The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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I used to run into Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins (when they were together) at the Starbucks in New Canaan, Connecticut. They lived nearby. She was just as striking – wide eyes, heaving bosom – as she’d been in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the 1975 cult movie that has been called “a campy, musical spoof on the haunted-castle horror movie, encompassing a ‘70s glam-rock world of androgyny with characters that are more than offbeat.”

Yeah, that one.

Today, Susan Sarandon has 167 film and television roles to her credit, but back in 1975, she only had a handful when she signed on to play Janet in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” for what became “a star-making performance.”

Sarandon would go on to perform in such memorable films as “Thelma and Louise,” “Bull Durham,” Atlantic City,” “The Hunger,” “The Witches of Eastwick,” and “Pretty Baby.”

But “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is one that would linger in our minds forever – transforming itself from a cute horror movie spoof into a re-occurring immersive audience participation musical. RHPS is noted for its long-running tradition of ritualistic audience participation through call-back lines and people attending dressed up as characters from the show.

For example, a cinema in Munich, Germany has screened this movie once a week since its release in 1975. They sell special kits containing props to be used by audience members during the movie, including a biscuit (for the toast), rice, a whistle, a candle (for “There’s a Light”), and a sheet of paper with instructions for doing “The Time Warp.”

And annual Rocky Horror conventions are held in varying locations around the world.

Film Critic Roger Ebert described it as more of a “long-running social phenomenon” than a movie.

Sarandon said she didn’t plan to audition to play Janet. She just stopped by the set to say hi to Tim Curry, who was a friend of hers. “While she was there, producers saw her and asked her to try out. They said everyone they auditioned so far were good singers, but none of them made Janet very funny, which is what they wanted. Sarandon said no because she can’t really sing, in fact, she’s kind of phobic about it. So producers asked her if she can just sing Happy Birthday? She said yes and they convinced her to do it. They loved her and cast her for the role.” Sarandon admits it was all just a lucky fluke.

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” plays this Saturday night at Tropic Cinema.

The plot is familiar to those of you who have attended screenings over and over, often getting onto the stage to join the movie: “A straitlaced, square couple, seeking shelter from a storm, find themselves in the castle of a transgender alien mad scientist intent on creating a buff bodybuilder.”

Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon star as the hapless couple. Tim Curry wows as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a mad scientist from outer space who is attempting to create the perfect man. Yes, all the Nazi overtones are deliberate satire.

The Guardian reported that “Curry gives a “garishly Bowiesque performance as the ambisextrous doctor.”

Other members of the cast include Richard O’Brien as the humpbacked handyman Riff Raff, Patricia Quinn as the maid Magenta, and Little Nell Campbell as a tap-dancing groupie named Columbia. They dance to “The Time Warp.”

Charles Gray portrays a criminologist, Jonathan Adams is Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s scientific rival, and the late singer Meat Loaf plays a former delivery boy. Not to be overlooked, Peter Hinwood gives us Rocky Horror, Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s creation in the form of an Aryan muscleman.

The soundtrack features such memorable ditties as “Science Fiction – Double Feature,” “Dammit Janet,” “The Time Warp,” “Sweet Transvestite,” “Don’t Dream It, Be It,” and “Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me.”

As it happened, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” wasn’t an immediate success. When the movie first opened, it totally bombed. Newsweek called the film “tasteless, plotless and pointless.” The New York Times dubbed a “low-budget freak show/ cult classic/ cultural institution” with “catchy” songs. Chicago Reader deemed the script’s wit as being “too weak to sustain a film.”

Director Jim Sherman and cast member Meat Loaf attended an opening week performance in the Midwest only to find the theater empty except for them.

Luckily, midnight screenings became popular in the mid-1970s. RHPS caught on and has been screened continuously in movie theaters since then, making it the longest theatrical run in history.

In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

Ranked number two in Entertainment Weekly’s “Top 50 Cult Films of All-Time.”

It’s also included amongst the “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die” list.

This wonky musical comedy began in 1973 as a London stage production succinctly called “The Rocky Horror Show.” Creator Richard O’Brien attributed it to his love of classic science fiction and horror movies. The play starred Tim Curry, Richard O’Brien, Patricia Quinn, and Nell Campbell. They reprised the same roles in the movie. And Curry and O’Brien would play the same roles on Broadway.

Filming took place at The Oakley Court in Windsor, England. The same location was used for the horror movies “The Brides of Dracula,” “And Now the Screaming Starts,” “The Old Dark House,” and “Murder by Death.” The castle now serves as a luxury hotel.

At the time, the castle had been left to rot (the owners wanted to demolish it, but it was designated as a historic site). The structure had serious leaks, so the cast was always wet and cold during the filming. There was one “warm room” filled with space heaters where the actors took turns warming up, until the room caught fire.

Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon felt unwell during production, due to this movie being filmed in the winter of 1974. Bostwick was sick with a cold and Sarandon contracted pneumonia.

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is said to have been an influence on the countercultural and sexual liberation movements that followed the ‘60s. It was one of the first musicals to “depict fluid sexuality during a time of division between generations and a lack of sexual difference acceptance.” A major theme running throughout the musical is transvestism.

Brad and Janet’s initiation into Frank-N-Furter’s world has been compared to the self-discovery of “queer identity.” The film’s diversity has been explored in such books as “Bisexuality, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Me.” And “How the Rocky Horror Picture Show Smashed Open America’s Closets” said: “The folks standing in line outside the State in fishnets and makeup every Saturday night undoubtedly widened the sphere of possibilities for gender expression on Main Street.”

Today, RHPS is seen as a rite of passage for teenagers. Princess Diana once told Tim Curry, with a “wicked smile”, that Rocky Horror had “quite completed my education.” Ironic, since Tim Curry modelled Dr. Frank-N-Furter’s voice after Queen Elizabeth II.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com