Sunday, November 8th, 2009 (Short Film Sunday: The Diane Linkletter Story)

When it comes to bad taste, no one does it as well as the trash cinema king, John Waters. However, when looking over the filmography of the great Baltimorean filmmaker, possibly the most harshest, and most overlooked, is the 1970 short film The Diane Linkletter Story.

The flick was the fourth short film from Waters, and according to Wikipedia, as well as what my memory can take away from reading Waters' autobiography Shock Value, it was an accident. Waters, along with three familiar actors to aficionados of Dreamland Studios (Divine, David Lochary and Mary Vivian Pearce), was just attempting to try out a new camera that he purchased, that would be later used on the feature length Multiple Maniacs. As for the bad taste aspect, the description doesn't come at the hand of language and taboo acts depicted in the nearly ten minute short isn't comparable to what Waters would later become known for, as in the films Pink Flamingos, Desperate Living and Female Trouble, but rather the inappropriateness of the plot.

Based upon the real life suicide of Diane Linkletter, the little known 20 year old daughter of television personality Art Linkletter, the short features Diane (depicted by the one and only Divine) go on an LSD trip, get angry at her parents and jump out the window to her death below. The comedic look at the tragedy could almost play as a serious biopic it plays so closely to Art Linkletter's actual recounting of the event if not for the ingenious quips of Divine and Lochary. The film was actually shot as an ad lib for the camera the day after Diane's death. Still, if you find this a little too offensive, I would point to the first comment on the flick's IMDb page, as the author points out that it couldn't be as in bad taste as Art Linkletter releasing an album containing the Grammy Award winning "We Love You, Call Collect", exploiting the event as much as Dreamland had done.

As for the legacy of the film, it isn't very well know, having only one home video release to my knowledge and research, being on a VHS released in 1990 entitled A Divine Double Feature, coupled with a live showing of Divine's off-Broadway show The Neon Woman. It would also be the last short film Waters would do, as following Pink Flamingos, his career would take off as an auteur of depravity. It may be appropriate that the only way you can currently see Linkletter is by a rare find on eBay or from this low quality Veoh video. Still, a must watch. Please enjoy The Diane Linkletter Story.

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