Q&A: Charles Busch reflects on ‘Psycho Beach Party’ 25 years later
Writer/actor Charles Busch’s droll and amusing film version of his hit play, “Psycho Beach Party,” is getting two special screenings at the IFC in honor of its 25th anniversary before becoming available for streaming on the Criterion Channel Aug. 1. The film is a campy spoof of “Gidget” films and murder movies with plenty of … Read More
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Writer/actor Charles Busch’s droll and amusing film version of his hit play, “Psycho Beach Party,” is getting two special screenings at the IFC in honor of its 25th anniversary before becoming available for streaming on the Criterion Channel Aug. 1. The film is a campy spoof of “Gidget” films and murder movies with plenty of homoeroticism thrown in.
Teenager Florence (Lauren Ambrose) wants to surf with the guys — led by the Great Kanaka (Thomas Gibson) — but they initially make fun of her. However, when she grabs Kanaka’s attention, she is renamed Chicklet and allowed to join them. Unfortunately, their fun in the sun is tainted by a murderer on the loose who is killing anyone who is “different.”
Captain Monica Stark (Busch) investigates, and seems to have it in for Kanaka — her former flame — and his crew. Moreover, when Florence experiences “morbidly psychotic episodes of schizophrenia,” she worries that she may be the killer!
“Psycho Beach Party” is a hoot that still offers laughs aplenty with its deadpan one-liners, send ups of gender roles, and reverse-projection surfing scenes. Busch, not in drag, spoke with Gay City News about his cult classic.
What do you think about the film now, looking back on it 25 years later? Do you think it is dated or still timely?
When [the film] “Psycho Beach Party” came out, it didn’t catch on. But it found its audience on cable TV 10 years later. I find rather frequently that people who were impressionable children watching it on cable have a real affection for it. It found its cult.
I thought the film held up well. Because it was set in the past, it doesn’t feel dated; it is fixed in time.
It was a period piece when it was made in 2000. It was supposed to take place in the 1960s so the references were all dated intentionally. I would think it would age well because of the social politics. That it was a real queer movie keeps it contemporary. Movies that are trying to be cutting edge in the time they are living in run the risk of seeming old fashioned after a point.
Can you talk about adapting it from the stage to the screen? You used to play Chicklet on stage. What other changes were made?
The play was radically different from the movie. It was a very unambitious stage piece. We did it in a club in the East Village. There was virtually no plot. I never thought of it as a movie. I had a wonderful manager, Jeff Melnick, who insisted it could be a movie. He took Bob King [the director] on as a client. Bob had a short film released by Strand and Strand was interested in doing a feature with Bob. Jeff put Bob and I together to make the movie. I was lucky because Bob was an excellent screenwriter. There was no killer on the loose at all [in the play]. Bob had a real fondness for '70s slasher films, which I wasn’t familiar with at all. He thought we should widen the scope of the parody, beyond the '60s beach movies.
Adding the killer solved several problems. It gave the movie some plot and suspense. But it also solved the problem of what to do with me — because Bob and the producers wanted me in the movie, but it didn’t seem right to any of us that I should play my old part of a 16-year-old girl when I was well into my 40s. We didn’t want it to be that stylized. We wanted it to be realistically cast. If there is a killer is on the loose, there has to be a detective. My stage persona is one half Susan Hayward, and she would be a good movie detective. I preferred that part to Chicklet, who was never a favorite role of mine. It didn’t go with what I do best. I was glad to move into something more in my stage persona.
[caption id="attachment_58259" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
Charles Busch in "Psycho Beach Party."Strand Releasing[/caption]
What about the different types of comedy in the film? There are sight gags, wordplay (Kanaka talks in rhymes), satire, spoofs, parody, and lampoon, and it is all very campy.
It’s all comedy, honey. I enjoy the language of it — the beatnik and surfer talk. It was fun to invent my own lingo, so they are all talking in an almost foreign language at times.
Can you talk about the film’s tone since it is a genre mash-up?
That is all my trademark style, that melding of tone. You want to make sure that it creates its own tone and does not suddenly do something so left field that you don’t know what movie you are in. Some of the tones are bigger than life, but you have to have a truly emotional core. As outrageous as it is, there is some real emotional throughline to it. It is not all just “Aren’t we zany?” My other plays go further in that direction. We’re dealing with a girl and her severe problems here. It is on a stylized level, but most of us can identify with this exploration of who exactly am I, even in a high camp way.
The film is really funny in how it plays with gender roles. Can you talk about playing with gender stereotypes?
It was interesting taking that period of the early '60s where gender roles were so fixed that that would be fun to play with. Because gender roles never really were all that fixed. There were always things being done behind closed doors. Guys who were passing as straight were having gay sex. Sometimes it is so apparent that no one wants to admit that they are seeing it. Those things were there, but in this comic take, we are underlining them. In a 1960s movie, they would never dare express it.
What about the queer coding? It’s overt, and yet it is also overt with the “people who are different” theme.
That’s the theme of the movie, that gay boys have to deal with feeling they are different somehow. It’s rather simplistic since it’s a spoof of gender confusion. They immediately figure out they are in love, and they become gay activists. But there is also the whole thing with the killer who is targeting people who are different — whether they have a physical variation or gender identification. There was a movie in the 1940s called “The Spiral Staircase,” and I took that element from there.
“Psycho Beach Party” was the first adaptation of your work on screen. How does it fit into your oeuvre overall?
This film gave me opportunities to have other film versions of my plays. I was appearing in the stage version of “Die, Mommie, Die!” while I was shooting “Psycho Beach Party” in LA. While I was doing the play, some producers saw it and wanted to do a movie. I enjoyed making “Psycho Beach Party,” but I played a supporting role in an ensemble film. “Die, Mommie, Die!” was my vehicle — it was like a Bette Davis movie. As an actor, I loved being the star of it. The other movies I made were all original — most recently, “The Sixth Reel,” which barely got released. Most queer theater-makers don’t get to be immortalized on film. Their work is so lost. I’m thinking of Charles Ludlum, who is my great inspiration. I feel lucky I got to do my “trip” as I call it, and those movies are out there.
Charles Busch and Lauren Ambrose along with director Robert Lee King will participate in a Q&A at the 7:00 pm show on July 30 and 31 at the IFC Center.
“Psycho Beach Party” | Directed by Robert Lee King | Screening July 30-31 at the IFC Center and available on the Criterion Channel starting August 1 | Distributed by Strand Releasing.
Charles Busch in "Psycho Beach Party."Strand Releasing[/caption]
What about the different types of comedy in the film? There are sight gags, wordplay (Kanaka talks in rhymes), satire, spoofs, parody, and lampoon, and it is all very campy.
It’s all comedy, honey. I enjoy the language of it — the beatnik and surfer talk. It was fun to invent my own lingo, so they are all talking in an almost foreign language at times.
Can you talk about the film’s tone since it is a genre mash-up?
That is all my trademark style, that melding of tone. You want to make sure that it creates its own tone and does not suddenly do something so left field that you don’t know what movie you are in. Some of the tones are bigger than life, but you have to have a truly emotional core. As outrageous as it is, there is some real emotional throughline to it. It is not all just “Aren’t we zany?” My other plays go further in that direction. We’re dealing with a girl and her severe problems here. It is on a stylized level, but most of us can identify with this exploration of who exactly am I, even in a high camp way.
The film is really funny in how it plays with gender roles. Can you talk about playing with gender stereotypes?
It was interesting taking that period of the early '60s where gender roles were so fixed that that would be fun to play with. Because gender roles never really were all that fixed. There were always things being done behind closed doors. Guys who were passing as straight were having gay sex. Sometimes it is so apparent that no one wants to admit that they are seeing it. Those things were there, but in this comic take, we are underlining them. In a 1960s movie, they would never dare express it.
What about the queer coding? It’s overt, and yet it is also overt with the “people who are different” theme.
That’s the theme of the movie, that gay boys have to deal with feeling they are different somehow. It’s rather simplistic since it’s a spoof of gender confusion. They immediately figure out they are in love, and they become gay activists. But there is also the whole thing with the killer who is targeting people who are different — whether they have a physical variation or gender identification. There was a movie in the 1940s called “The Spiral Staircase,” and I took that element from there.
“Psycho Beach Party” was the first adaptation of your work on screen. How does it fit into your oeuvre overall?
This film gave me opportunities to have other film versions of my plays. I was appearing in the stage version of “Die, Mommie, Die!” while I was shooting “Psycho Beach Party” in LA. While I was doing the play, some producers saw it and wanted to do a movie. I enjoyed making “Psycho Beach Party,” but I played a supporting role in an ensemble film. “Die, Mommie, Die!” was my vehicle — it was like a Bette Davis movie. As an actor, I loved being the star of it. The other movies I made were all original — most recently, “The Sixth Reel,” which barely got released. Most queer theater-makers don’t get to be immortalized on film. Their work is so lost. I’m thinking of Charles Ludlum, who is my great inspiration. I feel lucky I got to do my “trip” as I call it, and those movies are out there.
Charles Busch and Lauren Ambrose along with director Robert Lee King will participate in a Q&A at the 7:00 pm show on July 30 and 31 at the IFC Center.
“Psycho Beach Party” | Directed by Robert Lee King | Screening July 30-31 at the IFC Center and available on the Criterion Channel starting August 1 | Distributed by Strand Releasing. 
