Customer Reviews

Outrageous [VHS]

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

GAWD I miss the 70's!! Craig is wonderful as the bored hairdresser who decides to spread his wings and imitate the women he adores. The last of a dying breed..the Glamour stars like Mae West, Tallulah Bankhead dawling', Bette Davis, etc..imitators like this are a dying breed unto themselves. {We miss you too Charles Pierce!}
I was once told by a nurse that the schizophrenic characterization is one of the best and most realistic ever captured. "Crazy" Liza and Robyn [Craig] are like the 70's "Will & Grace" to you younger crowd.
The DVD version seems clearer than my VHS copy and you must realize with these older films that the crispness is NOT going to be there. But this one is good in my opinion. Plus the fact that this is just a gay classic with sad and campy fun moments. What other film will you see a nun on skates, a hunky gay cab driver talking about hitting the baths, NYC gay barfronts of the 70's, and what real gay men of that era actually looked like?

I've just re-watched this film after 20 years. I was expecting to be only mildly interested since I had seen it so many times in the late 70's and early 80's. I was pleasantly surprised when I got just as caught up as I did in years gone by...This movie is brilliant, touching and a true original. Do yourself a favor and watch it!

I loved this movie because it was a realistic, sensitive, sad and funny and heart warming protrayal of one gay man's life. I took all my friends, gay and straight, to see it because it was such a good film.

Craig Russell does a wonderful job in this very dated, rather cult-ish movie. His Bette Davis impression is drop dead accurate. He is one of the best ever "female impersonators."

What a throw back to the the good memories of the 70's when I moved to NYC. And a GOOD one! Lot's of us then shared the same hopes and desires ... we're gonna make it. I have an original VHS copy of this film and cherish it. It's been played over and over and over again. Loaned out. Lost and re-found. Some friends and I Just watched it again. It's still wonderful. Inspiring. Moving. Personal. (No, I never did drag.) After wtching it again, this time I decided to look for the DVD. YES! Found it. I had met Craig Russell several times but I'm sorry to say I never really got to know him. I can say this that in comparison to other female impersonators I have known, he was real, not self centered with a huge ego. He cared for his fans and friends. In reference to others in the business he onces said, "do you know what STAR spelled backwards is? RATS." I came across another film he did -- Too Outrageous -- a sequal to Outrageous, made about 5-6 years later. I think all that's available for that one is a poster

It `s not easy to be engaged immediately with this picture, at least I have to recognize it. There are two definite lines that support the script.
The first is dramatic: a schizophrenic girl - Lisa - abandons the Psychiatric Institute in search of more affection and less professional treatment: her mother is a flat mind who can not understand anything about. She will find shelter in her friend: a hairdresser who simultaneously makes appearances in night clubs as travesty, playing fantastic imitations of Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, Jean Harlow and Bette Davis with elegance far from vulgarity and common places.
In this state of things, apparently Lisa seems to be not making the best choice, but the time goes by and finally in a mutual cathartic explosion, she will find affection, understanding and human comfort with her.
The picture was made with a clear resources economy, you can note it through the troubled photography and editions adjustments, but the whole result, being in the appropriate anima, can be rewarding for you.
I guess this film must have been a reference cult movie in many underground midnight circuits in the middle seventies.

Though in its time, the mid-seventies, I'm sure that Outrageous did live up to its name. Robin Turner (Craig Russell) is a wanna-be drag queen who needs schizophrenic Liza Conners's encouragement to take the final leap onto the stage. This story is less interesting than how well the film captures, in gritty detail, the seventies gay scene. Mental illness on film rarely works well and while Hollis McLaren does a decent job of acting, these sections feel dated and a little trite. They also detract from the highlight of Outrageous which is Craig Rusell's glorious drag homages. Some of the divas he captures spot-on, Carol Channing and Mae West in particular. Some of the others are fascinating just as performance even if he doesn't really sound or look much like the original star. I think that dressing up as a woman made Craig Russell feel deliciously naughty which he conveyed to this viewer who couldn't stop smiling as he sashayed through his numbers.

I'm old enough to remember when this film "came out! " Craig Russell was a wonderully bright entertainer, who had that certain edge. For historic rites of passage alone, people should buy a copy of this video. Long before "Torch Song" and/or "Priscilla," we had Craig and "Outrageous" to get us through the drab days of being gay in this country!

What I want to know is this; Whatever happened to the sequel, "Too Outrageous? " Why not put both on video and sell it as a boxed set? Now, that WOULD be outrageous, wouldn't it?

Enjoy!

One saw this film on TV back in the seventies, not long after it "came out" in theatres, and was stunned by the principal's excellence at his craft. Only tonight did one learn that Keith Russell has since died of AIDS, circa 1990? (OUTRAGEOUS had made its sequel in 1987). Perhaps it may be "a word to the wise:" WATCH OUT!

I had a nurse tell me once that the portrayal of the schizophrenic was very accurate. Personally I just couldn't wait to get through her parts to see Craig do his impersonations of Mae West, Carol Channing, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Pearl Bailey, Peggy Lee, a WONDERFUL Tallulah Bankhead, Barbra Streisand...etc. Either through voice and/or drag. All based on the premise that you should do what you love and are good at, the rest will follow! For such a wonderful singer and impersonator to have died from AIDS is a shame. There were so many more dresses to wear and girls to imitate!