The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

The short career of Australia's Jim Sharman is a great tale of doing one classic movie and then making something out of that, that preserves on in popular culture far beyond its post hippie era.

Based on Richard O'Brien's ribald, pottymouthed cabaret lampoon revue of a time and a place in adults performance, 'Rocky Horror' is a knowing cult movie phenemenona that has a hard knifeblade wit to it. It does have an after all rather innocent love for monster and science fiction action 1950s movies before more skeptical times and performances came along.

The deep cabaret and performance knowledge to the show is all very well put together in the movie production that expands it and makes it more of a movie musical. The 'Little Red Riding Hood' to 'Hansel and Gretel' plot is not badly done here. An old fashioned Hollywood debonair parodic lampoon; an early Susan Sarandon and underrated Anglophone performers such as Little Nell and Columbia do deliver a good patch of lampoon humor to this all.

The comic book aspects of the movie's setting are the evil laboratory and the mansion you see that are the heights of the surreal. There are the great pop colors of pink and red to black added here in the sets and cinematography. There is a tightly done color scheme that has a good patina to it all when you do see it.

These moments of cabaret performances and lampoon moments are all very well performed and written. The visiting aliens are all mixed up in their intentions towards the Earthlings which is a sign of true satire coming up on our movie going radar. You'd wish Sharman would have gone onto more just than tv and back in Australian movie making. Those are the breaks in the movie business that are what they've been but the final movie is a gem diamond.

Dr Frank and Furter

Columbia.

Columbia and Little Nell.

Brad And Janet.