My current obsession
Lesley Ann Warren in Victor/Victoria
Hi, friends,
Happy Wednesday?
Even though I really only knew her from my endless childhood re-watches of the Faerie Tale Theatre production of The Dancing Princesses and as Miss Scarlet in Clue, I’ve always had a real soft spot for Lesley Ann Warren.
So imagine my unparalleled delight when I finally sat down and watched Victor/Victoria. I put it on, only really knowing the basic premise—and suspecting that the plot was going to irritate me in some ways, which oh my, it did—and that it starred Julie Andrews and Robert Preston and James Garner.
What I didn’t know was that Lesley Ann Warren and John Rhys-Davies and Alex Karras are all in it as well, and I definitely didn’t know that Lesley Ann Warren basically runs away with the whole movie every single time she’s on screen.
This first clip is where we’re introduced to her, as she and her boyfriend (James Garner) and his bodyguard (Alex Karras) are watching Julie Andrews perform. You see her clock Garner’s attraction to Julie Andrews—and who can blame him, she’s absolutely magnetic—and as the number goes on, you see her getting more and more irritated and jealous.
When the reveal comes, and Julie Andrews takes off her headdress and the audience suddenly understands that she—as Victor—is in drag, you watch the whole realization wash over Lesley Ann Warren. The UTTER DELIGHT she feels is a combination of relief that she doesn’t have—she thinks!—a new rival but ALSO absolute glee at Garner’s confusion, and, in a joyfully mean-spirited way, what she sees as a joke at his expense:
I don’t know how she conveyed all that in such a short span of time, but I could feel it ALL.
I love that you can still hear her applauding and cheering YAAAAAAAAYYYYY even when the camera is focused on Garner and his Feelings—she’s such a huge part of the moment for US, even if she isn’t for HIM. Norma could have been such a two-dimensional, throwaway character—just a plot device, basically—but Lesley Ann Warren makes her into a REAL PERSON. (Not a particularly nice person! But a real one.)
And then THIS NUMBER, oh my GOD. If I hadn’t already loved her, this would have done it, and it’s extremely safe to say that she’s got a fan for life in Josh now, too:
If you could have seen us watching this: our jaws were basically on the floor and we both transformed into full-on googly-eyed nerds. I have not shut up about it at the library since watching it, sorrynotsorry patrons—usually the person BEHIND the desk is the captive audience, but I do have a habit of turning the tables on that front.
(And yes, the choreography is RAD, but Lesley Ann Warren performs it with such VIM and RELISH that I kind of can’t even contain myself, hence this quick missive to you all.)
Victor/Victoria
Blake Edwards, 1982
I went home and read the script, and in the script, Norma wasn’t blonde, didn’t have an accent, and didn’t have a dance number or a musical number. She was pretty much a classic chorine of the time. So I started to think about what I wanted to do with this role, and I made up this whole history for her. She grew up on the Lower East Side in a family of 14, and she had to yell to be heard. She worked at Woolworth’s and read the movie magazines and wanted to look like Jean Harlow. I created this character in my head, and then I called Blake—he was already in London—and he said, “Yes.” He sent his hair and makeup people and the costume designer Patricia Norris over to my house, and we created this character. When I walked on the set in hair and makeup for the first time, I thought, “I’m either going to be fired, or he’s gonna love it,” and luckily for me, he loved it.
—Lesley Ann Warren, in an interview at the AV Club
Oh, look the entirety of The Dancing Princesses is on YouTube!
I literally just watched the opening where Shelley Duvall says, “Hello, I’m Shelley Duvall,” and suddenly I was nine years old again and said (out loud), “I love you Shelley Duvall.” And I do. That series was so formative for me.
Will I make it through the workday without somehow sneaking off to watch the whole thing? Your guess is as good as mine.
Talk soon,
Leila
DYING!!! I haven't thought about Victor/Victoria in ages. I used to watch random double features on a local TV channel with my Mom on Sunday afternoons - usually westerns - but sometimes the second feature was a weirder one (The original 1930's SINBAD, for instance). She never stayed awake past the first one (HAH) so I remember watching V/V alone, wholly bewildered as to how anyone could image Julie Andrews was male. (This was before I realized Boy George WASN'T FEMALE. I had a difficult time with the whole gender thing, CLEARLY.)
These actors/actresses were such fixtures of the 80's, then they just vanished. James Garner was in EVERYTHING. Sheesh.
I never watched the Duvall fairytales at all - my parents were completely anti-fantasy. Which explains a lot of my reading... I'm glad it's not gone, though! YouTube has started being my go-to place to find a lot of old stuff that I get a kick out of seeing again.