PART ONE: THE BEGINNING, PART ONE
In the summer of 1990, tensions were high between the United States and Iraq. “Ghost” was a number one hit at the box office. Greyhound Bus Lines files for bankruptcy. MC Hammer’s “You Can’t Touch This” was rockin’ the country with it’s smooth grooves. NBC airs episodes of “Quantum Leap” for five straight days! Perhaps I, too, could write lame scripts for pseudo documentaries on The Discovery Channel.
Also in the summer of ’90, a young man you may have indeed met, one named Michael Harris, saw a particular film for the first time. You may know this young man as Mike. You may know him as Harris. You may know him as Michael……or……you may just simply know him.....if that is possible.
Our young friend was invited one Friday evening to see a film he had heard of but had never seen. This film…..a film that was a movie…..some know as……”The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” The location was set: the General Cinema Valley View Theater, the great 2 screen picture palace once a proud member of the now defunct General Cinema family of theaters. I believe the great Valley View closed just a few years after our young friend’s introduction to it’s wonders of amazing wonders. One thing that struck our hero was that the concession stand was open for this midnight showing of the Picture Show. Michael wondered to himself, having learned by this time of the inner workings of a movie theater concession stand from his job at the long gone AMC Irving 6 Theater, why it would be open during Rocky Horror, but was but a few minutes away from finding out. One other thing that struck our hero was the fact that three girls had invited him to go see a movie at midnight….and he got to sit in the back seat with the most attractive of the three. 17 should have been a much better year.
Seated in the auditorium, the first thing by which our friend was struck was how cool it was that the print of Rocky Horror appeared to be one struck in 1975 when the film was first released. There were plenty of splices and cracks in the film, much to his delight. I know some shudder at the notion of watching a film with multiple splices and frames missing, however, in an old film, this can be quite exciting. I think it emphasizes the fact that you are watching celluloid run through a projector. I used to love going to the dollar cinema in Irving, the Chateau, and watching movies there. The prints of the film were sometimes beat up badly and the splices and dirt to be found at every reel change was inspiring. The splices in the opening song from the film, “Science Fiction Double Feature,” were mesmerizing. Why can’t all films have such splices and dirt marks on them?
“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” was at the tail end of it’s midnight show popularity in 1990, so it was a full auditorium in which our friend sat with his three sexy friends. Our friend was only slightly annoyed at not being able to hear the dialogue in the film because he knew that seeing “Rocky Horror” is an experience more than it is watching a movie. He had never experienced an audience participation event such as this evening at the Valley View. The experience was better than the movie. It was great to watch the live performers say things like “Oh, shit!” in response to a line from the second song in the film, “Janet.” Of course, the classics, “Sweet Transvestite” and “Time Warp” were fun to hear and watch performed by the live actors also. The last good song in “Rocky Horror” is “I Can Make You a Man,” sung by Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter to his creation, Rocky. Our hero, Michael, found to movie to fall off dramatically after the first hour, around the time Meat Loaf enters the film.
There was then, in 1981, a follow-up to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” called “Shock Treatment.” At this point, the story of our hero Michael’s first viewing is complete. Let us leave him now and move onto something else of equal, but certainly not greater importance.
PART TWO: DUODENUM
Some do not think of “Shock Treatment” as a sequel to Rocky Horror, but more as just another story featuring Brad and Janet, the two lead characters from Rocky Horror. Either explanation works for me. I did not know much about “Shock Treatment” other than the fact that two different actors play Brad and Janet, and that some of the cast members from Rocky Horror return: Richard O’Brien, Patricia Quinn, Charles Gray, and Nell Campbell. I knew Tim Curry was not in it nor was his character, Frank-N-Furter. I also remember that reviews for this film were not favorable back in 1981. I am not sure why that would have been so. “Shock Treatment” is a fun and fairly briskly-paced musical with some good songs and a surprising performance by the very interesting actress, Jessica Harper, as Janet. Susan Sarandon played Janet in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” The most interesting thing about Jessica Harper, aside from her stunning beauty, is her list of credits from 1976-1981:
1976—Inserts—a good X-rated United Artists released film starring Richard Dreyfuss, about a successful Hollywood filmmaker in the 1920’s who begins making silent pornos
1977—Susperia—an Italian horror film directed by Dario Argento
1977—an episode of Hawaii Five-O
1978—The Evictors—a low budget horror film
1980—Stardust Memories—a Woody Allen film
1981---Pennies From Heaven—a musical starring Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters
1981—Shock Treatment—the follow-up to Rocky Horror
In 1989, she would co-star with Garry Shandling on his brilliant Showtime program, “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” on which she played Garry’s girlfriend.
I did not know she could sing and sing very well! Harper plays Janet wonderfully as a woman who is still a bit on the naïve side, but is growing more annoyed by her equally naïve husband, Brad, played by Cliff DeYoung, who also is a fantastic singer.
At the beginning of “Shock Treatment,” we find Brad and Janet in the audience of what turns out to be a 24-hour plus television show run by Farley Flavors (also played by Cliff DeYoung). Brad and Janet are chosen to take part in a game show hosted by Bert Schnick (Barry Humphries, aka Dame Edna), on which Janet can put Brad in a mental institution so as to change him. I know this sounds goofy, but it works in this film. The mental institution is part of another tv program called Dentonvale, named for the town in which all this takes place, Denton. I don’t think Denton is supposed to be in Texas, but it is more fun to think it is. Richard O’Brien, Riff Raff in Rocky Horror, plays Dr. Cosmo McKinley and Patricia Quinn, Magenta in Rocky Horror, plays Nation McKinley. The McKinleys are the doctors assigned to cure Brad. Through a variety of musical numbers, Janet grows to find Brad’s naïve ways frustrating and goes along with allowing him to undergo “a little bit of shock treatment.” "Shock Treatment" is one of the best songs in the film, however, Jessica Harper’s solo “In My Own Way” and the song performed at the beginning and the end of the film, “Denton USA,” are better with “Denton USA” being the best song in the film. There are no bad songs in “Shock Treatment” which is one reason why it is so enjoyable. It reminded me of the slightly better “Rock N’Roll High School” (1979). Both films are fun and do not take themselves seriously. Both of these films would be more palatable to the average movie buff than “Xanadu,” “The Apple,” or “Can’t Stop the Music,” three other musicals from the same time frame (1979-1981) which are commonly looked upon as crap, however I embrace these three films because they are off-kilter and just trying to have a good time. I embrace “Shock Treatment” and “Rock N’Roll High School” as well, though these two films are obviously better movies and do not inspire the same kind of laughter that the other three do.
I found “Shock Treatment” to be a continuation of the story of Brad and Janet that happened to include four cast members from “Rocky Horror,” but not those actors’ same characters. There are some cool references to “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” in “Shock Treatment,” such as the return to Denton and a picture of the famous lips from Rocky Horror on the cover of a magazine. There may have been more, but it has been a long time since I have seen “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Some maintain that in “Shock Treatment,” director Richard O’Brien, is making a statement about fame and the willingness of society to assign fame to any random person who does not deserve such fame. It is easy to make this claim, however, in 1981, the concept of reality tv and fame out of nowhere was not as prevalent as it is now. There was usually a good reason for someone becoming famous back then. Now, it is true that it seems one can become famous for doing nothing like the Kardashians or any given person who has gained internet fame. I think O’Brien is making the statement that the tastes of any given audience or society can be easily swayed to one direction or another by just simply suggesting that any given person or thing should be famous. In “Shock Treatment,” Janet is chosen to be a celebrity out of the blue and the audience accepts her as such without any prior knowledge of her existence. I don’t think O’Brien had any foreknowledge of the abomination that is reality television. Maybe he did have a suspicion. Anyway, aside from trying to pick his brain, “Shock Treatment” is a very enjoyable movie that allows the viewer to simply have fun while poking a little bit of fun at the modern society of the time. Netflix it and have fun. Don’t be shocked to find you enjoy it.
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