After a meager theatrical run, Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (1982) found its target audience through television and VHS. Like Times Square (1980) before it, Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains became a cultural touchstone for the Riot grrrl movement and has found lasting longevity within that cultural legacy. From today’s vantage point, Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains is every bit as relevant as it ever was, offering audiences a less sentimental take on a feminist fantasy than Times Square.
Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains delivers both catharsis and wish fulfillment to its viewer as Corrine (Diane Lane), her sister Tracy (Marin Kanter) and her cousin Jessica (Laura Dern) defy the rock n’ roll establishment by making it big. Their story, clearly inspired by The Runaways, is anti-patriarchy, anti-capitalism, and anti-misogyny in equal turns. In both private and public spheres The Stains learn to break the bonds of society to express themselves as women uniquely and authentically. Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains never claims to be inspirational, but the few films that truly are rarely advertise it.
The counter point to The Stains is Ray Winstone’s group The Looters; a sort of proxy for British Punk music and culture. To this end The Looters are played by real life Punk icons Paul Simonon (of The Clash), Steve Jones and Paul Cook (both of The Sex Pistols). The reality of Punk collides with the feminist promise of post-Punk as imagined by The Stains. The two interweave ideologically yet Punk is depicted as incapable of supporting feminism. Ironically, the trademark look of The Stains comes from Punk trendsetter and artist Pamela Rooke (aka Jordan Mooney).
For the sake of Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains this dichotomy serves a dramatic purpose. Cultural nuances have no place in a film built around an underdog story with vast sociological implications within the world of the narrative. That is to say that Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains never acknowledges the existence of The Runaways, The Slits, or any other all-girl group even though these groups served as inspiration for the film. Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains is a film for the average American teenager circa 1982 who undoubtedly had no idea who Jordan Mooney or The Slits were.
In a way, Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains injected these influences into the mainstream, reiterating the same feminist act of defiance as Times Square. That these films became cult hits rather than box office smashes speaks more to the publicity engine of Hollywood than to the public. Studio executives could never imagine a world where films like Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains and Times Square made big money and connected with millions of people, so these films had to be discovered and incorporated into popular culture over the course of a decade.
Despite being directed by a man, Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains remains one of the key feminist texts in American youth culture of the eighties. Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains was penned by Nancy Dowd under a pseudonym that she would employ again on the film Swing Shift (1984). Dowd wrote Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains after working as an uncredited script “doctor” for three years. Although she rarely enters critical discourse today, Ladies & Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains should be proof enough that her contribution to the medium is worthy for canonization.
