Tim Curry made his feature film debut in the 1975 horror/musical “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” He took on the legendary role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the charming alien scientist and wonderfully sadistic host of an oddball party of outsiders. Following his death, it is the perfect time to honor his memory through song and style so perfectly on display in Jim Sharman’s cult classic.
When Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) break down on a secluded back road, they trudge through the pouring rain to Frank-N-Furter’s magnificent mansion. Hunch-backed handyman Riff Raff (Richard O’Brien) greets the newly-engaged couple and guides them into a den of horrifying guests who have gathered for a bit of late-night revelry.
Brad and Janet also meet several of Frank-N-Furter’s peculiar friends, including Magenta (Patricia Quinn) and Columbia (Little Nell). Later, the maestro of the evening unveils his smoldering, hunky creation, Rocky Horror (Peter Hinwood). Dr. Everett V. Scott (Jonathan Adams) narrates the traumatizing night of macabre mayhem. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” brought together an ensemble of wacky characters, each as freaky as the next.
Sweet Transvestite
The film still works as an essential in anyone’s cinematic knowledge, and not just for horror fans. More than the characters themselves, the songs (written by O’Brien, who also helmed the 1973 stage production) bring joyous liberation and celebrate those pushed to the fringes of society. Tim Curry’s shining musical moment comes with his epic entrance, a performance of the delightful romp, “Sweet Transvestite.”
After gliding down the elevator, Frank-N-Furter struts down into the crowd in a black, vampire-style cape. He eventually removes it to reveal his seductive garter, fishnet stockings, girdle and lacy bikini briefs, bucking masculine trends in favor of a gender-bending performance. Frank-N-Furter makes his way to the stage, gyrating his hips before taking a seat on a throne. His groupies gather around him for one of the best shots in all of horror.
Before making his film debut, Curry performed quite a bit in the theatre world at the Royal Court in London. He performed in a Rudyard Kipling show and then a Marxist musical called “Give The Gaffers Time To Love You” and soon found himself lured into Hollywood. For his role as Frank-N-Furter, he originally planned to play the role as German, but while on the bus, he overheard a British woman speaking and decided to shift his focus. “I thought, yes, he should sound like the queen,” he told NPR.
Tim Curry also shines with the sentimental ballad, “I’m Going Home,” backed by a haunting choir of eerie voices. His performance here is both powerful and deeply vulnerable. After the ruin he has created around him, Frank-N-Furter accepts his tragic fate, and Riff Raff kills him with a laser beam. Rocky Horror then carries his lifeless body to the top of a tower before plummeting to his own death. The scene is equally as unforgettable as “Sweet Transvestite” and showcases Curry’s whole range of pure talent.
Queer Icon
More than any other audience, fans in the LGBTQ+ community quickly took to Dr. Frank-N-Furter as a model for self-expression and freedom. “First of all, they love the movie because it’s daring to pretty much everybody,” he said, also stating that there are “several reasons why it’s endured the way that it has. It’s a kind of rite of passage now.”
From Halloween previews, which invite audience members to dress up in character, to weekend bashes, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” makes for a perfect chace for “people to try on a few roles for size” and “help them maybe figure out their own sexuality. It has had a useful purpose in that way.”
Curry noted that he has received countless pieces of mail over the years in which fans have offered their gratitude in “helping [them] figure out who [they were],” he added. “That’s very nice.”
The landmark film continues to be a crucial entertainment phenomenon, perhaps the greatest of them all. Luke Evans currently plays Dr. Frank-N-Furter in a limited-run Broadway production, alongside “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star Stephanie Hsu, Juliette Lewis (“Yellowjackets,” “From Dusk Till Dawn”), Harvey Guillen (“What We Do in the Shadows”) and Josh Rivera (“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds”).
