Polyester (1981)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Scent of a Woman

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

John Waters's Polyester is perched on the edge between his early, low-budget, sleazy shockers and his later, more mainstream comedies — its budget was $300,000, quite a bit more than the $65,000 of his previous film Desperate Living, and quite a bit less than the $2.7 million of his next, Hairspray — and it's one of his very best. It's designed as a flipped-on-its-side, Douglas Sirk-like weepy melodrama, putting poor Divine through a real ringer.

Divine plays housewife Francine Fishpaw, stuck married to a rude lout, Elmer (David Samson), who runs a porn theater. Francine fancies herself a good Christian woman, and she lets out moans of mortification when protestors arrive on their front lawn.

Her teen daughter Lu-Lu (Mary Garlington) is sleeping with a juvenile delinquent, Bo-Bo (Stiv Bators, the lead singer of the punk rock band The Dead Boys), and her teen son Dexter (Ken King) is a glue-sniffer and gets his kicks by stomping on women's feet. Her only friend is former housekeeper Cuddles Kovinsky (Edith Massey), who has inherited a fortune.

When Francine discovers that Elmer is having an affair with his secretary Sandra Sullivan (Mink Stole), she spirals into alcoholism and depression; it's going to take a miracle to get her out again. Tab Hunter plays "Todd Tomorrow," briefly a love interest for Francine. Certain scenes involve an abortion clinic, and it's mind-numbing to see how little has changed in the decades since the film's release.

Polyester was presented in theaters in "Odorama," and patrons were given a numbered scratch-n-sniff card; the movie cues us when to scratch and sniff. Most of the scents are said to have been quite foul (flatulence, skunk, dirty feet). The Criterion Collection released the film on LaserDisc with newly reprinted cards, but they are now sadly a thing of the past.