Melanie Griffith's hair and makeup in "Working Girl"

She was supposed to be a Jersey girl, right? Or Bronx or something? I hated it because it seemed to say that if you grow up in a disadvantaged area you're too stupid to know you look weird. No magazines in the Bronx?

The makeup is so muddy. I hate a clay/putty lip.

Didn't someone say on another thread that her skin was very rough, almost scarred?

R3 she did get mauled by one her insane mother's "pet" lions

That was supposed to be her "Before" / lowly secretary look. "Before" she house sat for Katherine, broke into her closet & medicine cabinet, and began impersonating her.

Also, in real life, Melanie was actively addicted and bloated. She was fined for being late to the set.

I know this was the late '80s, but I think even then, this wasn't a great look

The 80s. All the styles were hideous. (Griffith before taking over her boss's job). The Joan Cusack character's style was really over the top...though I liked her. Very funny.

I think it captured that period perfectly. I was in corporate American in the 80s (in NY) and her look plus Cynthias etc hit ever note

Supposedly, those hairstyles & makeup (rainbow eyeshadow) were not really over the top for New Jersey / Staten Island.

I read the costume designer purchased the before looks in the mall located under the WTC. This is funny and sad. The 1980s had a lot of trashy cheap looks. Lots of bad hair.

Even Miami Vice features the big hair--in that humidity? Must have been shellacked.

Lots of really fried, damaged hair...with all the perms.

Eyebrow grooming is a thing. Too thin or too bushy can make a difference, the makeup was bad in the 1980s too.

She just isn’t attractive and never was.

When I watched it for the first time ten years ago, my brother said she looked like Joe Dirt.

I think her character was from Staten Island. That was the look of the 80s for 'working girls"

At the end she becomes an executive and looks better.

Melanie was falling apart from drug use during the film. I've heard her say in interviews that it troubles her that what is considered her best performance only exists because Mike Nichols was able to piece it together in the editing room.

Joan cusack looked like boy George in this movie.

Joan looking at Griffith's boss's dress to be worn before meeting Harrison Ford..."Six thousand dollars?!? It's not even leaather!!".

^^price tag^^

Leh thuhhh

Where I grew up that hair was 100% in style.

R16, My husband and I get stoned, watch Working Girl, and quote her quaalude-esque lines. She really sounds like a mentally slow moron through the movie. (btw, I'm a child of the '80s from Central NJ--I used to think women who wear big hair with drag queen makeup were the PINNACLE of glamour).

As someone said upthread, the character is from Staten Island. The look is eerily accurate (hell, you can still find women on SI who look like this) and represents her look "before" Katherine influences her.

Yes, she was a Staten Island girl. How can anyone forget that magnificent opening scene with the ferry and the skyline and Let the River Run blaring away.

And did she ever nail the portrayal.

The late 80s and early 90s was the absolute worst period for fashion.

Here's that amazing intro. The NYC skyline never looked more beautiful, IMO.

I love the theme song, "Let The River Run" by Carly Simon.

Nostalgia, r26. Classic skyline views, beautiful.

You never realize how good, how special, a time was until it's too late to go back.

Speaking as someone who was working on Wall Street when the movie came out, the styling is spot on including Sig Weaver. Mel looked horrible in that trashy lingerie. Her ass is huge and filled with cellulite. Ugh.

I actually looked up Melanie's lingerie pics because of your post R30 and HOLY HELL she's ugly. Bad figure, thin wispy hair, misshapen head. How she got lead roles is beyond me.

It's sad to see the Twin Towers in the opening. Not perfect...but a better time back then...pre 21st Century.

Melanie looked great in "Body Double" four years before "Working Girl". Leggy and attractive. I've always thought she was pretty, but not necessarily glamorous. I remember reading an article a few years back where she talked openly about how she fucked her face up with plastic surgeries, and she was saying that she hoped she looked "normal" now. Knowing that she's a very sensitive person, it made me really sad to read.

I liked her in "Something Wild". She does free spirit very well.

...and wild child ^^^

It was way way garish even for 1988

The 80s were indeed horrible, especially for women and their hair. That said, Sigorney Weaver looks great in this.

Carly looked fabulous!

Did you even see the movie R1?

The Staten Island ferry shot at the beginning plus numerous references to Staten Island throughout the film.

She was very good in Pacific Heights a few years later and looked and acted normal.

Sigourney is statuesque and can pull off the 80s power bitch looks. Love the scene of her striding into the office with a Burberry raincoat draped on her shoulders while the office secretaries run for cover, she even carries a briefcase in that scene!

Great movie, too R40. Haven't seen that in ages.

R40 how do you mean she acted normal?

Melanie Griffith was 35 years old in 1988 when Working Girl was released.

Someone up thread mentioned, Quaaludes. I never had an opportunity to use this medication and I feel deprived. I could use medication in this dreary little quarantine.

R44 she was 31. Born in 1957.

“I have a brain for business and a bod for sin”

. . . And an ass for crushing beer cans.

"Is there anything wrong with that?"...

Straight white Men go for that slutty white trash look.

R17 Yes, she did . She was hideous.

Harrison Ford, on the other hand, had a tight body at this point.

Laugh all you like,but at least 80s women cared how they looked. Bitches these days with their fat squeezed into yoga pants and dirty t shirts and their limp,unwashed hair could learn something from those 80s girls.

Who cares how much effort someone puts into their looks if it's all unflattering? It's essentially a waste of time. Women who styled themselves like that are fashion slaves and suckers

She was from Staten Island. It was a cliche at the time. Staten Island women worked on Wall Street and lower Manhattan, Queens women worked in midtown. The Staten Island ferry and E train were the people haulers.

People looked so prematurely old before.

and no mention of sex on a stick alec baldwin?

You may want to rethink the makeup.

That's what Staten Island girls/women looked like then and guess what, they still look pretty much like that, even the rich ones.

Katherine had a fabulous very feminine place in Gramercy Park.

Did time stand still on Staten Island at 1988 or something?

After the Bridge opened, Staten Island basically became an extension of Bay Ridge, as Brooklynites moved outta da city. Compare SNF and WG.

Melanie showed up stoned for the wedding scene near the end. Mike Nichols took the OT for cast and crew out of her salary. She’s lucky she ever worked again after that.

I've always been curious about that wedding scene. There's a shot in the trailer of Tess and Cyn before the wedding and Tess is crying. I wonder if she was so stoned that Nichols had to reshape the wedding scene. It always seemed odd to me that we never see Tess and Cyn before the wedding, just after.

I'd love to see the rest of the deleted scenes from Working Girl.

R61 What's SNF?

I like Working Girl but it killed Griffith's career. Prior to the success of the film she gave lots of interesting performances in off beat films. Then she went all mainstream after WG and her career fell into a pile of shit.

At least she got some hot cock for a couple of decades out of Antonio Banderas.

I loved Katherine’s apartment with her Warhol portraits.

This film always reminds me that I lost my well deserved win to that little dyke Jodie.

They nailed the hair and makeup for that time and place and that character.

R64 Saturday Night Fever.

Never noticed before R17. That’s fuckin’ funny.

I guess they deliberately made Melanie look awful to begin with so that the Diana makeover would be more of a stark contrast. I have to say it worked. She looked so much better with a haircut and simpler but elegant clothing

R46 - WRONG

I remember an interview I read in December 1988 when the movie was released. Melanie Griffith was being interviewed and her age was stated as 35 years old. I read the article right after I saw the movie.

This is what working class white women in the NE US looked like 30 years ago. If you're not getting that it's because you're culturally ignorant.

"I missed every exposition that exists for this character and her entire narrative arc, so I will critique her look based only on my own personal tastes. Also, I was born in 2001."

[quote]she even carries a briefcase in that scene!

Lots of women did in the 1980s. It was the first decade where women finally had to be taken seriously in the worlds of corporates and government, and they felt it was important to appropriate men's symbols of power. The briefcase, the brand-name watch, the Mont Blanc pen, and of course the power suit with the shoulders padded out to give them a substantial yet serious, tailored look, with high heels to bring them up to eye level. Those things were all important signals then.

At the same time, it was a boom decade for expensive silk lingerie, of a quality you struggle to buy anywhere any more, which was available in places of the level of Lord and Taylor. Women who were appropriating a male look on the outside wanted to wear very feminine lingerie, often including stockings instead of pantyhose.

Low-end 80s fashion was really bad, but the high end was not only worth looking at, it tells an important story from the rise of feminism.

[quote] Why did they make her look so hideous in this movie?

Are you serious, OP? It was the 80s. Take a look at photographs, videos, or other media showing women and men from the era. Joan Cusack is great at portraying a woman from an Italian/Irish-American, working to lower-middle class neighborhood in any of the outer boroughs of NYC c. 1985.

I preferred the look of these working girls

It is a Cinderella story, done correctly. The wicked witch is always my favorite character. Joan Cusack 's makeup was exaggerated but it wasn't too far off the mark. I can't understand why hair and makeup was so terrible back then, clothing. too.

I remember my father mentioned how he loved Melanie Griffith voice. I always thought she sounded like a borderline retarded bimbo.

Why were poors of ancient times so hideous?

Remember this MADtv skit from the late '90s?

I LOVE this movie. I really dig makeover movies like Working Girl and Sabrina.

Melanie is pretty but I'm not sure why. Her daughter is not pretty to me, just plain with droopy eyes. The fashion may be slightly exaggerated (the hair and makeup I mean), but not too much. It was a Madonna inspired.

I know people put down the looks of the 1990's but I think that's when everyone (including me) really looked good. Ally McBeal inspired in MATCHING suits with mini skirts and slightly chunky heals. And always wearing pantyhose.

You're not a straight white male, so you won't get it, you're not supposed to get it. They love her baby voice and vapidity and the long horse ass with long slender legs.

R82 Yeah, the '90s had a sleeker/polished style.

I never thought she had a pretty face. Strraight guys remain a mystery.

I read somewhere that Melanie is like 5’11”. She looked shorter than Sigourney W. Sigourney must be a giant

[quote] Why did they make her look so hideous in this movie?

I lived in Boston during this time, and that's exactly how lower-class white young working women wanted to look.

There was a hilarious piece in the Boston Globe in 1988 where a woman reporter hung out with some of these women, and they were very sweet to her, but at the end of the day they told her (I'm sure in thick Boston accents), "We all think you're so nice--but, your hair! It needs to be higher..."

The big, long Jersey Girl hair she sported before Tess got a "haircut" was extensions. Melanie went into rehab during filming and came out a little heavier (bloated). You can tell the difference because her hair is slightly longer and she's noticeably heavier. For example, the "you can't just order me" scene is post-rehab because her face is a bit bloated and her hair is a tad bit longer. Pre-rehab would be the wedding scene, where she's thinner and her hair's a bit shorter. She also seems blitzed throughout that entire scene.

The director fined her $80K when she showed up too high to work and he found out she was having drugs delivered to the set.

^Wow. I wonder what the other actors thought about all of that.

It was so odd that Sigourney lost the Supporting Actress award to Geena Davis for this.

She had the double nominations. Up until then all the double nominees always got the supporting one and Sig was expected to follow that pattern.

Geena is great but Sigourney is a fucking legend.

Sigourney gave two fabulous performances in 1988 but I never thought she had a lock on either award. And although previously, if someone was nominated in both Leading and Supporting typically won, I don't think anyone, including Sig herself, thought she was going to win. At least that's how I remember it.

But in the end, Sigourney comes out on top again. People still talk about Ripley (nominated in 1986) and Katherine Parker to this day. Her performances remain timeless and iconic.

No r93 Sig was heavily favored to win Supporting that year.

Even Geena Davis just not too long ago said to Oprah what a shock her win was and that in the car on the way over she watched Siskel and Ebert handicap her as being in fourth place.

Somewhere between ugly Melanie and cute Melanie I think she went to rehab/fat farm and got the bloat off.

Did Sigourney Weaver get the world’s worst nose job or is that her real nose? It looks like Janet Jackson’s.

Geena Davis was sublime in Accidental Tourist. It would have been nice to see Sig win but Geena deserved it. Fast forward a few decades and Weaver has maintained a steady career in all mediums doing excellent work. Geena Davis is into archery.

[quote]Did Sigourney Weaver get the world’s worst nose job or is that her real nose? It looks like Janet Jackson’s.

LIES.

All of Melanies issues worked for the film. Not sure why; but it all looked genuine and authentic

You can find photos of girls in high school in this era with hair exactly like Melanie's and Joan's.

Joan's makeup though wasn't always convincing. The outfit she has on in the pic at r50 is perfect, teal and rust were big colors in the late 1980s, but no one was wearing their eyeshadow like that. They might coordinate their eyes by using teal or rust, but not both, especially not while at work. Maybe teen girls going to a high school dance, but that's it.

It is impossible to exaggerate how high and poofy lower to middle income white women wanted their hair in the mid to late 80s.

R100, Joan's makeup worked for the character. Cynthia was supposed to be over the top and the type of woman who was not going to do much better in life because she was tacky and borderline unprofessional. Tess's "don't" to contrast with Katherine's "do."

[quote] Joan's makeup though wasn't always convincing. The outfit she has on in the pic at [R50] is perfect, teal and rust were big colors in the late 1980s, but no one was wearing their eyeshadow like that. They might coordinate their eyes by using teal or rust, but not both, especially not while at work. Maybe teen girls going to a high school dance, but that's it.

R100, you're just going to have to trust others on this. Women *did* look like this in the workplace. They did not stop and think - oh, I better tone this down for work, where's my neutrals & brown eye shadow palette?

Women still go overboard with makeup, just in a different way (now, it's blocked-out, "Instagram" eyebrows, etc.).

Okay, find me one photo of a woman at work in the 1980s with heavy two-tone brown and blue half-and-half eyeshadow.

Reminder that dress codes in businesses were pretty strict in the 1980s.

When I was in high school, the trashy girls did look like Joan, with terrible hair, blue eyeliner and lots of teal and acid wash. The “preppy” girls had much more subdued hair, make up and clothes. The denim worn by these girls tended to be faded not acid washed.

I agree with 102. I worked in offices around that time and that kind of hair and makeup along with way too much perfume wasn’t out of place.

Salon Selectives ad around this time - Big Hair.

That stuff smelled so good.

R106 I remember that stuff - it had an apple scent.

That is what girls from Staten Island and Up the Island looked like. Hideous.

I saw Salon Selectives at Dollar Tree. Should I buy it? I also used to use it and I miss it.

Joan's character is the standard Best Girlfriend from every Cinderella rom-com story -- she's there to show how far our Heroine has changed. So the two start off looking similar but as Melanie classes herself up we measure her against Joan, who stays the same trashy old self. Another fave from around the same time: Laura San Giacomo in Pretty Woman, who stays some cartoon hooker shit just so Julia Roberts can seem classy by comparison

Right, I think we all know why the movie had Joan looking so awful, but I was a teen in the 1980s and I don't remember anyone being allowed to have "Boy George makeup" at work, especially at a big corporation. People were super uptight back then and if you looked like Madonna or Cyndi Lauper or Boy George, even just vaguely, you'd get in trouble at school or get a talking to from HR at work.

Again, Cynthia was supposed to be over the top. That's the character; she's the polar opposite of Katherine. Look at the other secretaries shown in the pool in the film. Much more "normal" looking.

Isabella R Lancome ad - colorful eye makeup

The fact is, there were many girls/women who wore that big hair and garish makeup in the late '80s (even up here in Mass.). Whether any secretaries looked like that or were even allowed to, I couldn't tell you. I was a teen and didn't know anyone who worked in an office at the time.

It was fashionable back then for women to dress "old".

Worked on Wall Street during 1980's, and grew up/lived on Staten Island. Hair, make-up, and clothes fit period right on the button.

You'd walk past ladies room on ferry and would gag from hairspray fumes as girls/women were doing their transformations on way to work.

Working Girl got lots right about Staten Island. The accents, girls wearing sneakers with dress suits (changing into high heels at the office), the hair/make-up, and of course attitude.

Even Olympia Dukakis's character as personnel director was on point. Scores if not hundreds of older Irish, Italian, etc...women from Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens worked their way up from secretaries or assistants into human resources. Some had college degrees, others diplomas from secretarial school, but they weren't that much different than the girls they supervised.

[quote]girls wearing sneakers with dress suits (changing into high heels at the office)

What was the point of that? An extra pair of shoes just added to their load.

The transit strike forced everyone to walk to work so that's where the sneaker thing started. They got most of the details in this film right - I was there

R118

How much space do you think a pair of high heels takes up? Some girls kept various pairs of shoes under their desk or elsewhere at office as well.

As noted movie was made in 1989 just nine years after 1980 NYC transit strike. Legions of girls/women who walked to work or school during that event got used to it in sneakers, they never went back.

My French friends living in NYC at the time thought it was horrible, ironically at least in Paris and other major cities in France the young practically live in sneakers nowadays.

Incidentally, remember that Easy Spirit commercial where women are running and playing basketball in high heels?

i think Melanie is and was glamorous, she's quite tall and striking. She had more range than her daughter does. I like her in Another Day in Paradise the Larry Clark film. A friend saw her onstage in Chicago and said she was good - at the acting, the singing not so much.

R120- Working Girl was filmed in 1988. It was released in December 1988.

The accent was so weird at first I assumed she was playing an immigrant. What accent is that!?

It's called character development, Rose.

R118, do you know how much walking a typical commuter into Manhattan has to do? Why on earth would those women do it all in high heels? Plus you can always keep a back up pair of plain black pumps in an office drawer.

Now they change in and out of ballet flats, which are much easier to throw into a purse or tote bag.

[quote] Her performances remain timeless and iconic.

Mary!

R118, you are quite stupid. You don't see "the point" of many things, I'm sure.

Is the point of this thread just to mock the past? Roll your eyes at "the olds?" It's so tiresome. Instead of doubting everything people tell you about the past, why don't you try listening and learn something?

R124 You could call it a Brooklyn-Staten Island accent.

In fact, that accent marked the division between professional and non-professional staff on Wall Street. Bankers and lawyers talked one way. Clerical staff completely different. Traders still another way.

And WG picks up on this. Robert Easton was the dialect coach, and also played a small role as Armbrister.

When she shows up to the bar event in Katherine's clothes,, the man in the trench coat who gives her the once over is named Michael Scacco. We dated for a little bit.

"What's New York?" "Why are women people?" "What's a commute?" "Who is a secretary?" "Why are there colors?"

You couldn't pay me to watch that movie. [Shudders]

Working Girl is the #1 movie that can take me right back to that time and place, it captured everything perfectly.

Like some of the above posters I can also attest that the fashions were 100% accurate. That is exactly how working-class Outer Borough/Jersey women looked in the late 80s. The hair and makeup were NOT exaggerated at all, trust us. We were there.

Yes, the movie got so many little details right that it balances out the absurd plot. That plus some great performances (Griffith is so fucking lucky she had such stellar costars to carry her through her drug haze) made certain this movie would really hold up over time.

One little detail I love is the recording of Katherine's dictated notes to her fellow Wellesley alums that Tess plays. Absolutely pitch-perfect. I can't find a clip of it, but I can still recall the perfect snooty lilt of her voice even though she's only dictating. "Dear Sister. It's hard to believe it's been eight years since we said goodbye to Wellesley, but of course we never really say goodbye."

Wait a minute, Katharine had only been out of college for eight years? Sigourney Weaver was 40 years old at the time.

She pulls it off. Griffith was 31 IRL and they look like they could be the same age in the film.

I thought she looked amazing later on in the film. It's already been mentioned or alluded to that she was meant to look rough when the film started and improve as the story progressed. I've always thought the only genuine misstep was how Griffith was styled in the wedding scene. That hair and those shoulder pads!

Realizing high heels are hellish: Women walked to work in sneakers during the 1980 transit strike.Credit... Bill Cunningham NYT photo

Sneakers with business clothing is SUCH an 80s look.

Sneakers and white socks over stockings R139!

It was a hideous look.

By 1980's few if females of any age were wearing stockings. Pantyhose yes, but not stockings (tights).

Always liked the opening credits for "Nine to Five" as it reminds me of what commuting to work was like back in the day. Yes, you have to feel bad for girls or women wearing high heels, open toed shoes from time they left home until got back later that day.

R142 oh I guess I meant pantyhose. I though they are the same as stockings. The things that get runs in them.

Thing is lower Manhattan/Wall Street has changed so much since 1980's or even 1990's. Virtually all the big banks are gone. Traders and others got the boot when things went over to electronic trading. Buildings like 44 and 40 Wall are now residential as is large part of Wall Street area which is now called "FiDi"

Speaking of Staten Island and ferry, the other group of females who commuted from Island that worked on Wall Street did so later in day. Around 4PM or so you'd see those who worked overnight as maybe cleaners or encoding/data processing head into the city. When everything moved over to computers encoding, entering orders, etc.. by humans was largely phased out.

R144

Unless there's something you want to share with us you're forgiven about not knowing difference.

Stockings were still a thing in the 80s, but more the thigh high version than the knee high. Thigh highs went well with the lacy lingerie trend (Tess repeatedly wears thigh highs in the movie). The big change re hosiery in the 80s was sheer hose, especially black.

R143 Tootsie also has a great sidewalk filled with commuters on the way to work scene, with of course the added hilarity of seeing the Tootsie character emerge from the crowd for the first time.

Stewie was hardcore and DIDN'T wear sneakers.

R121. The most hideous shoes every assembled. Worse than crocs.

R71

There was a distinct (and often enforced) difference between the "working girls" and those like Katharine Parker. This was true for finance, law, and pretty much across all corporations.

You had women like Katharine Parker who went to the right schools and colleges that were part of the legacy that "Mary Tyler Moore" sorts started. They were breaking into previously all or mostly male professions but often felt no compassion nor sisterhood with the secretaries, assistants and other female drones at office. Katherine's comment about Tess's wardrobe choice early in film (tells her to rethink.....), is a classic example.

In short it was a whole working class versus middle or upper class background thing. Most of the girls I knew back then across board said they'd rather work for a guy than woman. That's saying something....

R145 I don't know where the night cleaners lived, but not sure it was Staten Island. For some odd reason, Eastern Europeans of some unknown nationality seemed to have a lock on the night cleaning business on Wall Street. Probably the better they couldn't read English!

Both Bronx (around Belmont section), and Staten Island had or still have large Albanian communities. Many of them worked as porters, doormen, cleaning people in Wall Street office buildings. In fact now am thinking about it the women who sat together on ferry late afternoons/early evenings heading into city just might have been Albanian.

[quote] At the same time, it was a boom decade for expensive silk lingerie, of a quality you struggle to buy anywhere any more,

I do??

Have I somehow become a transvestite without knowing so???

Well there is a point there, Victoria's Secret back in 1980's sold vastly higher end lingerie than what it has become nowadays. One of my trannie friends has drawers full of lingerie, sleep wear and other stuff out of silk, high end cotton, and cashmere that came from VS back in the day.

Clothing across the board is thinner, cheaper, lesser quality, etc. In the 80s took YEARS to wear denim jeans out at the knee, now you could rip a hole into a brand new pair of jeans with your bare hands.

80s styles could be ridiculous. Also, they purposely over did it to underscore the transformation. Don't overthink it.

R156

Was just thinking about that this week as yet again need to replenish my supply of Levis jeans. There was a time you couldn't kill a pair of 501s, now with just it seems barely a year or so of regular wear things get threadbare at knees. Then come holes and crotch blow outs, and finally just as your jeans are broken in and comfy, they look ready for rag bin.

R153 Belmont in the Bronx is FULL of Albanians—far more Albanians than Italians in that neighborhood anymore. I went to Fordham and lived there while I was in grad school. The Albanians rule that neighborhood.

For some reason the often inclusive Italians have no problems with Albanians in their neighborhoods. Again Staten Island which as a sizable Italian population pretty much welcomed Albanians with open arms including plenty of intermarrying.

As for Belmont the Italians largely left, but Albanians for various reasons remained.

r147 I remember seeing women who looked just like the woman in that ad all over NYC.

The pantyhose revolution began with Joyce DeWitt.

[quote]Most of the girls I knew back then across board said they'd rather work for a guy than woman. That's saying something....

I know quite a few women who say this right now in 2021!

Hopefully Sigourney will get another chance to win an Oscar. Wasn't the big complaint about Geena's win was that she really should have been in the lead category. I do like Geena as well, and wished her career would not have fallen off so quickly. Even her television shows never quite clicked.

I am not a huge Melanie Griffith fan, but this part was made for her. I forgot she remarried Don Johnson not long after this. -- which seems very 80's in and of itself.

R146 Wait, so did they wear panty-hose or tights with the sneakers? Tights are the same as pantyhose and get runs? I thought tights were like, thicker and more opaque?

Women wore pantyhose with dresses and skirts.

I got very moist when Peak Hotness Harrison Ford took off his shirt, slashed water on his pits, and put on a fresh white business shirt. I would have been clapping with the other office fraus!

Men clapped too!

[quote]I got very moist when Peak Hotness Harrison Ford took off his shirt, slashed water on his pits, and put on a fresh white business shirt. I would have been clapping with the other office fraus!

Next time you watch that scene, look out for the very obvious print of his penis. He's obviously going commando in that scene.

This thread inspired me to go to Dollar Tree and get Salon Selectives. It's exactly the same. Great shampoo!

[quote] The pantyhose revolution began with Joyce DeWitt.

[italic]JOYCE![/italic]

She's got a great pair of L'Eggs!

Joyce's pantyhose smelled something awful. You didn't want to be downwind of her when she took them off at the end of the day.

[quote] Why did they make her look so hideous in this movie?

Because she was

The "Mob Wives" lived in Staten Island. Here's the original cast, which includes Karen Gravano (daughter of Sammy "the Bull" Gravano and Renee Graziano (daughter of Anthony Graziano of the Bonanno crime family). Drita (with the red hair) is Albanian. Carla's husband was hot as hell.

Anyway, if you watch Mob Wives, you're going to get confused realizing that Staten Island is part of NY, not NJ.

I can’t stand Griffith’s baby voice. It’s the same in all the movies I’ve seen her in. Is this a side effect of all the drugs she was on?

I remember seeing those L'Eggs vending machines (or whatever they're called) everywhere! Do they still have them?

I haven't seen L'eggs in years and years.

R165, they're used interchangeably, but technically:

Stockings are long socks that go up to either the knees, just over the knees, or thighs and come in a variety of fabrics. Very broad term that includes everything from those stretchy nylon knee highs, as well as thigh-high silk lingerie leggings, and the thick wool over the knee coverings that were featured a lot in Clueless.

Pantyhose are very thin/sheer stretchy panties+stockings, usually made of a nylon blend, that cover waist to toe.

Tights are panties+stockings but in a heavier and usually opaque material. Basically, thicker pantyhose with more variety of fabrics. I think it’s only in the US where you even see much distinction made between pantyhose and tights.

Hosiery refers to all kinds of foot/leg coverings, including the hose men wore until the 19th Century.

L'eggs is/was such a fantastic marketing name and container. Lol. They used to be everywhere. Eventually pantyhose wearing dropped a lot among women.

Thanks R178. My mom wore panty hose, then. She was always checking for runs before putting them on!

Things women know all about that guys don't.

Maybe a topic for another thread.

OP, all you have to do is carefully watch the opening scene and you will see that all the young women on the Staten Island ferry are coiffed and made up in the same way. It was the prevailing working class 'NY Metro' area look in the late 1980's. There is no other way to have presented that character at that time.

[Quote] I can’t stand Griffith’s baby voice. It’s the same in all the movies I’ve seen her in. Is this a side effect of all the drugs she was on?

I finally got around to watching this and her voice was driving me nuts. I thought maybe it was just the character until i decided to watch Pacific Heights the next day. And Sigourney got quite a raw deal for someone who didn't really do anything wrong.

I recently bought a pair of 505's for the first time in decades and I was shocked at how thing and flimsy the material was.

R180 that’s a good distinction: pantyhose are tights that rip and run easily.

Half the girls in my high school had that exact same look, even a few years after the movie.

The big 80s hair lasted well into the 90s with working-class women.

Someone took the time to splice together all the times Melanie clears her throat throughout the movie...

Geena belonged one the supporting category. She was not a lead. Hurt was lead and everyone else was supporting.

jeans today, half the quality and at least twice the price...

R184 Were you inspired by this ad featuring DL fave, Stan Tucci?

R122....Did someone mention Easy Spirits?

^^^ Ack. Fast-forward to 02:47.....

R187

One of my trannie friends got first back in1990's and still has that same picture on license today, big hair and all! Passports require new pictures at each renewal so that document gives a better look at age progression...... Needless to say now at age over 50 that big hair long since has gone......

On another note that big hair of 1980's and 1990's proved a huge boost to sales of Aero lak and other lacquer aerosol hair sprays. Talk about killing the ozone layer!

My mother once sprayed her hair with cleaning polish by accident.

IIRC it was 1980's or maybe 1990's when either Glamour another USA woman's magazine was giving out advice for female "corporate" attire and behaviour.

One of their recommendations went on about "leaving a ratty sweater on back of desk chair like a secretary..." What followed in subsequent issue was a barrage of complaints from said working girls telling off the magazine with pretty much "who do you think you're talking to?" attitude.

I wonder how many Midwest fraus started wearing sneakers to work after this movie came out. I can just picture from Cincinnati chick thinking she's the bees knees strutting into the office Monday morning, with all her less cool co-workers looking on in envy.

Sneakers with business attire was such a tacky and common look.

I'm reading the Mike Nichols biography. Have learned Demi Moore was considered for the lead! Melanie ended up owning the role.

Demi Moore would've been awful. She was too hard and guttersnipe-ish for Tess. Tess is supposed to be likable and you root for her through the whole movie.

:Some women with baby voices were victims of sexual abuse as children. Emotional trauma sometimes stunts emotional growth.

This is a collection of photos that were taken in 1990, just two years after Working Girl, of people in shopping malls in the NYC metro area. This really gives you an idea of what working class/lower middle-class people in that region of the country looked like in that time period. Working Girl was very accurate in depicting the styles of that time and place.

R202, thanks for the link and it's true, people in the 80s dressed horribly and had questionable hairstyles. OP, do you get it yet? Tess was a product of her time and place. Some ways to watch period TV and movies: does it work for the character? Were they true to the role? Or do you just want to dress the lady like you would your mom, in casual separates from Chico's and a kicky 'get up 'n go' cut from Diane down at the Beauty Barn?

The scary thing is that I know towns on Long Island where people still look like the people in those photos from 1990.

It needs some BOWS or somethin!

R204 perhaps because some of those styles are coming back? Gen Z is obsessed with the '80s and '90s.

80s were terrible times but the 90s were fun

R1 She looked like something from Staten Island.

Reagan and AIDS, right R207?

r197, wearing sneakers to work was a yuppie thing.

What happened to Melanie's skin that gave it that deflated wrinkled look? Too much botox? She has the skin of her 91-year-old mother. I know she's been a longtime smoker and had her alcohol/drug issues, but still.

She doesn't looks like that anymore, but she looks like someone totally different. Really scary.

That... didn't happen, r197. I know you probably get off on putting certain people down, but... no.

The sneakers-to-work thing was purely an urban phenomenon precisely because of the commute; the bridge and tunnel gals wore sneakers so they could hop on and off the subway or train, and shlep up and down stairs the platform, and through crosstown blocks to get to the office. Meanwhile, Debbie in Cinncy, who wasn't viewing the working class women in this movie as aspirational in the first place, didn't see the sense of pulling up to the local office park in her Chrysler in a pair of Reeboks just to cross 50 feet of parking lot asphalt.

Now pipe down with your classism and regional bias and pay attention. Grown ups are talking.

R204 Except they weigh 20-30 lbs more, which sort of destroys the look.

R214 what look?

I always thought she was very pretty in this movie but of course the hair and makeup in the beginning are a crime.

What was the point of Tess vacuuming topless in Katharine's apartment? It was only like a 10-second clip.

R217 that scene baffled me as well.

One of the local NYC stations 9 or 11 played this on a Sunday afternoon about 6 yrs ago and I thought it was very funny and entertaining and it's held up well.

Mike Nichols was living out his alopecia hair envy.

"Something Wild", I still think was the career best performance for Griffith, she just shone. Also for her co-star Ray Liotta, his first movie role and utterly amazing, Goodfellas notwithstanding. And Jeff Daniels, well he may have bested himself in recent performances.

[quote]Mike Nichols was living out his alopecia hair envy.

How do you mean?

Meant to be a joke, Melanie's ultra big hair as over compensation for his life-long inability to grow hair. His recent biography describes him suffering from full body alopecia as a result of a vaccine in childhood. He wore a wig and fake eyebrows his entire life.

I finally saw the movie after reading this thread. My god, how the hell did anyone considered Melanie Griffith leading lady material back in the 80s? She was never pretty, just average features with thin lips and manly jaws. Her body in the movie was awful in that lingerie scene. Who did she fuck to get even considered for any lead role back then?

[Quote] Her body in the movie was awful in that lingerie scene.

Awful? Melanie's body looks fine.

Melanie was also great in Body Double.

Women wearing sneakers to work became a brief phenomenon, R213. Women did it everywhere after all the entertainment news fluff pieces about it. Girls in my Kansas high school started wearing sneakers and socks over their hose when they were on the bus, headed for some tournament or event of some sort.

I don't know why that other guy was acting like women were pretending to be urban, it just seemed a matter of practicality to me.

It's too bad this movie is out of print—it's a Fox title, so it's now owned by Disney, which means the chances of any future physical re-releases are fucked. I'm lucky that I already own the Blu-ray, though I'd love to see it get re-released with proper bonus features. It'd be nice to see interviews with Griffith, Weaver, and Ford about the making of it. It deserves better.

it's for rent, widely available

[quote]It's too bad this movie is out of print

What decade are you posting from?

In conclusion, OP, who the fuck died an made you Grace Kelly?

I noticed this movie was just loaded to the free Roku channel. I am now tempted to watch it, even if it means dealing with a few commercials.

Surprisingly the commercial breaks are quite short.

R229 I still buy Blu-ray discs—I know there aren't many of us left, but I like to have at least some physical media.

Don't you bitches know how to torrent or do the free streaming sites?

R234 of course, but torrents/streaming services are inconsistent and things get taken down. I stream movies quite a bit via Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix, but if I like a movie enough, I will buy a physical copy of it. In many cases, you also get the added bonus of having special features, which is not something you get with streaming. I am a cinephile, so I love having access to stuff like that (interviews, documentaries, commentaries, etc.)

A lot of DVD special features are on Youtube, if that helps. Not everything under the sun, of course, but they do have a lot.

[quote]My god, how the hell did anyone considered Melanie Griffith leading lady material back in the 80s? She was never pretty, just average features with thin lips and manly jaws. Her body in the movie was awful in that lingerie scene. Who did she fuck to get even considered for any lead role back then?

Mike Nichols first choice for the role of Tess was Miss Kay Lenz. It's a shame she dropped out over $$$ and the Alec Baldwin problems. Melanie Griffith was never charming. Some movie stars come and go in a decade and no one can understand how they got there or remember them after.

Miss Kay Lenz is a gorgeous, charismatic star for the ages. SHE would have won the Oscar! It's not a great film, but it would have been.

Debi Mazar would have been my choice.

It may seem odd now, but Melanie Griffith had a lot of buzz in the mid-late 80s. Largely because of Body Double and Something Wild, but she popped up in all sorts of odd films in that era, often in supporting roles. She never quite cut it as a mainstream leading lady though.

She was tall, hip, and Tippi Hedren's daughter. She was Don Johnson's wife and Cher and Tatum O'Neal's friend. She had blow and was a good lay.

[Quote] She had blow and was a good lay.

Hope they don't put that on her tombstone.

They won't, R241. But the tourists will stand on her grave and whisper it.

R217, R218, apparently the half naked Tess vacuuming scene was Melanie's idea. I think it's kind of perfect. Also according to the book, they barely got this movie made due to Mel's drug problems. She had to really bear down to finish, and then went straight to rehab.

She had shorter, Princess Diana hair in the music video.

The only thing worse than Melanie Griffith's bloated face and tinkly voice is a Carly Simon theme song. Ugh.

R241, if it was good enough for ME, it's good enough for HER.

Carly Simon who i used to not like because she came from a privileged background has turned into a quite impressive narrative writer with three NYT bestsellers which received good reviews. She's quite a talent.

[quote]Carly Simon who i used to not like because she came from a privileged background

You have some deep-seated issues.

I also hate people from privileged backgrounds.

Oh well.

Why are we talking about Carly Simon and her writing?

Because she wrote and performed the music for the movie, Rose/R250.

And then somehow the conversation oddly veered toward class warfare.

Has any movie aged more badly than this one?

I love how 80s movies would take a lighthearted spin on actual crimes like identity theft.

Felons just wanna have fun, R253

Working Girl has aged well. It's still funny and charming. I love it!