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Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains More at IMDbPro »

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33 reviews in total

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15 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Seldom-seen satire of media's role in rock, 31 March 2001
Author: thomandybish from Weaverville, NC

This film apparently is one of the best-kept secrets of 80s cinema, a movie that was born to be a cult hit. The film focuses on an orphaned teen(Diane Lane)who hits the road with her three girl rock group the Stains as opening acts for an over-the-hill glam rock group and an up-and-coming British new wave/punk outfit. When the glam rock group bows out due to the death of their drummer(who is mourned by his several common-law wives and illegitimate children), the Stains and the other group slog on alone, with Lane and her group quickly grabbing the spotlight through a series of gimmicky stunts and gaining media notoriety(for one, the girls all dye white skunk-like stripes down the middle of their heads, causing a new teenybopper trend). The film looks down the long, thin line that separates fame from notoriety, a line that has grown increasingly blurred in the past 20 years. We see the way the media latches on to these girls and their antics, making them celebrities over night, and unmaking them just as quickly. But not to fear, for the girls latch on to a new medium, the rock video, and find themselves the fame they deserve.

It's no accident that this movie came out the same year that M-TV premiered, because a lot of the fears and concerns that M-TV generated(some of them still valid)are explored. Is rock that relies on the visual image really rock? Is rock's spirit diluted or prostituted by videos? In an era where we watch television shows based on a corporate entity's quest to "create" a pop group, the questions are valid ones. I saw this movie on VH-1 a couple of years ago, and now regret not taping it. Supposedly it was labelled unreleasable and never made it to the theatres, and has yet to appear on video. Pity, because there's much to like--and discuss--that is still relevant today.

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16 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
Nostalgia!, 9 September 2004
Author: rnelson-10 (rnelson@library.utah.edu) from Utah

My DVD player crapped out on me and I was going through my old VHS pile and watched this again. Like most, I had taped my copy off of Nightflight in about 1985. I was a devoted fan of that show; as a sophomore in College at Montana State U, it certainly helped develop my taste in music and I was extremely vexed when USA replaced it with idiot Gilbert Gottfried and those dumb cut up teen sex comedies (Up All Night). I wonder whatever happened to the voice over woman from Night Flight and Radio 1990? She was attractive and had more than a "voice for radio". Or whatever happened to the other Radio 1990 alum Lisa Robinson?

My recollections on the movie

1. First off, how great is it that back in the mid 80s USA could run a movie without obsessing over bleeping out shits and fucks etc and tolerating glimpses of underage flesh 2. The commercials from cable in the 80s are hilarious to watch today (Videos on break dancing!) 3. How about the young Ray Winstone as the Looters/Johnny Rotten doppelganger (the beefy guy from Sexy Beast in his pallid youth) 4. Fee Waybill was awesome. I couldn't tell if it was cinema verite' or self parody in his performance 5. The whole "I Don't Put Out" empowerment is sure a far cry from Britney, Christina and the rest of the current pop trollops infesting the airwaves and TV twenty(!) years later 5. Loved Lawnboy and the whole way reggae and punk intertwined as music made by those on the margins. "Everybody want to go to heaven, but nobody want to die"; from Peter Tosh lyrics 6. I loved the added ending "Emp-TV" video for Join the Professionals. Awesome. They didn't release that as a 45 single did they? 7. Diane Lane was perfect for the part but Laura Dern didn't really impress considering how her acting career developed a few years later 8. Christine Lahti was also good in her limited time on screen 9. With all the crap in the DVD racks, why can't this little gem get re-released? Didn't Lou Adler make a fortune on those $80 Complete Monterey Music Festival DVD box sets? 10. Any hope of any TV DVD box sets of Night Flight? Or is that more of a pipe dream

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12 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Diane Lane got an Oscar nomination today - NOW can this film be released on video???!, 11 February 2003
Author: Joyela from Midwest, U.S.A.

For this film not to be available to the public (with the exception of the odd midnight movie crowd) is scandalous!! It's a touchstone for the next twenty years of pop culture! The film predicts the Madonna Wanna-Be craze by *years*; there's nods to such programming as MTV and such shows as VH1's Behind the Music & Driven; it was co-written by the cool, great Jonathan Demme; it features early screen appearances by later screen/TV stars Laura Dern, Christine Lahti, Star Trek's Brent Spiner (has the line, "You're fired!" ever been uttered more emphatically on film??), Rugrats voice Elizabeth Daily, B-Movie Goddess Debbie Rochon, and it stars newly-minted Unfaithful Oscar nominee Diane Lane, in a performance arguably as solid as the one she's just been nominated for. SO WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?? Release the film on video/DVD already!!!

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7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
The best "punk" movie you've never seen., 14 May 2001

Author: gein from Seattle

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Warning: Depending on how you look at it, this review contains spoilers.

I was fortunate enough to see Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains in 1983 during its VERY limited "art-house" run at Western Washington University. It played along with other punk rock classics such as Lech Kowalski's D.O.A. and Penelope Spheeris's Decline of Western Civilization. Unfortunately, I did not appreciate the film at the time. I was a young punk who had these "purist" ideals about what punk was all about. (Didn't we all?) I completely missed the film's message against uniformed conformity. The only thing I appreciated about the film was its down-and-out ending with the ultimate demise of Diane Lane's character.

Recently, at Seattle's Experience Music Project I (along with a couple hundred other lucky individuals) was treated to a special screening of this nearly forgotten classic.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains is the story of Corrine "Third Degree" Burns (Diane Lane) and her all-girl punk band called The Stains (Laura Dern & Marin Kanter). Initially, The Stains are given a chance to tour backing up a young English punk band The Looters & an old washed up heavy metal act The Metal Corpses. The Looters are Paul Cook & Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols and Paul Simonen of The Clash. The Metal Corpses feature Fee "Hey, is there any coke in this coke?" Waybill and Vince Welnick of The Tubes. Eventually The Stains generate a media frenzy, due mainly to Corrine's transparent blouse and rallying cries like "We're the Stains and we don't put out!" and "I'm a waste of time." They attract a large following of "skunks" - young girls who adopt Corrine's image as well as attitude.

I'll stop here to throw a little trivia your way. During the beginning credit sequence, Rob Morton is credited as the writer, but as we all know it was Nancy "Slap Shot" Dowd who actually wrote the screenplay. According to interviews with Dowd, there was sexual harassment on the set with terrible conflicts with the film's director Lou Adler. After a cameraman grabbed one of Dowd's breasts, she walked off the set and asked for her name to be stricken from the film. Dowd's confrontation caused Paramount to stall the release of the film. One year later, Paramount finally showed the film to a test audience (a group of spoiled Orange County brats). The audience whined about the downbeat ending. Waaaaah!!! To fulfill contractual obligations, Paramount released the film to literally a handful of "art houses."

The Fabulous Stains sat moldering on the shelves at Paramount for a couple of years until the USA channel asked for permission to air the film on their popular late-night show, Night Flight. Paramount agreed, but some brain-dead studio exec wanted to add a "happy ending". So, Paramount re-shot a confusing MTV style "happy ending" with Diane Lane, Laura Dern and Marin Kanter (THREE YEARS LATER!!!). These scenes are interesting to watch because Laura Dern had grown foot taller since the original filming. She ends up towering over her band-mates! Pretty funny.

More trivia: this will probably be the only time you will see Dangerhouse recording artist/owner (and punk legend!!!) Black Randy and his band, The Metrosquad perform their classic, "I Slept In An Arcade." Black Randy died of an AIDS related illness after being offered a "dirty" syringe from Dangerhouse partner Dave Brown. In addition, Black Randy portrays a Mexican classical guitarist sneaking into an audition as part of an amusing cameo.

Still more trivia: It is interesting to see the base similarities between Ladies & Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains and Nancy Dowd scripted Slap Shot. Both films' main characters originate from the dark-dreary steel-mill town of Charlestown and eventually wind up escaping their dead-end lives via tour bus.

Despite the "happy ending," Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains should be required viewing for all those interested in punk history and to see the film that inspired many "riot-grrl" acts like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Cub, Sleater-Kinney and even Courtney "Hole" Love. Unfortunately, you will probably never see this film unless you buy a bootleg copy of it. It has never been available on video or DVD and Paramount has no plans on releasing it.

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9 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
Tough, scrappy film has amazing moments..., 9 December 2005

Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca

Unreleased theatrical feature financed by Paramount was once an '80s staple on the USA network (in their weekend "Night Flight" movie slot). It's a satirical comedy-drama with music which finds angry, rebellious teen Diane Lane caught by reality-TV cameras getting fired from a fast food restaurant; soon, she, her sister, and a cousin hit the road with their barely-rehearsed punk band and find failure, success, unintended exploitation, and life's little ironies outside of their blue-collar town. Reminiscent of the later "This is Spinal Tap", the film has a sense of humor far more sly, less forced and obvious. Lane is so tough at first, one doesn't know how to respond to her (she pushes everyone away); somewhere down the line she begins to soften and becomes more flexible, and you see the desperation underneath her scowl--you see her pathos just once, when she gives the bus-driver money for his brother (a subtle scene that speaks volumes). Harsh in both its writing and directing, unblinking in its teenage hostility, the film still manages to be funny (intentionally so) and with a cutting edge; it's like a breath of fresh air to the disenfranchised. *** from ****

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7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Awesome!!, 31 July 2004
Author: david (buddieboy99@yahoo.com) from Oakland, California

This movie is awesome. I first saw this film in 1983 when i was 15 on a TV show called "Night Flight" (anybody remember it?), fell head over heels in love w/ teenage Diane Lane & have never forgotten the impact this film made on me & watching it recently brought back many memories. I have been looking for this film for 20yrs & i finally found a copy! It basically tells a very cynical & realistic tale totally bashing the music industry. Young female nobody has ambition to be somebody, forms a band called The Stains with her cousins (one, a very young Laura Dern), goes on the unglamorous rough & lonely road with 2 other very chauvinistic rival male bands--a has-been-on-its-last-legs headliner & an up & coming punk band. Fee Waybill of the Tubes is great as the has-been & Paul Cook of The Sex Pistols has another great role as the lead singer of the punk band. BTW, the songs in this movie are very good & very catchy---you will find yourself singing "We're the Professionals!" for days! As the girls rise to the top they're punk hair, clothes & attitude become a symbol of young female power & all the rage with young girls everywhere. they're slogan "We Don't Put Out" becomes the anthem of girl power that sweeps the nation. They're rise to the top is squashed by the backstabbing music industry & the conservative male dominated American media. The fluffy MTV styled video at the end is the icing on the cake! This movie is awesome because it takes on so many issues without ever losing the central story of this film or becoming cheesy or preachy. They really don't make movies like this anymore & I can say that this film is an unequivocal classic with Diane Lane putting on the performance of her life. wow! what an actress. Even the so-called "indie" films of today try too hard to be "shocking" & just end up being predictable & exploitative, never coming close to the realistic telling-it-like-it-is nature of this film. The thing I don't understand is why this film is never shown & why its never mentioned. I hear there is a "Making of Ladies & Gents The Fabulous Stains" with all the actors talking about this film that i would LOVE to get. This movie was also a huge inspiration to Courtney Love I've also heard. Check this film out if you can find it!!!!

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10 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
a real Flight by Night, 23 February 2003
Author: JG

With Diane Lane's beautiful, astonishing, must-get-the-Oscar turn in Unfaithful (since the last thing I really remember seeing her before that was Lady Beware, and if I were to bother reviewing that, my summary would be Viewer Beware, or more unkindly, Lady Beware The Between-Meal Snacks), I remembered seeing this film on the late lamented Night Flight, when it still showed uncut, uncensored, banned, obscure videos and films relating to rock and roll. Ah the good old days of early cable...

This film is a must-see, not just for Diane Lane fans, but for any rock film fan. It is a bit contrived in some parts, but brutally honest in others, and seemed to confront every '80's rock dream - from Tiffany to MTV to Madonna..and beyond - Britney and Xtina, anyone?

Many other reviews here say all there is to say about the film, since I have only seen it that one time, and can't add anything particularly pithy about it. The fact that I remember it all these years later, after just being reminded of the abysmal failure which was Streets of Fire, makes me want to see the Stains play again.

There are scenes I still remember vividly, and while some of the movie will seem forced and a bit dated even for the time it was released, it has a certain honesty that stayed with me all these years - mostly due to a powerful and honest performance by a very young Diane Lane. The same honesty and power she shows in Unfaithful...

A real shame that this movie is not available for home viewing, and should be released on dvd and vhs at a time when Lane is hopefully going to walk away with an Oscar.

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
An Undiscovered Cult Classic, 16 June 1999
Author: G-Man-25 from Iowa City, IA

This film deserved a better shot at finding an audience than it got from its studio, which basically declared it unreleasable and threw it away. To be sure, it's not for ALL tastes but it's WAY better than a lot of the teen-oriented dreck that made millions in the 80s..Basically the story of the rise and fall of a street-wise girl (Diane Lane) and her punk rock band, the film has moments of satire and drama that ring remarkably true, even in this day and age. This is the only other film I know of directed by famed Los Angeles music producer Lou Adler (his other was the first Cheech & Chong monster hit "Up In Smoke")....this film has the same loose, anything-goes style but Adler shows that he works well with actors, getting fresh and inspired performaces all around. The only print seen for years of this film has been on USA Network's "Up All Night" and it was ruthlessly edited. I'd like to see this one show up on a premium channel like Cinemax or Showtime so I could see it completely uncut (since the chances of seeing it released on video are no doubt slim to none)

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8 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
I was in this movie..............., 11 July 2004
Author: (refkim1@telus.net) from Edmonton, Alberta Canada

I was a student in high school when the film crew and actors/actresses came to Vancouver, British Columbia Canada to film this movie.

They had a radio contest at the local radio station called 14 CFUN and they wanted people to come down to the radion station to sign up to be "extras" in the movie. I had never done this before, but took a chance and was selected. I was to play a "skunk".

We filmed down at the exhibition grounds of the P.N.E. {Pacific National Exhibition}.

I missed 3 days of school to do this movie and had the time of my life! Actually, it was even more fun when I found a friend of mine was also picked as an extra.

I remember meeting and getting the autographs of the Sex Pistols and Clash members who were there. I actually didn't even know that there were other "stars" in this movie until I had found this website and saw the cast list.

I also remember eating way too much "White Spot" {burgers and fries}. It seemed like that is all they fed us. I had been "called back" for a 3rd day of the shoot because they had chosen me for some "close-up shots".....much to my surprise.

I remember the costume and the makeup that we wore as "skunks". We all wore see-through red blouses with very high pumps on our feet. The makeup was kind of "skanky" and the big white stripe that they put down the middle of your hair. I can barely remember what we looked like.

I signed a contract with Paramount Pictures when the movie was still called "All Washed Up". I never did see it. Actually, when I was in Waikiki, Hawaii a couple of years later, we had been watching "sumo wrestling" on one of their channels and had fallen asleep. When I woke up, the credits to this movie were scrolling by!!!!!

I was soooooo upset about it, because I had never even seen the movie.

I have still yet to find this movie and would like very much to attain a copy of it on DVD.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
A very cool early 80's rock'n'roll cult favorite, 11 November 2008

Author: Woodyanders (Woodyanders@aol.com) from The Last New Jersey Drive-In on the Left

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Fiery and insolent rebellious teenager Corinne "Third Degree" Burns (a wonderfully raw and dynamic portrayal by Diane Lane) is angry about the untimely death of her mother. So she convinces her reluctant sister Tracy (the cute Marin Kanter) and her equally surly cousin Jessica (Laura Dern at her most adorable) to form a rowdy all-female punk group called the Stains (who look and sound like an unholy cross between the Shaggs and the Runaways). Despite having no real musical talent, the Stains still manage to get a gig as part of a tour along with the past their prime metal band the Metal Corpses (they stink) and the snarly punk outfit the Looters (who seriously smoke!). The Stains become huge stars because of their skimpy stage outfits, outrageous two-tone skunk hairstyles, defiant attitude (their motto is "We don't put out"), and, most of all, extensive media coverage by opportunistic TV news anchorwoman Alicia Meeker (delightfully played with lip-smacking relish by Cynthia Sikes). However, their moment in the spotlight proves to be fleeting when their loyal audience of adolescent girl admirers known as Skunks realize they've been had and turn on the band at a disastrous concert.

Director and noted music producer Lou Adler, working from a sharp and abrasive script by Nancy Dowd (who also wrote "Slap Shot"), offers a fiercely cynical and illuminating depiction of the more sordid aspects of the rock music business which include drug use (one member of the Metal Corpses dies of an overdose), performing in seedy dives, mindless consumerism, and especially how the media can either make or break a band. This film further benefits from excellent acting from a fine cast. Lane delivers a positively electrifying performance full of rage and passion that holds the whole picture together. Ray Winstone likewise shines as bitter and cranky, yet wise and knowing punk singer Billy, who tries to be a mentor for Corinne without much success. Christine Lahti only pops up in two scenes as Corinne's neurotic and regretful Aunt Linda, but makes a strong and lasting impression just the same. Special kudos are also in order for Barry Ford, who gives a marvelously engaging turn as laid-back and philosophical Jamaican bus driver Lawnboy. Plus there's nice support from David Clennon as sleazy agent Dave Robell, Fee Waybill as washed-up rocker Lou Corpse, John Lehne as smarmy newscaster Stu McGrath, and E.G. Daily as a perky hotel maid. Appearing as members of the Looters are erstwhile Sex Pistols Paul Cook and Steve Jones and Paul Simonon of the Clash. Horror scream queen Debbie Rochon makes her feature film debut an uncredited bit part as a Skunk. The gritty, yet polished cinematography by Bruce Surtees comes through with plenty of striking visuals and spot-on evocative shots of often dreary and grungy locations. A tad rough around the edges, but overall a really fun and rollicking blast of a movie.

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