Review of Polyester (1981) by Wil R — 13 Apr 2009

Douglas Sirk meets William Castle with this slice of trashy satire from John Waters, it was at the tail end of his underground filmmaking, he was showing maturity as a filmmaker, the call of the mainstream was tempting him, but this was a loving homage to the films he grew up with, and came with its own legendary gimick.

Set in the suburbs of Baltimore, it focuses on housewife Francine Fishpaw (Divine), whose life is going to pieces, her husband Elmer (David Samson) runs an adult movie theatre and is cheating on her with secretary Sandra Sullivan (Mink Stole), Francine's son Dexter (Ken King), is a solvent abusing foot-stomper, her daughter Lu-Lu (Mary Garlington) is a teenage runaway going out with hooligan Bo-Bo Belsinger (Stiv Bators off The Dead Boys).

Things look bad for Francine, she turns to alcohol, but then she finds solace in the presence of the attractive Todd Tomorrow (Tab Hunter). This is the John Waters film which had the Odorama cards with it, a good gimick, and he makes this a personal tribute to Douglas Sirk's weepies of the 1950's, with the lighting and colour.

Divine is as wonderful as ever, and the songs in the film are by Debbie Harry!! It's very over the top and camp, but it has an endearing quality.