Cross-dressing men putting women to shame

CHELSE MCKEE, STAFF

From fishnets to nightgowns and acting to murder, its a feast of inhibitions. Here are some of the best cross-dressing films of the classics:

Although a newer film and debatably classic, Tootsie is the film to watch if you’re looking for something light or even intellectually stimulating.

A struggling actor, Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman), finally has his break, but only as Dorothy Michaels, a feminist actress.

Hoffman has said that he never considered this film to be a comedy. Dorothy represents all the intelligent and intriguing women he ever ignored at parties because they weren’t physically attractive.

However, the film is still subject to the same trite romantic storyline that makes me want to groan. It gives a predictable and frustrating twist to the story that Tootsie could have done without.

Treats in this film are the brief scenes with Michael’s best friend, Jeff Slater (Bill Murray). Warning: Murray is not his normally funny self, but his great rapport with Hoffman creates hilarity.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the quintessential transvestite film. The cult film has emerged as a Halloween classic, as well as the ultimate theatre experience. It shouldn’t be watched just for the film, but for the cinematic experience that comes along with it. It releases people’s inhibitions, as it will yours.

Aside from the cultural experience of the film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the best cross-dressing film bar none. Frank-n-Furter (Tim Curry) captures a terrific sociopathic character in fishnets and a corset. However, the acting is the least important part of this film; the music and the blurring of gender lines are the main attractions.

One of the best things about this film, aside from the sexual suggestions and Little Nell’s accidental nipple shots, are the follies. Catching the editing mistakes is all part of the cult experience.

It isn’t the suspected semen or millions of bacteria squirming on the bed sheets that makes people second-guess highway motels . . . it’s Psycho.

There is something so compelling about a film that first premiered to audiences screaming out loud. The film brings a nostalgic feeling of the Lumiere brothers’ Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat, which panicked audiences, believing that the train was coming right through the screen.

A downside to this film would have to be years of conditioning in present day film-goers. The surprise element of the film will be lost on today’s viewers who try to solve the mystery of the film, rather than letting the plot unfold naturally.

Spoiler alert: the film is deliciously disturbing with its suspected incest and the shot of Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins), dressed in his mother’s nightgown and wig, holding a butcher knife as the light flickers against the wall; the climax of the film, inarguably.

Psycho did produce three sequels, all equally dreadful and horrifying in a completely different way. Don’t go see the Psycho remake, for example, with Vince Vaughn and Anne Heche. It cheapens the original with too much sexuality.