Growing up in Australia in the 1990's, my first encounter with this film came on New Years Day, since one of our television stations broadcasts the film as a post NYE celebration tradition. So in the wee hours of the next morning (which is really noon on New Years Day), high on fireworks and optimism, I was quite receptive to the film's excesses. And, like the bulges contained within the shorts on display, my sexuality was burgeoning in time with the music. Who was I to resist short shorts?
But the film could not maintain the campiness and absurdity of the first half as it tries, and fails, to create conventional conflict and drama in its second. The fabulousness and one liners fade as the movie progresses. The visuals become repetitive and even the final performance is quite limp. It would have been better to keep with the tone of the first half.
So my vote for best shot is found in that first half, where, amidst the excitement of the group gathering to perform in Jack and Sam's back porch, Sydney's FINGERNAILS gets caught in both the phone dial and the booth door.
The fear on her face is palpable. This is not merely a PSA warning of the dangers of nail extensions - the symbolism here is too much to ignore. Is she a woman desperately trying to make business connections but constrained by the mechanism of communication, while she is literally trapped in a glass closet, as the pedestrians of NYC pass her by? Or is she a symbol for the entertainment industry (and the cast and crew of this film), half trying to phone it in, and half trying to get out?
No, she's just a fabulous woman in an absurd situation, in a comic bit that is completely superfluous to the overall plot. And yet the absurdity of her situation never fails to make me laugh. And that is what a guilty pleasure like Can't Stop The Music is all about.
Sydney may have had absolutely nothing to do with the film's plot (such as it was), but man was she the most fun to watch. That first scene, where she flings the mink around her neck with such drama! I wish she was in more of the movie.
ReplyDeleteThe movie is horrendous but three people managed to emerge from it with at least a semblance of their dignity in tact. Tammy Grimes who has some remarkable outfits but could just as easily be taken for a drag queen with her basso voice and exaggerated manner. Barbara Rush as Jenner's mother playing her part as if she was in a decent movie with worthwhile lines to speak. On the other end of the spectrum how perfect was it to have Gypsy Rose Lee's sister, Baby/Dainty June Havoc herself totally burlesquing her role as Guttenberg's mother. She even manages to deliver howlers like "They should get down on their knees!" when referring to The Village People with a straight face.
ReplyDeletei can scarcely believe this is an australian tv tradition but Glenn also confirms. how bizarre
ReplyDeleteMargaret - Yes, I agree. She was definitely the most fabulous!
ReplyDeleteJoel - I love the one-liners as well - it actually had some really funny wacky lines before they tried to make a story out of it.
Nathaniel - Yes, Australian TV is a strange place. But then, from the land of Priscilla, Peter Allen, Olivia, and Dame Edna, we must love our camp!