by Mark Demetrius
Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Holly Woodlawn Tally Brown Suzanne Skillen David Margulies
Intro:
… an absolute hoot.
Critically derided upon its initial release, and quickly withdrawn from the screen, this 1972 film is actually a comic gem which sparkles with adventurousness and imagination. For all its abiding zaniness, it’s not self-indulgent and has a rather rigorous internal logic, the bizarre title being a good example of that; it’s a quote from the Old Testament.
Plot is not the point here, because the movie is at once low-budget and high-concept: smalltown girl moves to New York City to become an actress. The innocent abroad, who hails from Topeka Kansas and is played by transgender actress Holly Woodlawn, is one Eve Harrington. (As in All About Eve — most of the characters take their names from famous movies.) Fans of Andy Warhol films will recognise Woodlawn from gems like Trash.
There’s no one typical scene here, but you can probably gauge something about the prevailing high camp ethos from the fact that, when Eve checks into the Chelsea Hotel, she is welcomed by a bellhop clad in leather and a gas mask.
This is a film spinning with cinematic allusions, witticisms, photogenic locations and good rock and soul music, both onscreen and on the soundtrack. There are songs by Bette Midler, a glorious country blues by ‘Mary Poppins’ (Tally Brown) … And then there’s the voiceover by Lily Tomlin … flashbacks … fantasy sequences and other set-pieces … If that sounds cluttered, it somehow isn’t. And cementing the whole thing together is Holly Woodlawn’s strong and singular performance, which has elements of both slapstick and pathos. She was — or should have been — a star.
Scarecrow In a Garden of Cucumbers is an absolute hoot.
