Outrageous!

Bittersweet story of a hairdresser in Toronto who becomes a drag star (sort of) and his friendship with a schizophrenic girl trying to start a life away from her mother and hospitals. As played by Craig Russell and Hollis McLaren we see two fragile-but-believable characters struggling to find themselves in New York City.

McLaren's character of Liza has been released after years in a mental ward. She's still defiant and wants to experience life. She moves in with Russell in Toronto and has ups and downs and ends up pregnant. Russell is drawn to performing in a local club and loses his job, giving him the excuse to pursue his drag act full time, eventually moving to New York. After Liza loses her baby, she follows Russell to New York and realizes that the "bone crushers" she often hallucinates have stayed behind in Toronto.

The main focus though is Russell as he prepares for and then performs his act. He channels Tallulah Bankhead at the drop of a hat and with a series of wigs and quick changes he impersonates Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Carol Channing, Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald, Bette Midler, Ethel Merman, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Barbra Streisand, and Judy Garland. The Midler is not great but the others are pretty much spot on.

Best of all is is a full-dress Peggy Lee singing "It Ain't Easy." This is Russell's best act and the song is terrific (Paul Hoffert wrote it). It also bring us to the marvelous and surreal ending when Russell, still in full Peggy Lee drag tells Liza that she's not crazy, just special, and that she must simply be herself, embrace her madness and make it work for her. He tells her we are all mad and then teaches her to do a deep Bankhead laugh saying maaaaaad, maaaaad.

Also in the cast is the very funny Richert Easley as Perry, a would-be drag queen who has a passion for Karen Black. As he's begging Liza for the loan of a dress he grabs one out of the closet and she tells him "that's my best dress." He looks at her and opines, "This is your best?" Also in the cast are Helen Shaver as a lesbian friend and David McIlwraith as the cab driver/manager..

A word must be said for the wonderful music by Paul Hoffert, who in addition to "It Ain't Easy," also wrote "Step Out" sung by Cecille Frennette.

Outrageous! is a truly remarkable film, and an attest to the genius of Craig Russell. The film opened in Manhattan during the early fall of 1977 without so much as a trailer or publicity of any kind...just word of mouth. Within one week people were queuing up in droves to see it! Not coincidentally, Craig Russell, the film's star, was staging his brilliant one man show "A Man And His Women" right around the block from the cinema. This masterful stroke of showmanship made him the toast of Manhattan. Outrageous! is a film about human relationships and acceptance...of loving, supporting and encouraging those people whom you care about. It's filled with character studies that are rich and evocative. Craig Russell was truly a genius. He was in my opinion the greatest female "impressionist" of all time. By utilizing his own vocal talents, facial expressions and simple make-up and costume changes, he would transform into Mae West, Talulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Judy Garland, Carol Channing or Peggy Lee (to name but a few) so seamlessly, one would easily forget they weren't witnessing the genuine article. His one man show "A Man and His Woman" which played at "Theatre East"in Manhattan allowed audiences to see the true extent of his talent that was only touched upon in the film. Outrageous! is a film that dramatically changed and enriched my life. The film should be restored and reissued both theatrically and on DVD. It sends a profoundly positive message that should be passed on to future generations.

Cheers,

R. Stephen Weber Burbank, CA

["If a caterpillar was afraid of wings it would never become a butterfly, and people would say, 'Look, there's a worm on the tree....' But they'd never seen it spinning colors into the air......"]

I first saw "Outrageous" 22 years ago, (this will sound strange) I was so moved by it's greatness and at the time didn't have a VCR that I recorded it with a hand held tape recorder-audio-and that was how I 'watched' the movie for years til I got it on video. That is how incredibly touching, and GREAT this movie was and is! In it's unique way it almost reaches out and literally touches your heart if you let it. (And maybe even teach you a thing or two about life, love, people, and most important, FRIENDS!!)

The title of this small gem hasn't aged as well as the film itself, which is certainly different (refreshingly so), but hardly outrageous in this semi-enlightened age, The bittersweet story of a gay hairdresser and part time drag queen, who befriends a pregnant schizophrenic recently escaped from a Toronto snake pit, might seem to be stretching the limits of romantic comedy, but the film succeeds as an offbeat celebration of human individuality, warts and all. What makes it special is the way it refuses to pin down a unique relationship: Robin and Liza are simply indifferent to each other's differences. None of their friends (gay or straight) can understand them, but in retrospect they aren't really so odd a couple: one is schizoid by nature; the other by vocation. The message is simple: be yourself, even if half the time you're someone else, and the low-budget look adds a raw edge of realism to the scenario, blunting the sentimentality and giving the humor a grey lining of melancholy. The story loses focus only when the emphasis shifts away from the couple to Robin's stage career, a showcase for actor Craig Russell's pitch-perfect drag impersonations—from Mae West to Betty Davis to Ella Fitzgerald.

Outrageous is a very special film. Imagine you live in the 70s and you were in a club or theatre anywhere in Canada or the USA. The announcer says: Ladies and Gentlemen. Mrs. Judy Garland. You think by yourself. Judy Garland? I thought this woman is dead. But the women on the stage is not Judy Garland but Craig Russell (a Canadian), one of the best female impersonators of our century. Because he was not only able to imitate the look of his idols (many great actresses and singers from the 30s to the 60s). He could also imitate the voices of the women. In the film he plays a gay character (which he really was) who shares a flat with a schizophrenic woman and makes his unbelievable shows at the evening. Craig Russell died too early of AIDS and he made only two films: Outrageous and the sequel. Craig Russell was a unique person and after his death Canada and the world had lost one of its greatest idols.