Outrageous!

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

What an unexpected treat.Long before Pricilla and all the others, there was Craig Russell. His impersonations remains vividly embedded in my brain because besides the look and mannerisms, I perceived the soul of the characters in question. They are not caricatures but tributes. His Judy Garland is heartbreaking and his Mae West hilarious.As if all that was not enough we have a screenplay of such intelligence and wit that I'm surprised this film is not a classic. When Holly's doctor finds out she lives with a man, he tries to warn her about the risks (she's bi polar) of an emotional, sexual entanglement. She reassures him telling him "Don't worry, we sleep in separate worlds" Lovely.

["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!!)

... has made me think of this movie thousands of times since I saw it (and marveled at Taylor) at the old Playboy Theater in Chicago on a particularly nasty winter night. This was when it (and I) first came out, and I've not seen it since, so pardon my fumbles on the details, but.... One character is *waaay* down in the pit of despair toward the end of the film, and second character basically delivers a get-over-it slap: "You're just like everybody else. You're alive and sick and living in Toronto...." The audience roared. Who needs "alive and well"? We all *are* alive and sick and living wherever. And alive and sick (or sick of heart, or sick of it all) and living lots of places since, it's slapped me back into a smile more times than I can count. It was quite a gift, in its sweet neurotic way.

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.