The
Dreamlanders, Waters' usual acting troupe, serve minor roles in
Polyester, compared to Waters' previous films
Desperate Living,
Female Trouble, and
Pink Flamingos, which starred several Dreamlanders in major roles. Only two,
Divine and
Edith Massey, receive top billing. This movie was also Massey's final collaboration with Waters before her 1984 death. Dreamlander perennials
Mink Stole,
Mary Vivian Pearce,
Cookie Mueller, Sharon Niesp, Marina Melin,
Susan Lowe, and Jean Hill have plot integral roles; however, they are much smaller compared to earlier films. Principal photography took place over the course of three weeks in October 1980.
Polyester was the first Waters film to skirt the mainstream, even garnering an
R rating (his previous films were all unrated or rated X—the equivalent of the
Motion Picture Association of America's present-day NC-17 rating). The film is set in a middle-class Baltimore suburb instead of its slums and bohemian neighborhoods, the setting of Waters' earlier films. During an interview on
The Ghost of Hollywood, cinematographer David Insley revealed that the helicopter used to shoot the opening scenes had to make an emergency landing on a nearby golf course while it was open. After the helicopter was cleared for safety, it was towed from the fairway using a flatbed. This was Insley's third collaboration with Waters and his first as lead cinematographer. Insley also photographed
Hairspray and
Cry-Baby. • "Polyester" by
Tab Hunter – words and music by
Chris Stein and
Debbie Harry • "Be My Daddy's Baby (Lu-Lu's Theme)" by
Michael Kamen – words and music by Harry and Kamen • "The Best Thing" by
Bill Murray – words and music by Harry and Kamen
Women's pictures Polyester was a send-up of
women's pictures, an
exploitative film genre popular from the 1950 to the 1960s and typically featured bored, unfulfilled, or otherwise troubled women, usually middle-aged suburban housewives, finding release or escape through the arrival of a handsome younger man. Women's pictures were typically hackneyed
B movies, but Waters specifically styled
Polyester after the work of the director
Douglas Sirk, asking Insley to make use of similar lighting and editing techniques, even using film equipment and movie-making techniques from Sirk's era. By chance, Insley viewed some of Sirk's films at a local screening celebrating the director. After being prompted to scratch and sniff a bouquet of roses, viewers are subjected to a series of mostly foul-smelling odors, and thus fall victim to the director's prank. The ten smells (developed by 3M per Waters in the supplements section of the DVD release) are: • Roses • Flatulence • Model airplane glue • Pizza • Gasoline • Skunk • Natural gas • New car smell • Dirty shoes • Air freshener A video release omits the onscreen flashing numbers as well as the opening introduction explaining Odorama. This version, created by
Lorimar-Telepictures, was shown on cable TV in the United States. The
Independent Film Channel released reproduction Odorama cards for John Waters film festivals in 1999. Waters expressed his delight at having audiences actually "pay to smell shit" on the 2004 DVD release commentary track.
Paramount Pictures used the Odorama name and logo as part of the
Rugrats Go Wild release in 2003, upsetting Waters when he learned that
New Line Cinema had let the trademark lapse. The 2011 film
Spy Kids: All the Time in the World used a scratch-and-sniff card branded "Aromascope", advertised as providing the fourth dimension in its "4D" format. Odorama cards were recreated by Midnight Movies, Little Joe Magazine, and The Aroma Company to allow viewers to interact with
Polyester as intended for a screening at the
Edinburgh International Film Festival in June 2011. ==Critical response==