Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains

Infobox Film
name = Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains


director = Lou Adler
producer = Joe Roth
writer = Rob Morton (Pseudonym of Nancy Dowd)
starring = Diane Lane
Laura Dern
Ray Winstone
Steve Jones
Paul Cook
Paul Simonon
Fee Waybill
Black Randy
Elizabeth Daily
Brent Spiner
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = October, 1981 (USA)
runtime = 87 mins.
country = United States
language = English
budget =
amg_id = 1:98411
imdb_id = 0082639

"Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains" is a 1981 film shot in Canada about three teenage girls, including Diane Lane and Laura Dern, who start a punk band. The film also featured Ray Winstone, Christine Lahti, ex-Sex Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook, along with Paul Simonon from The Clash, Vince Welnick and Fee Waybill from The Tubes. L.A. punk icon Black Randy from Black Randy and the Metrosquad also makes an appearance. There are also brief cameos by Elizabeth Daily as a hotel maid, and Brent Spiner.

The film, originally titled "All Washed Up", was directed by music business tycoon Lou Adler for Paramount Pictures in 1981, and written by Nancy Dowd who won the Best Screenplay Academy Award for "Coming Home". Dowd took the pseudonym Rob Morton after being unsastisfied with the production process and the final cut of the film. The movie was produced by Joe Roth, who would later go on to become chairman of Walt Disney Studios. Punk rock journalist Caroline Coon was a technical advisor on the film.

The film was never given wide release, but may have had a small theatrical release in 1982. A test screening was held in Denver, Colorado, with poor results. The film was shelved, but eventually made its way to the Art-House circuit. Reported theatrical runs include the Theatre Of The Living Arts in Philadelphia (Friday, August 23 and Saturday, August 24, 1985) and the Film Forum in New York City, (Wednesday, March 6, 1985).

The true audience for this movie found it on late night cable television. TV airings during the 1980s were spotted on the popular USA Network program "Night Flight", Los Angeles local cable Z Channel and Showtime. Rhino Home Video released a DVD on September 16, 2008.

The film has a loyal cult following and does show up on the big screen once in a while. A projectionist at the Nuart Cinema in Los Angeles lobbied for the sole remaining print to be kept in circulation, and the Nuart has screened the film multiple times since 2001. In 1998, the film showed at the Chicago Underground Film Festival and in 2005 at the Sydney Film Festival. The film had its most recent television appearance one night in the late 1990s on VH1. Its most recent private screening was held at the [http://art.yale.edu/anthology Yale University Department of Anthology] in December 2006.

The Stains were frequently referenced by notable participants in the riot grrl movement of the 1990s which helped to generate further interest in this otherwise forgotten punk relic. Other fans of the film include musician/actor Courtney Love, writer/comedian Jake Fogelnest, musician/actor Jon Bon Jovi (who dated "Stains" star Diane Lane in the 1980s), "Beat the Geeks" "Movie Geek" Marc Edward Heuck, and the late underground filmmaker Sarah Jacobson. In 2000, Jacobson directed, with Sam Green, a short documentary on the film for the IFC television show "Split Screen".