Nostalgia Kinky

Fun City Editions has released the definitive version of the cult classic Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, as a beautiful 4K/Blu-ray collection. Featuring a stunning new restoration, hours of archival and new extras, plus an exclusive webstore-only box set, this Fun City release is a dream for fans of this influential film. My thoughts on the film are below, along with a couple of clippings I located. A huge recommendation for this new 4K/Blu set, which can be ordered at the link above, as well as the standard combo set at MVD.

I’m not sure how I feel about Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains anymore. Perhaps that’s a weird way to open a review, an explanation is incoming. See, there was a period in my life when I described the story of teenage Corrine Burns and her all-girl band, The Stains, on their first tour as one of my favorite films. I introduced it to my friends, watched it often, and even featured it at my old blog Moon in the Gutter. I loved the film. I still love the film, although sadly with more undeniable reservations than ever before.

Now, let me be clear. There are still moments in Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains that remind me of why I loved the film so much in the first place. I mean, after all, this is the movie that put my favorite American actress from my early teen years on screen with members of my beloved Sex Pistols and The Clash. That’s the good stuff. This is the picture I watched as a teen on Night Flight, the movie that inspired my favorite Riot Grrrls acts of the nineties, Meg and Jack from The White Stripes, Karen O. from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and so many more. There is just so much to love about Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, and it is still easy to see why it continues to be so influential. It’s an endearingly cool film filled with its own unique and unforgettable iconography. Much of this is down to legendary Caroline Coon’s influence behind the scenes on the film. She brings a punk authenticity to a film desperately needing it.

As I was rewatching Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains this week, I kept thinking of Coon, the legendary Melody Maker journalist turned Clash manager, who knew the original British Punk scene in and out. Had Coon and screenwriter Nancy Dowd been able to craft the film they originally conceived, utilising a different director, I have no doubt Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains might have been a great classic.
However, Lou Adler directed this film.

Remember The Limey? Specifically, remember Peter Fonda in The Limey? Remember that part he played? Well, he based that guy on Lou Adler. That might be the least interesting thing about Lou Adler, but it says much. Like Fonda’s character, Adler seems impervious (at least career-wise) to the idea that commercial success doesn’t have to be directly tied to an artistic one. It makes sense. Adler had been producing massive hits since the sixties, making bucketloads of money, helping drive the careers of everyone from The Mamas and Papas to Janis Joplin to Carole King. Yes, the guy who produced Tapestry in 1971 directed a film about punk rock a decade later.

Put bluntly, Adler was a direct part of the industry that both the early British and American Punk movements sought to annihilate. This is years before we’d see artists actually making actual ‘cash from chaos’ as John Lydon so eloquently shouted about. Most of the groups, from Eater to Suicide, knew they weren’t getting out of small clubs and that was the way they wanted. Alan Vega wasn’t attacking audience members for a shot at the cover of Rolling Stone, and The Raincoats weren’t looking to join The Hit Parade with their deconstruction of The Kinks’ “Lola”. These were artists who meant it; they believed in what they were doing. If age eventually compromised the youthful idealism and values of some, it at least took time. Even when an unlikely band like Television or The Slits ended up on a major label, there were no compromises made.
Compromises were for
New Wave
and sixties leftovers.

In the early seventies, around the time that Adler produced the remarkable John Phillips’ solo album, The Wolfking of LA, he met the comedy duo Cheech & Chong. Producing some of their albums led to a friendship, which led to Adler’s first directing job, Up in Smoke (1978). Producing sporadically throughout the seventies, Adler wasn’t a complete stranger to film, but Up in Smoke wasn’t a hit due to his immediate chops behind the camera. Ultimately, directing only two films, Adler is a competent but not overly interesting filmmaker. He doesn’t show much growth behind the camera here from Up in Smoke. I overlooked this when I was younger, but his lack of finesse behind the camera feels more unfortunate. It’s fitting that so many people, myself included, originally fell in love with this on commercial television, as Adler’s direction is a bit TV movie-like. Had the film been a minor theatrical hit and gone the way of most films, would it still have the cult following it does? No clue. All I know is Adler happens to be blessed with one of the most dynamic casts of the early eighties here, and his rather static direction doesn’t lessen that impact.

More problematic than Adler’s inexperience behind the camera isn’t actually his fault at all, but it is the extremely large elephant in the room. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains is a film conceived by women, written by a woman, and starring a cast of mostly young women. This is a woman’s film, and yet somehow they ended up with a fifty-year-old white man directing. Again, obviously not Adler’s fault, but his obvious male gaze and fundamental misreading of the Punk movement take over the film. Both are most apparent in the film’s disastrous new ending that, to my eyes at least, completely sabotages the story and betrays its lead characters. While I understand this isn’t the ending Adler wanted, the fact that he ultimately decided to sell out his characters to both traditional femininity and pop conformity is troubling. It’s like when they make up Ally Sheedy at the end of The Breakfast Club. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains original ending (seen in the film just before the Banaramana-like video) is pretty perfect. It’s a shame that Adler and Paramount paid so much attention to the film’s test screening, as it sure didn’t help the film in the long run.

Ironically, it was another middle-aged white male refugee from the sixties who’d just delivered the best Punk Rock film ever made. Unlike Adler, Dennis Hopper understood the Punk movement, and his Out of the Blue understood the real-life struggles of a teenage girl. Incredibly, the films shared locations and were shot nearly back-to-back, but for how iconic it has become Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains never achieves the needed grittiness Out of the Blue has. There is much weight in Coon and Dowd’s original vision, and Diane Lane is absolutely the actress LInda Manz was, but Adler simply lacks Hopper’s vision.

Lou Adler seems like a nice guy, and everyone seems to have fairly fond memories of him. Despite his inescapable masculine viewpoint behind the camera, one major prop Adler deserves is that he didn’t exploit fifteen-year-old Lane or Ladd, only thirteen, or any of the other kid in this film. After spending decades in the film and music industry, Adler has seen some stuff, but this is a guy who’s never had any sort of major scandal that I know of and I appreciate how he takes care of the kids in this film.

Adler could have been a great music video director. The performances throughout Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains are fantastic to watch. Cookie and Steve have never looked cooler and Adler captures the beauty of both Lane and Clash bassist Paul Simonon wonderfully throughout. The performances here are excitingly filmed and Adler deserves much credit for that. Why can’t we get an official release of this film’s soundtrack?

So Adler isn’t soley responsible for the film’s failures. Dowd’s screenplay, as filmed, however well-intentioned, feels frustratingly incomplete. It’s odd. Thankfully, historian and long-time mega-fan of the film Marc Edward Heuck fills in some of the missing plot pieces during his commentary. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains feels rushed from literally the opening moments to its closing. Was Adler contractually obliged to deliver a film under ninety minutes? It’s frustrating as I want to know these people more, I want to hear more music. I want to see more growth, not just the suggestion. There is so much more we as an audience deserve to know about Diane Lane, Laura Dern and Marin Kanter’s characters. Full-stop. The script and Adler leave lots of clues, but the film simply tries to cover too much ground in what is essentially an under 80 minute film (not counting the gross tacked on music video ending).

So does all this mean that I no longer love Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains? Honestly, no. It just makes my relationship more complicated. I still get the same thrill from sporadic moments in the film, and to this day, I still believe in this period and the power of punk with everything in my heart. If I seem harsh on aspects of this film, it is because of how much I love the culture and how much more protective I feel about it. Despite the film’s flaws and missteps, hearing and watching the imaginary older sister of my youth Diane Lane performing one of the great post Cook/Jones penned Sex Pistols tracks will always give me goosebumps.

For any fans who’ve never heard the ferocious band that Cook and Jones followed up The Sex Pistols with, here they are performing the classic song Diane Lane sings in the film:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/8u9NCvG6cZ0?si=ppSjfeKQCsYUgZ1N

Along with the film’s connection to Britain’s original Punk movement, the thing that will always keep me coming back to Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains is the marvelous Diane Lane. Laura Dern is wonderful, if underuse, in the film as is the rather haunting Marin Kanter. She damns near steals the film looking very much like a young Karen O a decade and a half before Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But ultimately, nothing here works without Diane Lane.

It is fitting that one of the half dozen films young teenage Diane Lane made before her appearance as the now mythic Corrine Burns was a film centered on a lonely young child’s real-life correspondence with Elvis Presley. Fitting, as Lane carries the kind of charisma in Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains that only a few, like Elvis, have. Lane is one of the most obvious stars and her early career is so tied in with my own memories of my youth that it is hard to describe how much I value her. Rumble Fish and Streets of Fire appeared in the wake of Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, cementing Diane Lane GOAT status before she was even twenty. The fact that she is a remarkable actress who should have an Oscar on her shelf makes her all the more special.
Viva Diane Lane and Corrine Burns.

Fun City has done a hell of a job bringing Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains to 4K. I’m in love with this new transfer of the film, which is so cinematic and rich. I felt like I was on tour with The Looters and Stains watching it. Sound rips and the film’s soundtrack has never sounded more explosive. Both the 4K and Blu-ray come with the following 4 commentary tracks:

Archival audio commentary by director Lou Adler

Archival audio commentary by stars Diane Lane and Laura Dern

Newly recorded audio commentary by Marc Edward Heuck

Newly recorded audio commentary by Jake Fogelnest and Marc Edward Heuck

I listened to the archival tracks years ago, so I won’t comment on those directly. The new tracks are great. I especially enjoyed Heuck’s information-packed solo track, which is essential. Speaking of Heuck, he also provides commentary (along with Fun City’s Jonathan Hertzberg) on an unseen reel of silent deleted scenes. Outside of an alternate credit sequence, under the title The Professional, these don’t add much to the film. The most interesting is probably extended bits of E.G. Daily, who is fun to see. Look out for a young Debbie Rochon as well. We also get an, I believe, a previously unheard talk with Night Flight’s Stuart Shapiro, who is a fascinating dude. While not exclusively related to Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains, this is a great addition to this package.

We also get Sarah Jacobson’s original look at the film. I’m glad that Fun City decided to include this more than quarter of a century old mini-documentary. I watched this a lot back in the day, via my original DVD. It’s still a nice little featurette. It’s especially cool to see Steve Jones sharing his memories, and overall, The Making of Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains is a nice little tribute. It’s perhaps most interesting today for its framing, focusing on the sexual harassment screenwriter Nancy Dowd experienced, while completely ignoring any complexities regarding the real-life young teenage cast in a very adult world. Were this documentary made today, I suspect this would be a front-and-center topic, as it perhaps should. Until a more in-depth, less fannish look at Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains comes along, this still does just fine, and I’m happy Fun City included on their excellent 4K/Blu-ray collection.

Ironically, the best extra found on Fun City’s new 4K is a lengthy reel of perfectly preserved outtakes with sound from The Professionals video shoot, the disastrous filmed-after-the-fact conclusion to the film. Completely out of place and tacky in the film, this is a charming time capsule seen on its own. Running around twenty minutes, this outtake reel featuring Diane Lane, Laura Dern and Marin Kanter miming along to Jones and Cook’s classic track by real-life The Professionals is delightful.
Pity it wrecks the film, but viewed here, it is hard not to smile at how infectiously fun it is.

Thinking of all of the lost Punk heroes of my youth that Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains either emulates or ultimately influenced, I find myself believing in this moment in time more than ever before. While I can’t say the same for the film there is still much about Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains that will forever remain with me. It’s a film everyone should watch, a moment in time we especially need to recall now. It is hard to imagine a word more final on the film than this wonderful Fun City Edition.
A glowing recommendation.

-Jeremy Richey, March 2026-