Main Cast: Diane Lane, Peter Donat, David Clennon, John Lehne
Release Year: 1982
Country: US/CA
Run Time: 87 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A very inexperienced rock band flirts with fame thanks to a valuable assist from the media in this comedy-drama directed by veteran music producer Lou Adler. Corinne Burns (Diane Lane) is a fifteen-year-old orphan who gains a measure of local notoriety when she quits her job at a burger stand during a live television newscast. Corinne has few prospects but plenty of nerve, and she's formed a band with her sister Tracy (Marin Kanter) and cousin Jessica (Laura Dern) called the Stains. While checking out a gig by veteran hard rock band the Metal Corpses, led by flamboyant singer Lou Corpse (Fee Waybill), opened by British punk upstarts the Looters, Corrine sneaks backstage to ask advice just as Lou demands tour manager Lawnboy (Barry Ford) find a new opening act. Lawnboy impulsively gives the Stains the gig, and while the first show for the girls (who've had all of three practices) is little short of a disaster, Corrine's skunk-stripe hairdo, provocative clothes and defiant declaration "We don't put out" captures the attention of a television reporter who covered her before. A story on the evening news about the Stains turns the band into a cult sensation, and Looters lead singer Billy (Ray Winstone) tries to offer her some advice and emotional support as the Stains rise from opening act to headliners, but Corinne and her friends learn that their new fans are a very fickle breed. Shot in 1980 but released to only a handful of theaters in 1982, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains gained a potent cult following after it appeared on cable television, largely among punk rock fans -- the Looters featured Steve Jones and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols on guitar and drums as well as Paul Simonon from the Clash on bass, while L.A. punk troublemakers Black Randy and the Metrosquad briefly appear as themselves. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
It's not hard at all to see how Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains became a cult favorite despite being thrown away by Paramount Pictures, who clearly had no idea what to make of the movie when they gave it a token release in 1982. The look and the sound of the teenage punk trio the Stains (played by Diane Lane, Laura Dern and Marin Kanter) is eerily prescient of the Riot Grrrl bands that would emerge a decade later (and to a lesser extent the inspired amateurism of the K Records roster), and while Lane's performance is a bit uneven, she captures the bluster and defiance of an adolescent too young and naïve to be intimidated with admirable brio. Christine Lahti is brilliant in her small but showy supporting role as Corrine's aunt, Fee Waybill of the Tubes is so hilariously accurate as a washed-up heavy metal lunkhead that it's a wonder he didn't get more film work after this, and someone should have had the good sense to have the Looters, the British punk outfit assembled for the film, cut an album after making this -- actor Ray Winstone (who did this shortly after Quadrophenia) is a good and charismatic singer, while Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Paul Simonon are a great rock and roll band in their all-too-brief moments on screen. But for every moment where Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains gets the feel of life on the road just right, there's another where the movie just doesn't ring true, and it simply defies logic that the Stains could suddenly start filling big halls simply on the basis on a few local television spots and without making a record (the MTV-influenced coda at least suggests a more likely scenario for their overnight stardom). And director Lou Adler has a truly lamentable sense of pacing here; the movie's tempo is uncomfortably slow, as the narrative lurches forward in sluggish fits and starts. There are far too many good things in Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains to ignore it, but it's simple to see why screenwriter Nancy Dowd took her name off the project (she's credited as Rob Morton); it's like an album with three or four terrific songs scattered among seven or eight tracks of tossed-off filler. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Cynthia Sikes - Alicia Meeker; Laura Dern - Jessica McNeil; Marin Kanter - Tracy Burns; Paul Cook - Danny; Steve Jones - Steve; Barry Ford - Lawnboy; Paul Simonon - Johnny; Christine Lahti - Aunt Linda; Janet Wright - Aunt Linda's Friend Brenda; Vince Welnick - Jerry Jervey; Brent Spiner - Corinne's Boss; Fee Waybill - Lou Corpse; Debbie Rochon - Skunkette unc\; Ray Winstone - Billy
Credit
Lou Adler - Director, Tom Benko - Editor, Lou Lombardo - Executive Producer, Graeme Murray - Production Designer, Leon Ericksen - Production Designer, Bruce Surtees - Cinematographer, Lou Adler - Producer, Lou Lombardo - Producer, Joe Roth - Producer, Peter Young - Set Designer, Don Johnson - Sound/Sound Designer, Rob Morton - Screenwriter
The film, originally titled All Washed Up, was directed by music business tycoon Lou Adler for Paramount Pictures and written by Nancy Dowd, who won the Best Screenplay Academy Award for Coming Home. Dowd took the pseudonym "Rob Morton" after being dissastisfied with the production process and with the final cut of the film. The movie was produced by Joe Roth, who would later go on to become chairman of Walt Disney Studios. Punk rock journalist Caroline Coon was a technical advisor on the film.
The film was never given wide release, though it may have had a small theatrical release in 1982.[citation needed] A test screening was held in Denver, Colorado with poor results. The film was shelved but eventually made its way to the Art-House circuit. The films theatrical run included engagements at the Film Forum in New York City on Wednesday, March 6, 1985,[1], in Chicago in April 1985,[2], in Atlanta and Los Angeles in July 1985, and at the Theater of the Living Arts in Philadelphia from Friday, August 23 – Saturday, August 24, 1985.[3]
The Stains were frequently referenced by notable participants in the riot grrrl movement of the 1990s which helped to generate further interest in this otherwise forgotten punk relic.[citation needed] Other fans of the film include musician/actor Courtney Love, writer/comedian Jake Fogelnest, musician/actor Jon Bon Jovi (who dated Stains star Diane Lane in the 1980s), Paul and Ariel Awesome of the long-running punk fanzineMaximumrocknroll, Beat the Geeks "Movie Geek" Marc Edward Heuck, and the late underground filmmaker Sarah Jacobson. In 2000, Jacobson directed, with Sam Green, a short documentary on the film for the IFC television show Split Screen. In 2008, Heuck recorded a historical commentary track for the Rhino DVD, which was not included on the finished DVD; it is available for free download.
