Themes: All Washed Up, Out For Revenge, Mothers and Daughters
Main Cast: Charles Busch, Natasha Lyonne, Jason Priestley, Frances Conroy, Philip Baker Hall
Release Year: 2003
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Playwright, performer, and drag queen Charles Busch appears in the leading role as aging pop star Angela Arden in the darkly comic melodrama Die Mommie Die. Based on Busch's own play, this film marks the directorial debut of Mark Rucker. In 1967, Angela's career has hit bottom and she's trapped in a loveless marriage to film producer Sol Sussman (Philip Baker Hall). She gets involved in an affair with unemployed TV actor Tony Parker (Jason Priestley). After Sol suddenly dies, Angela's daughter Edith (Natasha Lyonne) plots a conspiracy of revenge and enlists the help of her brother, Lance (Stark Sands). Also featuring Nora Dunn and Frances Conroy. Busch has previously appeared in drag for the film adaptation of his play Psycho Beach Party in 2000. Die Mommie Die premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Review
The line between melodrama and camp has always been especially fine. On the one side, there's Far from Heaven, Todd Haynes' reverent Douglas Sirk homage; on the other, there's the oeuvre of drag auteur Charles Busch. Those expecting Die Mommie Die to follow in the over-the-top tradition of Psycho Beach Party, the sole previous cinematic adaptation of Busch's stage work, may be in for a surprise. For all its florid production values, operatic emotions, and satiric jabs at Sirk and Sunset Boulevard, Die Mommie Die is only slightly more exaggerated than its inspirations. Sure, it's funny, full of deliciously bawdy verbal and visual gags. And sure, everyone from Natasha Lyonne to Jason Priestley and Six Feet Under's Frances Conroy pops in to send up the archetypes of '50s "women's pictures." But for all its satire, Die Mommie Die takes its source material no less seriously than Haynes did in his justly celebrated film. Channeling Joan Crawford, Jane Wyman, Susan Hayward, and other magnificent dames, Busch turns in a black comedy with as much to say about gender roles and social conventions as any ostensibly serious period piece. Busch may prefer to wink and laugh rather than wring his hands, but that doesn't make his film any less enjoyable -- or his artistry any less impressive. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Stark Sands - Lance Sussman; Victor Raider-Wexler - Sam Fishbein; Nora Dunn - Shatzi Van Allen; Stanley de Santis - Tuchman; Sara Gilbert - Janice; Jason Segel - Larry the Hippie; Paul Vinson - Leather Daddy
Credit
Robert Hall - Associate Producer, Jeff Greenberg - Casting, Colin Daniel - Casting, Frank Pavich - Co-producer, Thomas G. Marquez - Costume Designer, Michael Bottari - Costume Designer, Ronald Case - Costume Designer, Tony Alexander - First Assistant Director, Courtney King - First Assistant Director, Mark Rucker - Director, Philip Harrison - Editor, Lony Dubrofsky - Executive Producer, Neil Ellman - Executive Producer, Dennis McCarthy - Composer (Music Score), J.B. Tintfass - Production Designer, Kelly Evans - Cinematographer, Anthony Edwards - Producer, Bill Kenwright - Producer, Dante di Loreto - Producer, Robert "Sandy" Adams - Set Designer, Jon Ailetcher - Sound/Sound Designer, Charles Busch - Screenwriter, Charles Busch - Play Author
Die, Mommie, Die! is a 1999 comedicplay written by Charles Busch, who also plays the lead role (in drag). Partly spoof and partly homage, it draws heavily on the tropes and themes of American "Grande DameGuignol" movies from the 1950s and 1960s that featured strong, sometimes dominating female leads, such as those by Bette Davis (Dead Ringer), Joan Crawford (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?), and Lana Turner (Portrait in Black). It was adapted for film in 2003 under the same name; Charles Busch wrote the screenplay and it was directed by Mark Rucker. Busch's 40+ costumes were designed by Bottari and Case, his longtime costume designers who are award winning New York theatre costume and set designers
The movie opens with Angela Arden (Charles Busch) kneeling in front of her twin sister Barbara's grave. Angela is a lounge singer who is attempting to resuscitate her floundering career. She's unhappily married to her movie-director husband Sol Sussman (Philip Baker Hall), who is always constipated. They have two children together–Lance (Stark Sands), who is effete and simple-minded, and Edith (Natasha Lyonne), a "daddy's girl" who is openly contemptuous of her mother. Also living in the house is the snoopy maid Bootsie (Frances Conroy), who is infatuated with Sol. Bored and unhappy, Angela begins cheating on her husband with Tony Parker (Jason Priestly), a tennis playing "lothario" and failed actor who is reputed to be well endowed.
Sol finds out after hiring a private detective to follow Angela around. He confronts her about it but he refuses to divorce her. Instead, he gives her "life in prison". Not only does he cancel all of Angela's credit cards, he forbids her from performing at an engagement in New York, destroying the contract before she has a chance to sign it. Feeling trapped and eager to get her hands on her husband's money, Angela poisons an ever-constipated Sol with an arsenic-laced suppository.
Despite the fact that Angela receives virtually nothing in Sol's will, her children, along with the maid Bootsie, begin to suspect Angela's involvement. And the suspicious circumstances of Sol's death bring old questions about Angela's sister's death to light. Edith–and later Lance–hatch a plot to get her to confess. Meanwhile, Tony Parker successfully seduces both the children, taking an unusual interest in the details surrounding Aunt Barbara's death. The children eventually get Angela to confess her crimes by lacing her drink with LSD.
In 2007, the play is being produced in New York for the first time. It will open for previews on October 10 at the New World StagesOff Broadway. The official opening night will be October 21, 2007. The cast will include Charles Busch recreating his original roles, Van Hansis (of CBS television's As the World Turns), Bob Ari, Chris Hoch, Ashley Morris, and Kristine Nielsen. The run is closed, and scheduled to end in January 2008.
