This is Mitchell Lichtenstein, son of Roy, and an actor and director of note. As far as I am concerned, "Teeth" is his best work. You have to see it, dolls!!!!!!!!!!!! The last scene is a scream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last night, I caught him, 18 years younger, in a "Law And Order" episode called "Castoff." It took me a few minutes to realize this was based on the Andrew Cunanan case!
Lichtenstein played a psychopath named Eddie Chandler. Eddie had gotten by all his life on his looks and arrogance, and now those were beginning to slip. When they did, the people he thought were his friends, cast him off. Hence, the title. But they were not his friends. They were delusions of his own making.
What brings him to the intention of law officials was his S and M torture murder of two wealthy people, Jennifer Gaylin, a social worker, and Stu Steiner. Both were into the S and M scene, knew Chandler, and ended up being murdered by him because he felt they deserved to die for rejecting him socially.
I always thought of Cunanan and Robert Chambers as counterparts. The difference was the former had a chameleon personality that could turn on a dime, and so could his looks. While he still had them he was able to ingratiate himself into the social whirl. But by 1997, that ability was coming to an end, when he was beginning to lose those looks.
Now, Chambers had looks, too, but there was always something rough edged about him. It was obvious he was nothing more than a working class kid trying to rise above himself into a station he could never belong to, especially once it was found out that his mother was some Irish scrubwoman who was scrambling for money to send him to schools that could elevate him. But he also was not intelligent, which hampered his rise. He was a loser. And while he is now free, mark my words, when society hears from Robert Chambers again--and it will--it will not be pretty!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cunanan had the background and the breeding, and the looks. But he was psychopathic, lacking feeling and empathy. He physically attacked and injured his mother, during an argument they had when he was a teenager. He dropped out of the University of San Diego to begin his poaching off rich gay men. And it kept him going for awhile, till he was reminded that the looks were fading, he had nothing else up his sleeve, and went on a killing rampage, culminating in the murder of designer Versace! A man who, to the gay community, darlings, was practically a saint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When he ended his life, I was not surprised. He was psycho, but a coward, he had no other way to reinvent himself, so what was the alternative???????????????
Eddie Chandler, brilliantly played by Lichtenstein with the most arrogant gleam in his eye, was a bisexual, who was losing his looks. In a brilliantly written monologue, he tells of how he romanticized New York from movies, like "On The Town," but all he found here were monsters! Plus, as his lawyer tries to suggest, TV vuiolence made him do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Come on, Eddie! S and M is n ot taught, during prime time! The romance of NYC was not there because you could not accept yourself as not being an A-list player. You couldn't even become a Raving Queen, like me, darling! Believe me, darlings, the romance of New York is still there! Some days, I feel like Marlo Thomas as Ann Marie!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And to think Gene Saks--yes, Bea Arthur's hubby, director of "MAME" and "RAGS"--was the judge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wish I had caught the beginning of this! You can be sure I will, next time it airs!
Once again, the moral is--those from Goat Alley cannot climb out of it!!!!!!!!!!!!
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