Polyester

I remember seeing this the night it came out (God, was it really 22 years ago!). We all went down to a late night showing at the Cedar on the West Bank in Mpls., with about 4 hours worth of "feelgood" in us.

I was familiar with Waters' work, having seen PINK FLAMINGOS, and was ready for the "Odorama" cards handed out when you bought your ticket, but my "associates" were a bit mystified. It all led up to a very different & unique experience, which really hasn't been equaled since.

Basically, there were about 10 (numbered 1-10) scratch-n-sniff scents which were to be activated by you from the card when a flashing number appeared on the screen. They included a rotten egg smell for flatulence (somebody broke wind in the movie), along with a natural gas smell when a character stuck their head in an oven, among others. You get the idea. Anyway, it had the usual John Waters' cast of characters (Mink, Edith, Divine, etc.), along with the late, great Stiv Bators making his big-screen debut as (what else), a delinquent. Stiv pulls it off quite well, and everything else pretty much amounted to a fun show-going experience.

Not nearly as shocking as FLAMINGOS or FEMALE TROUBLE, but surely rent it if your into that sort of thing (a/k/a the pre-HAIRSPRAY Waters). I'm sure those "Odorama" cards are long gone, so you'll have to get creative on your own to replicate the experience that was "Odorama".

After several years of crudely made, crudely funny films such as PINK FLAMINGOS, director John Waters graduated to a somewhat more sophisticated style, and POLYESTER has a comparatively (note the word: comparatively) subtle script, cinematography that doesn't shake, sets and props that don't actually look like they were salvaged from the local junkyard, and even a mainstream star: 1950s matinée idol Tab Hunter.

The story concerns the extremely dysfunctional Fishpaw family. Husband Elmer is in the porno movie business; daughter Lu-Lu is a mindless teenage slut with a nasty boyfriend; son Dexter is wanted by the law for a sexual fixation that leads him to stomp women's feet! And then there is the mother, poor Francine, extra large and utterly at sea, hoping against hope for middle class respectability in the midst of it all.

Tab Hunter (who is even more of a stud here than in his earlier pretty-boy days) romancing female-impersonator Divine is a major draw, and there is enough hilarity--ranging from a nun-enforced hayride for single pregnant women during a rainstorm to a black gospel singer who hijacks a bus to chase down a juvenile delinquent--to keep the show rolling, and the satirical edge is often quite effective.

Even so, POLYESTER lacks the same shock appeal that made Water's earlier work so entertaining--and it is a tremendous pity that we can't experience the film in its original "ODORAMA." Recommended, but primarily for Waters fans interested in seeing him in his transitional phase.

Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer

If John Waters did nothing else in his career he created the fabulous screen team of Divine and Tab Hunter. Back in the day when he was one of Henry Willson's chiseled clients he was linked often on and off screen with Natalie Wood. Personally I think he works much better with Divine.

Polyester and it seemed everyone was wearing the fabric in 1981 in some manner is a wonderful satire on the American scene. Like Married With Children the Fishpaws are your typical American family seen with a jaundiced eye. But the Fishpaws make the Bundys look like the Cleavers.

Our leading character is Divine all 300 pounds of her who has let herself go to seed married to this bum of a husband David Samson who is getting on with his secretary. Divine is a good Christian woman who lives the middle class life due to Samson's income from a drive- in he owns where porn rules.

Her daughter Mary Garlington is the Kelly Bundy of the 80s. And her son Ken King has issues that make Bud Bundy look like the All American kid. He's not called the Baltimore Stomper for nothing.

In the end she gets shed of Samson and meets her dream man, Tab Hunter. But that's only the beginning.

Divine created some very funny characters for John Waters in her life. But they had a touch of pathos and sadness as well. This was her great strength as a performer.

Waters serves up some real funny stuff in Polyester. It's positively Divine.

I have to comment on this movie.It was 1981 and it was my birthday.I moved to a new job and knew absolutely no one and went to a theater to see "Polyester" knowing nothing about it.It was raining and as soon as I entered to buy a ticket three employees started laughing and looking at me.They said you are the only one here to see the movie.I was handed a card and I went to a seat and sat down and the previews started.An usher walked by and I said hey,turn down the lights and turn up the sound.I put my feet up on a seat-back and thought hey,this is okay.It was my first John Waters movie and I laughed a lot at the crazy movie.I used the scratch and sniff card as prompted by the screen which was cool.I had a great time.It wasn't until several years later when I saw more Water's films that I even knew that Divine was actually a man and Water's films were a wee tad irregular.If you are humored by odd movies and odd people then watch the movie.I wish I had saved the scratch and sniff card.Not a movie for the kids.

This must be one of the worst efforts in moviemaking I have ever seen, and also one of the funniest.

The story of Francine Fishpaw (played by transvestite Divine), the good Christian "wife" of a porntheater owner and how she became an alcoholic is told in such a bad and tasteless way that it became funny to watch. It really made me think of movies made by Ed Wood: so incredibly bad that they must become cult-classics. The timing in the movie amounts to nothing. There is no dicernable structure to be seen for miles around. The plottwists are too ludicrous for words. But it was all made with a lot of love and that is something that counts.

The sets on the other hand have been crafted in such a perfect obnoxious American suburban way that they made me shiver. The same thing counts for the costume design, absolutely fantastically horrible, all that Polyester.

At least John Waters in consistent in one aspect of the film: everybody is a lousy actor. There is absolutely nobody in this cast that can even remotely put on a decent performance. Edith Massey in particular is absolutely too horrible to watch. If only Joaquin Phoenix were old enough at the time, he would have played the role of Dexter Fishpaw to perfection, but he would have been too good for this cast.

The is the perfect exhibition of obnoxiousness and a great satire of American moral values.

7/10