The Diane Linkletter Story

Following the tragic death of Art Linkletters daughter Diane.this sick demented movie was made! I have always loved John Waters films but this one was out of wack! Making fun of a tragedy is not right! No wonder it has disappeared into obscurity!

This film was distasteful in parts. John Waters has an ironic, irreverent sense of humor of course. It seemed realistic through most of it, and had kind of a documentary feel to it. It was a good social commentary. Diane's parents were portrayed as quite judgmental. They were talking about her, and especially they were judging her friends, as they were waiting for Diane to come home. Her parents seemed to not want to listen to Diane, only to judge. The part at the beginning with Diane smoking drugs was distasteful, yet funny. As was the hokey warning message from the father to his daughter. Soft music plays during this melodramatic line, "Come back. Come back before you are trapped in a life that daily becomes more aimless and unreal."

MOST Waters fans will think this is hilarious, though you'll meet the rogue who thinks it's in bad taste. But then, criticizing Waters for making a film in "bad taste" is like criticizing a hippie for smoking the herb: it's just what they do.

The short starts out with a creepy recording of Diane speaking at the beginning, and is repeated at the end; the picture is grainy and makes Divine look wild-eyed and insane(yes!). Divine is really, really funny, and even though David Lochary gets a little befuddled on a couple of his lines, he and Bonnie still do a fine job.

I went nuts trying to figure out how I'd see this short for a very long time. Some angel posted it on medicinefilms.com; they say they're John Waters, which makes me both skeptical and desperate.

So... go watch it and decide for yourself.

This isn't an easy film to rate, as it's one of John Waters' earliest films and wasn't meant for theatrical release. Instead, Waters was testing out a new camera with three of his friends (who would go on to be perennial stars in his films) and it was mostly only shown in counter-culture dives.

The names of the characters were chosen in very bad taste. The TV star Art Linkletter's daughter just committed suicide and Waters named the characters after the family members and it appears to be a recreation of this tragedy. However, considering that Divine (who played the tragic daughter) and David Lochary and Mary Vivian Pearce (played the parents) bore absolutely no resemblance to them, it is a very loose interpretation to say the least. In bad taste? Yes, but compared to PINK FLAMINGOS and a few of Waters' other films, this is far from his worst.

Now as for production values, aside from the crappy film work (which looked like it was made with a Super 8 camera), the acting, especially Mary Vivian Pearce's, is just awful. The characters constantly misread their lines, talk over each other and just seem like they were some of Waters' untalented friends having a few laughs--which is EXACTLY what this was. Had Waters never gone on to better things, then this home movie would have never seen the light of day. Because of this, rating the film is really impossible. However, fans of his films will appreciate that so many of the plot elements here were recycled in films such as FEMALE TROUBLE--so this short film was a training ground for future greatness. Well, not for every one--Ms. Pearce never really improved her acting skills much, but her lousy acting actually is part of the charm of a Waters film.

The Diane Linkletter Story (1970)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Art and Lois Linkletter (David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce) are waiting on their daughter Diane (Divine) to get home. The parents are worried and once the daughter gets home it leads to a very big argument, which then turns to tragedy.

This short from John Waters was apparently made so that the director could try out a new camera. When viewing it today it perfectly fits in with his bad taste cinema because the names used were real people and the film pretty much spoofs a real event. Art Linkletter was a successful television star and his daughter Diane killed herself. That's pretty much what was re-enacted here.

On a technical level there's nothing ground-breaking here but I actually thought the 9-minute short was at least entertaining. The performances aren't the greatest but they're fun enough in that bizarre John Waters world. After all, you're watching people who would play a big part in PINK FLAMINGOS. Fans of Waters will want to check this out for certain.