User reviews

"The Lady and the Dale" (2021 release; 4 episodes of about 55 min. each) brings the unlikely, if not too good to be true, story of Liz Carmichael and her mid-70s three-wheeled car, simply called the Dale, which sells for peanuts and promises 70 MPG. In the opening episode, we get the background on the improbable rise of Liz CarMichael, just as we are dealing with the oil crisis and this country is crying out for an alternative car that is cheap and gas-efficient. Liz teams up with car designer Dale Cliff, and before you know it, they become the buzz of the car industry... At this point we re 10 min. into the opening episode.

Couple of comments: this series is the feature length/mini series-debut of directors Nicl Cammilleri and Zachary Drucker. Here they team up to bring us the life and times of Liz CarMichael, about as unlikely a star in the automotive industry as you will ever find. I am biting my tongue as the initial two episodes are facts-heavy and plot-heavy, so I want to make sure I am not spoling anyone's viewing experience. Let me just say that, from watching the initial two episodes, this is a rollicking and yes, super enjoyable, documentary tv mini-series. The less you know going in, the better. I will admit that I had never heard of Liz CarMichael or this concept car the Dale (probably because I moved from Belgium to the US only in 1983, after all of this played out).

"The Lady and the Dale" premiered this weekend on HBO with 2 of the 4 episodes. These 2 episodes are now available on HBO On Demand and other streaming services. Episodes 3 and 4 will premiere over the next 2 weekends. Can't wait to see how it all will play out. If you have any interest in a documentary that once again proves that facts are stranger than fiction, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

*UPDATE 2/14/21* I just watched the last episode tonight on HBO. This was a wild ride all around. So much territory was covered, from the automotive industry to trans gender issues and much more in between. In all, a documentary series well worth seeking out.

I loved the way this was presented. Much more fun to watch than actors trying to portray famous people. An interesting story that I was surprised I never heard of before.

Strange and fascinating four part Documentary about a transgender woman named Elizabeth Carmichael (nee Jerry Dean Michael) who briefly gained notoriety in the 70s when she launched production of a three-wheeled automobile (The Dale) and claimed that it could get 75 miles to the gallon. As this was during an energy crisis, and Carmichael also said it would retail for under two grand it became a media sensation. Nick Cammilleri and Zachary Drucker do a good job of laying out the entire saga and make it abundantly clear that Carmichael was a born huckster and con artist from the get go. That she was able to convince those around her that she still had a heart of gold is particularly fascinating. Her family, children and employees most often still speak fondly despite her life of crime. For the most part, the Doc moves along fairly well even with a total length approaching four hours. Unfortunately, the last couple of episodes spend too much time on trying to 'exonerate' her sins a bit too much, and also goes out of its way to may Los Angeles new reporter Dick Carlson into a villain (he does that well enough himself in contemporary interviews and old news footage). And, no matter how much Cammilleri and Drucker try to make Carmichael a Trans Heroine, the basic fact remains that she was a lifelong criminal who bilked people out of money and hurt, if not ruined, a number of lives. Lady And The Dale is an inherently gripping tale, but, a little less of a heavy hand would have only improved it.

Fascinating story with plentiful plot twists. It's crazy that it's taken this long for the story to be told.

The backstory of Liz Carmichael and the dodgy business of the Dale is interesting and worth a look into. But to the length this documentary goes to attempt to glorify a mass fraudster, scammer, criminal and fugitive... is quite disgusting. Even more hilarious when the "historian" and Liz herself attempt to blame the government and other businesses for "harassing" her - completely ignoring the dozens and more criminal acts she has already been doing, and kept doing.

The documentary completely glances over all the lives this person has ruined, all the people who's lost money and gotten in trouble due to her scams. Wives and children just throw to the side and abandoned. It's all presented in a goofy paper-cutout look to attempt to make the crimes and act sound more lighthearted. How they thought it was a good idea to praise a criminal and fraudster like this is beyond rational belief. We all know it is only because she was trans, and therefor should be praised no matter what. This really could have been so much better.

Intriguing HBO documentary about a serial con man. Better than "McMillions".

A fascinatingly layered story about con artist and idiosyncratic maverick Liz Carmichael. Although, it's not about her - it's about the miracle three-wheel car that could've saved America. Although, it's not about that either - it's about the insidious treatment of trans women by the rapacious American press and how that dark prejudice still runs through the cultural discourse today. All that and it also serves as a sort of US postwar narrative about poverty, crime and the strange benefits and brutal truths of a life lived off the grid.

It's a solid documentary series with some excellent interviews but the distinctive cutout animation used throughout is a real double-edged sword, it's a creative method of delivering the narrative but it's often incredibly awkward and terribly ugly like a mixture of Angela Anaconda and the terrifying "living world" segment of Grim Fandango. Not so bad during the more silly segments, but when it's trying to be more dramatic or emotional it feels horribly stiff.

Ultimately it's a distinct and compelling portrait of a life, told with narrative flair and variable animation. Definitely worth a watch and although as stated, Carmichael is no role model, she was a charismatic personality and her story will stay with me long after the janky cut-out flailings leave my mind.

It was a good documentary until the filmmakers decided to excuse all of Liz's grifing, worker exploitation and greed by claiming transphobia. This was not a case of bias - this was a con-woman getting what she deserved. Despite fleeing the law for so many years. Pick another person if you want to show transphobia. This subject and her family are NOT sympathetic.

The overuse of paper cut out animation to depict a potentially interesting story makes this show unwatchable. I can only assume this show's creators thought their story was not interesting enough so they resorted to a cartoonish, paper cutout graphic with rapid frame to keep your attention. I found it very annoying. 1 episode and done for me.

Watching the promotional materials, it seems like this would be your standard true-crime documentary, though as the series progressed, it seems like that wasn't what the team behind this project wanted. The later episodes seemed to focus more about issues transgender individuals face in the criminal justice system, which I think would've made more sense at the beginning, and I get the sense that what they wanted to make the whole documentary about. It's an interesting subject, but it's not what I thought I was going to watch.

I don't think I've seen a true-crime documentary so uninterested in the actual crime.

I remember seeing a very condensed version of this story years ago on some crime show, but nothing about the bigger picture. This is a really crazy story about someone who not only lived for years scamming and running from the law, but also had a family that they loved and became pulled into a wild lifestyle as well . I also loved the way cut-outs were used in a visually satisfying technique to keep the viewer engaged in parts of the story that have little photo or video archive to show. Whatever your views on the main character are, this is a truly interesting part of American history that few are familiar with.

There have been car failed car mavericks but there is only one that was a woman born a man. That's enough for a story right there, but there's more. The Lady & The Dale attempts to bring as much of the backstory and quite unusual facts surrounding Elizabeth Carmichael to light. It's a humdinger. The story itself is interesting enough, even with irritating animated segments filling in for whatever it fill-ins for. Sometimes you just wish Carmichael would have been shut-down long before all of this transpired. But, you may also root for her vision a three-wheeled gas-sipping automobile may have found a market the Big Three would never pursue. Of interest, at least to me, Tucker Carlson's adopted father broke the story which, at the time, gave him needed credibility as an apparently "iffy" story he wrote for Look magazine led to the publications demise due to a large settlement and Look's declining popularity. So oddball is this story it does stun and entertain...sadly there was more than just monetary loss.

There's an interesting story to be told here. Many, in fact, but this documentary hasn't decided how it wants to tell them, and takes wild, jarring mood swings mid-course as it changes its mind on what it wants to be about. Its first act is a rapid collage chronicling the early life of a career confidence trickster, told from a distant, historical, perspective. Act 2 focuses on the building and promoting of the car company, told from a much more interpersonal and present-tense narrative, with inevitable, ever-encroaching disaster ratcheting the drama. The final act mostly tells the post-collapse story, now from a perspective of reminiscence, with a very blurred focus that alternates between the central character and an exploration of the broader topic of transgenderism in society, often losing relevance to the Liz Carmichael story.

Overall, the documentary feels like a TV show that's twice been canceled and switched networks, each time being revived in a different form by new creators who are OK with abandoning the continuity of previous seasons for the sake of the new ideas that they want to promote. We're used to that happening over long-running TV series, but when it happens within episodes of a short miniseries, it's just... weird.

Great true story of a fascinating human being. Extremely riveting entertainment!

Gerry/Liz Carmichael committed crimes. Was Carmichael transsexual? Sure but it has nothing to do with the fact that Carmichael was a CON ARTIST AND CRIMINAL. Terrible documentary

I see a lot of comments here that want to be outraged by a sympathetic portrayal of a fascinating and complicated human being. There are accusations that the filmmakers have weaponized transphobia to explain away her crimes. However, I have to cry foul here. So many criminals are allowed to be glamourized and celebrated through film and media. From The Godfather to Bonnie and Clyde or Margot Robbie's Tonya Harding...go to the comment section of these characters and you won't find the storytellers roasted for portraying them as more then criminal. I do think Liz and her transness is the source of a certain vitriol even to this day as evidenced by these 'reviews'. My hope is that the viewer can watch The Lady and the Dale and be in awe of a highly intelligent, courageous, inventive person light years ahead of her time. It's hard enough to to survive in this world even if you are lucky enough to have the privilege of being white, straight and gender normative. I cannot even imagine the courage and strength one would have to possess to attempt to soar as high as Liz did in a world that is quite literally organized in a way to keep her othered and invisible. She led an interesting life and I'm glad I was able to witness her story just a little bit.