Themes: Success is the Best Revenge, Rise To Power, Ladder to the Top
Main Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Parker Posey, Shannen Doherty, R.H. Thomson, Barry Flatman
Release Year: 2002
Country: US
Run Time: 97 minutes
Plot
In this broadly satirical TV biopic, Shirley MacLaine pulls out all the stops as legendary cosmetics queen Mary Kay Ash. In Citizen Kane fashion, Mary Kay relates her rise to the top of the home-beauty industry to an inquiring reporter (Rachel Crawford), never allowing an opportunity pass to emphasize how many doors she has opened for the working women of America. Ultimately, however, Mary Kay's predominance is threatened by a much younger (and shriller) rival, Jinger Heath (Parker Posey), whose BeautiControl company takes an enormous bite out of Mary Kay's share of the market. Caught in the middle is a slightly off-center beauty named Lexi Wilcox (Shannen Doherty). Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay originally aired on October 6, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Very much a piece with the similarly irreverent movies-of-the-week When Billie Beat Bobby and Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Three's Company, this warts-and-all period biopic of cosmetics queen Mary Kay takes a minor moment in pop culture history and elevates it to the level of broad, affectionate satire. If anything, Hell on Heels indulges in too much vamp-camp: The wild zooms, fractured-screen editing techniques, and swooning, jokey score occasionally reveal the filmmakers' desperation for laughs, even when the screenplay's epic accounts of back-stabbing are more than enough to hold any audience's attention. In fact, the casting alone could've carried the film, what with Shirley MacLaine digging into perhaps her ripest part since Terms of Endearment and Parker Posey providing the perfect counterbalance of frazzled, self-obsessed pluck. Thanks to their contributions and director Ed Gernon's fleet-footed sense of pacing, Hell on Heels hits far more often than it misses, providing the kind of trenchant humor last seen in such biting Americana parodies as Used Cars or The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader Murdering Mom. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
R.H. Thomson - Richard Rogers; Barry Flatman - Dick Heath; Marnie McPhail - Brooke; Rachel Crawford - Annika Kern; Dean McKenzie - Clifton Sanders; Paul Christie - Lexy's Husband; Catherine Fitch - Beverly; Rebecca Gibson - Tanya; Maggie Butterfield - Doris; Terri Cherniak - Liz; Marvin Kaye - Investment Banker; Jon Ted Wynne - Lighting Guy; Jinger Heath
Credit
Martha Mann - Costume Designer, Ed Gernon - Director, Harvey Rosenstock - Editor, Peter Sussman - Executive Producer, Ed Gernon - Executive Producer, Howard Meltzer - Executive Producer, Jonathan Goldsmith - Composer (Music Score), Harold Thrasher - Production Designer, Steve Danyluk - Cinematographer, Ian McDougall - Producer, Patricia Resnick - Teleplay By
Biopicture about Mary Kay Ash, cosmetics queen and business woman. She tells her story of her rise to fame to the inquiring reporter Annika Kern. Her powerfull position is threatened by the much younger Jinger Heath. Her BeautiControl company takes an enormous bite in Mary Kay's company. In the middle of their rivalry enters Lexi Wilcox, a slightly off-center beauty.[2]
