• Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

9/7/25 (Sun)

Criterion introduced a salute to Robert Altman this month, and this 1982 title caught my eye. It’s based on a Broadway play that Altman himself directed the same year with the same starry cast. Having just seen Emilia Pérez, I was surprised to come across another transgender role, this time from eons ago (the play was written in 1976). Even more interesting, the film, similar to the much later work, was not patronizing or preachy.

The ensemble film is set in a five-and-dime in a small town in Texas in 1975, where female members of the local James Dean fan club are planning a reunion on the 20th anniversary of his death. We flash back and forth to the same store in 1955, where the group are celebrating the news that Liz Taylor, Rock Hudson and Dean will be filming Giant in a nearby town. The juxtaposition of past and present reveals, as these things do, a number of exposed secrets, broken dreams, and unexpected developments as each member proves delusional in some way: big-breasted Sissy (Cher), who works at the store, is waiting for her husband to return from a two-year stint overseas; the neurotic Mona (Sandy Dennis) says she was an extra in the film and had an affair with James Dean, resulting in a son who is handicapped; Joe (Mark Patton), a cross-dresser and the group’s only male in the past scenes, was brutally beaten and assaulted over a gravestone when his date (later Sissy’s husband) discovers he’s a man; Joanne (Karen Black), a cool, sophisticated stranger in the present scenes who arrives in a Porsche with a shocking secret; Edna Louise (Marta Heflin), a mousy introvert in her seventh pregnancy; and Stella Mae (Kathy Bates), a fun-loving member with a sharp tongue. There’s also Juanita (Sudie Bond), the starchy, religious proprietor of her late husband’s store, who does not approve of the loose talk and behavior of the women. The revelations that gradually emerge – Sissy’s breasts, her pride and joy, are fake after a mastectomy, and she has been deserted by her husband; Mona never slept with Dean (she may not have even been an extra in the film) but with Joe/Joanne, and their son is not handicapped at all; and so forth.

Some of the revelations are a stretch; the idea that the son is handicapped is particularly pointless. Still, the characters are sharply observed and the dialogue fun. Altman films on a single set but manages to keep things flowing through smart camerawork and editing. Scenes from the past are viewed through a two-way mirror in the set, which is rather stagey but does keep the division clear. I wonder if they even changed the script at all from the stage version. Nearly all the performers were repeating their roles from that year’s Broadway production, which may account for the great chemistry and generally natural performances. Karen Black and a spunky Cher were especially memorable, while Bond was convincing as the prudish widow. I wasn’t as taken with Dennis as Mona, the closest to a lead role, who seemed more studied in her approach. But overall the acting alone makes this worth a watch.

The transgender woman was neither comic relief nor a teaching moment, just a natural outgrowth of her earlier male character. I’m sure activists these days will find some reason to complain, but the character seemed pretty grounded and real to me (within the context of the wild story). She presented a positive image, which for the times is impressive.

The film, though no masterpiece, is well acted and directed and certainly entertaining. Recommended.