When The Rocky Horror Picture Show Premiered in 1975, nobody could have dreamed that it would be the longest running theatrical release film in history. But that's what happened. Thanks to a murderous soundtrack, Campy Humor and a devoted cult -supporters, Rocky horror is still a mainstay of Midnight Movie Culture. In honor of his 50th birthday, Disney/20th Century Studios releases a newly restored 4K HDR version in October, together with Deluxe Special Editions on DVD and Blu-ray. And the film has not inspired one, but two documentaries that mark his five decades of existence: Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror And Sane Insanity: The phenomenon of Rocky Horror.
(Spoilers below, because it was 50 years ago.)
The film is an adjustment by Richard O'Brien's 1973 Musical for the Stage, The Rocky Horror Show. At that time he was a wrestling actor and wrote the musical as a tribute to the science fiction and B -Horror films that he had loved since a child. The opening number (“Science Fiction/Double Feature”) even explicitly refers to many of those, including 1951s The day the earth stood still, Flash Gordon (1936), King Kong (1933), The invisible man (1933), Forbidden planet (1956), and The Day of the Triffids (1962), among others.
The musical ran in London for six years and was well received when it was performed in Los Angeles. But the production of New York City bombarded. By that time, the film was already under development with O'Brien-Die the backbacked butler riff raff in the film Play-the Script. Director Jim Sharman retained most of the London Stage -cast, but brought American actors Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon to play Brad and Janet respectively. And he shot a lot of the film on Victorian Gothic Manor Oakley Court in Berkshire, England, where various Hammer horror films were filmed. Sharman even used various old props and set pieces of old hammer productions, in particular the tank and dummy from the years 1958 The Revenge of Frankenstein.
The film opens with a nice healthy couple Brad and Janet who attend a wedding and keep it uncomfortable. They decide their teacher in the field of high school science, Dr. Visit Scott (Jonathan Adams) because they met in his class, but they get a flat tire along the way and end up in the rain. They seek refuge and a telephone in a nearby castle, hoping to call for assistance along the road. Instead, they are put under pressure to become guests from the owner of the castle, a transvestite crazy scientist named Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), and his cheerful bad misfits.
