scripting and design displays the writers' knowledge of the history of cinema even beyond the horror and science fiction film genres; for example, there are references to films as diverse as What's Up, Doc?, Rope, and Triumph of the Will. Nevertheless, the film did not do well initially when released, perhaps because the critics did not know what to make of it or what genre it might be placed in. The other reason was probably poor choice of theater placement, with the studio booking the film in politically conservative towns such as Santa Barbara, California.
In spite of (or perhaps because of) its initial luke-warm critical and commercial reception, the film developed a cult following and it began playing at midnight at the Waverly Theater in New York City. People began shouting responses to the characters' statements on the screen. These mostly include melodramatic abuse of the characters or actors, vulgar sex jokes, puns, or pop culture references.
Other audience participation includes dancing the Time Warp, throwing toast, water, toilet paper, hot dogs, and rice at the appropriate points in the movie (many theatres forbid throwing things that are difficult to clean up, such as confetti or buttered toast). Casts of fans dress up as the characters and act out the movie in front of the screen, usually with great accuracy. At the defunct Key Theater in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., the theatre manager would ride his motorcycle down the aisle during Meat Loaf's/Eddie's song, "Hot Patootie." At the Tower Theater in Houston, people would celebrate Ralph and Betty's wedding by throwing rice. Audience members also use newspapers to cover their heads and squirt guns for rain during the "There's A Light" musical sequence, and use noise makers during the scene in which Rocky is unveiled. The whole phenomenon got a boost in 1980, with the release of the movie Fame, in which some characters attend a screening of RHPS at the Waverly.
Shock Treatment, a follow-up to RHPS, was made but, despite its appeal to cult audiences and campy nature, it has not caught on as well as the original. It features O'Brien, Quinn, Campbell and Gray in different roles and the characters Brad and Janet, played by different actors. A third film, Revenge of the Old Queen, was alleged to have been written by O'Brien but never filmed.
Trivia
* For the 25th anniversary edition, the song dubs are replaced by the 5.1 songs from the soundtrack record; Rocky's voice part is sung by a completely different actor.
* The surround mixes themselves did not appear on early prints of the movie; it was remixed into Chace Surround Stereo in the 1980s, and later prints tend to have this soundtrack (identifiable primarily because Rocky sings through most of the Floor Show, instead of speaking his lines) as well as the often missing "Superheroes" scene at the end, where Brad, Janet, and Dr Scott are lost in a foggy glen.
* On the 25th Anniversary DVD, scroll down to Special Features (don't select it) and push left. This should highlight a pair of lips, which, when selected, will play the director's intended vision; the first 20 minutes are black and white, turning to colour when Riff Raff swings open the door, revealing Transylvanians (a la The Wizard of Oz). Richard O'Brien originally intended for the film to be in black and white until Frank's appearance in the lift, the only colour in that particular shot being his red lipstick.
* The entire laboratory set was constructed with access only via an elevator (lift) before the team realised that Doctor Scott would need to reach it extremely quickly in a wheelchair. This is the sole reason for his appearance through a wall.
* In the stage play, Doctor Scott does not have a German accent. Richard O'Brien claims that he advised the Fox team that Tim Curry's line "or should I say Doctor von Scott?!" would make no sense if everyone already knew he was German. They ignored him and the line remains one of the most baffling in the film, particularly since they left in Barry Bostwick's pun "Great Scott" (the nickname of a famous British explorer), which was originally designed to give a British theatre audience the opposite impression. The parallel to Stanley Kubrick's character of Doctor Strangelove is easily recognisable, up to and including the attempted Nazi salute. In many theatres, Tim Curry's line is often followed with people doing the Nazi salute and shouting "sieg heil".
* Fox refused permission for the backdrop of the "stage show" scene to contain the 20th Century Fox logo.
* Susan Sarandon was unwell during the entire shooting of the film, suffering high temperatures and fever due to a severe case of influenza.
* An adventure game called Rocky Horror Interactive Picture Show was released to much hype but very little success. It was criticised for having a clumsy interface and outdated (2D) graphics.
* There are at least three adult videos with names parodying the movie: The Rock Horror Porno Show, the Rocky Porno Video Show (which, surprisingly, actually does a creditable job parodying the movie as well, as unlikely as that may sound), and the Rock Erotic Video Show, whose box has characters costumed in a fashion which might suggest that it follows the plot of the movie somewhat... but does not.
* Tim Curry was the guest host of Saturday Night Live with Meatloaf as the musical guest in 1981. This show included a sketch with Tim and Meat together called "Tim And Meat's One Stop Rocky Horror Shop" Eddie Murphy also alluded heavily to Rocky Horror in the shows' opening monologue with Tim Curry.