The iconic John Waters movie prop that was sold on eBay: “I couldn’t stand to have it in my house”
Watching a John Waters movie is quite unlike any other cinematic experience you’ll ever have.
Whether you’re basking in the all-out grotesqueness of much of his early work, where dog shit is eaten and prolapsed anuses are shown in close-up, or enjoying something slightly more accessible like Hairspray, you’re always going to walk away feeling like you need a good shower.
I’d argue that one of Waters’ greatest films, a terrific mix of his earlier shock factor but also much more accessible than something like Pink Flamingos, is Serial Mom. It stars Kathleen Turner as a housewife, but from the moment we meet her, watching the birds while delivering an unsettling ‘twit-too’, we know there’s something deeply wrong with her.
It turns out that she’s absolutely crazy, and when her teenage children go off to school, she runs upstairs and terrorises her neighbour with ridiculous prank calls. But soon enough, these prank calls descend into something much worse; Beverly actually has a murderous streak, and if anyone dares criticise her family, they’ll be dealt with.
Turner is terrific as Beverly, whose first victim is a school teacher who makes some constructive comments about her son. After leaving the meeting, she puts her foot down on the gas and runs him over, but her kills only get more ridiculous. She takes to using a fire poker, a leg of lamb, and an air conditioner as weapons, while she even resorts to immolating a teenage boy on stage as a band wearing giant vaginas keep playing. Waters is a genius.
The key to Turner’s brilliant performance is the way that she turns on the ‘Serial Mom’ look, this bloodthirsty urge suddenly lighting up her eyes. She has this hungry, devilish smile of pure evil, and it’s equally as hilarious as it is unsettling.
Waters paid so much attention to detail when making the film, with Beverly’s house looking the perfect picture of a white-picket fence-lined suburban dream, where cherry pie is cooking, and birds are perched outside the window. But of course, he had to squeeze the aforementioned expression into a portrait displayed in the house.
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The portrait was then given to Turner, but she just couldn’t look at a strange version of herself, one that she couldn’t bring herself to frame and hang on her own wall. So off it went to eBay. “When her eyes go… when you see that look come into her eyes, oh my God. They did a painting of Beverly for the living room, above the mantelpiece, and the eyes are Serial Mom eyes, not Beverly eyes,” the actor confessed.
You’d think that Turner would want to keep such a cool memento, but she simply couldn’t do it. “They gave me that painting afterwards. I couldn’t bear it! I couldn’t stand to have it in my house. Anyway, I finally sold it on eBay.” An unflattering ending for an iconic prop, but at least she doesn’t have to watch its eyes follow her around the room anymore.
Whoever owns that painting is in possession of a pretty amazing piece of Waters memorabilia, and I’m sure Waters would be disappointed in them if they don’t have it proudly displayed over a mantelpiece for every visitor to see, especially when he’s such a well-known art aficionado.
