BLUE VELVET was my introduction to the surreal mind of director David Lynch (ERASERHEAD) who passed away a month ago in late January 2025. From the moment the titles appeared over a lush blue curtain rippling ever so slightly and Bobby Vinton crooned "she wore bluuuuuue velvet" during the opening montage, I fell down the Lynch rabbit hole and never looked back. Something in the neo noir BLUE VELVET resonated with me when I first saw it with some college friends at a film class. It was 1986. Ronald Reagan was President. I remember Reagan touting the red, white, and blue spirit of America. Apple pie and hot dogs. Wholesomeness. Community. Every day heroes. It seemed so perfect. But when I watched my local news or read the newspaper, I noticed a darker undercurrent. A youth soccer coach arrested for sexual misconduct with a player. A PTA treasurer embezzling school funds. A district attorney murdered after a clandestine meeting with an escort.
What BLUE VELVET revealed was that past the white picket fences and shiny red fire engines we see at the start of the film was the hidden side to the Reagan Era at the time (or suburban America in general), symbolized by the camera in BLUE VELVET sinking below the perfectly manicured green lawn to reveal hundreds of teeming black beetles scurrying below the surface. There was a dark side to the American dream lurking in the underbelly of society. BLUE VELVET was the Hardy Boys meet the Marquis de Sade. My college friends and I had a tense (but brief) argument about what we had just seen. They thought it was trash. I was hypnotized by Lynch's confident style, dancing back and forth between bright goodness and dark, sadistic violence. Our friendship was frayed for a day or two until girls and Friday night parties and ESPN'S SPORT CENTER brought us back together.
Written and directed by David Lynch, BLUE VELVET begins with Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle McLachlan) returning to his bucolic hometown of Lumberton (actually Wilmington, North Carolina) from college after his father Mr. Beaumont (Jack Harvey) suffers a medical emergency. While walking back from the hospital through an empty field, Jeffrey comes across a severed human ear. Jeffrey takes the ear to Detective John Williams (George Dickerson) with the Lumberton Police who promises to look into it. Jeffrey grows bored hanging around home with his mother Mrs. Beaumont (Priscilla Pointer) and Aunt Barbara (Frances Bay). He goes for a night walk, ending up at Detective Williams house. Jeffrey's curious about the investigation. Detective Williams can't discuss the case with him. As Jeffrey leaves the house, Sandy Williams (Laura Dern), the Detective and Mrs. Williams (Hope Lange) high school daughter, materializes out of the darkness. Sandy has overheard her father talking about the severed ear and its possible connection with a nightclub singer named Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini). Sandy shows Jeffrey the Deep River Apartments where Dorothy lives.
The next day, Jeffrey picks up Sandy from high school and takes her to Arlene's Diner. Jeffrey tells her his plan to impersonate a pest control worker (his father's hardware store has the cannisters) so he can access her apartment and learn more about Dorothy. Jeffrey knocks on her door. Dorothy lets him in. As Jeffrey sprays around her apartment, the Yellow Man (Fred Pickler in a mustard suit) pays Dorothy a visit. With Dorothy distracted, Jeffrey quickly grabs a spare key from underneath her counter. Jeffrey and Sandy go to the Slow Club that night to watch Dorothy perform. After the show, Jeffrey returns to Dorothy's apartment to snoop around. Dorothy returns home unexpectedly. Jeffrey hides in her closet where Dorothy discovers him. Dorothy holds a knife on Jeffrey, forcing him to strip. There's a knock at her door. Jeffrey returns to hide in the closet. The sadistic, nitrous oxide sniffing drug dealer Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) enters. Jeffrey watches as Frank sexually abuses and rapes Dorothy before departing. Jeffrey comforts Dorothy. Before Jeffrey departs, he finds a photograph of Dorothy's husband and son under her couch.
Jeffrey recounts most of what happened in Dorothy's apartment to Sandy. "Why is there so much trouble in this world?" Jeffrey muses. Jeffrey visits Dorothy again and begins to follow Frank. He sees Frank and the Yellow Man enter a building where a drug deal turns deadly. Jeffrey is falling in love with Sandy while carrying on a relationship with Dorothy. Jeffrey visits Dorothy again. They make love only Dorothy wants it rough much to Jeffrey's chagrin. As Jeffrey leaves Dorothy's apartment, he runs into Frank and his posse including Raymond (Brad Dourif), Paul (Jack Nance), and Hunter (J. Michael Hunter). Frank and his crew take Jeffrey and Dorothy on a joy ride. They visit a brothel to see Ben (Dean Stockwell), a pill popping, Roy Orbison crooning, drug dealing acquaintance of Frank. Frank is keeping Dorothy's husband and child against their will at Ben's. Dorothy is allowed to see her son briefly offscreen.
Frank and his boys drive Jeffrey and Dorothy out into the country. Frank begins to abuse Dorothy again. Jeffrey punches Frank. Frank and his gang beat up Jeffrey and leave him semi-conscious in a lumberyard. Jeffrey makes it back home and turns in all his findings to Detective Williams about Frank, the Yellow Man (who turns out to be Det. Williams partner Tom Gordon), and Dorothy. Jeffrey's done with his snooping around. Jeffrey picks up Sandy for a date. They go to a high school party and dance and make out. On their way home, a car chases them. Jeffrey thinks it's Frank but it's Sandy's former boyfriend Mike (Ken Stovitz). They pull over at Jeffrey's house where Dorothy emerges from the shadows naked and beaten. Jeffrey and Sandy take Dorothy to Sandy's house where they call an ambulance. They can't reach Detective Williams who's involved with a raid on a drug house. Jeffrey returns to Dorothy's apartment where he finds both the Yellow Man and Dorothy's husband (missing an ear) dead. Jeffrey begins to leave when Frank (in his disguise) pulls up and sees him. Jeffrey and Frank will have a final showdown in Dorothy's apartment.
BLUE VELVET is Jeffrey Beaumont's awakening to the light and the dark that lurks in the world and in his heart. Director Lynch peels back the underside of the sleepy logging town of Lumberton, exposing its seedier side. Jeffrey is our guide to this underworld, uncovering secrets and miscreants he never knew existed. Jeffrey has only known the decent side of his hometown. He becomes enamored by the sleazier side when he sets eyes on the raven haired lounge singer Dorothy Vallens. Forced to watch (by his own carelessness) from the closet the abhorrent sexual behavior that Frank Booth forces Dorothy to perform, Jeffrey's repulsed and excited by it. Later, when Jeffrey makes love to Dorothy, she urges him to hit her, transforming Jeffrey (briefly) into Frank Booth Jr. But Jeffrey knows he's gone too far. He has a brief breakdown back at home that helps him to expunge the corruptness that had overtaken his soul.
The two women Jeffrey encounters in BLUE VELVET are two sides of the light vs dark that Jeffrey's battling within. Sandy Williams (Laura Dern) represents what's wholesome and decent in Lumberton. She's blonde and dresses in white and pink, her purity symbolized in these colors. Sandy tells Jeffrey about a dream she had where the world was dark because there weren't any robins. "I guess it means there is trouble 'til the robins come," she says. Dorothy Vallens (Isabelle Rossellini) is not a bad woman just a broken one. She's from the other side of the tracks (or the other side of Lincoln Street which Jeffrey's aunt warns him to stay clear of). Dorothy's a brunette (even after she takes her stage wig off) and dresses in deep blues and purples. Dorothy represents the flip side of Sandy's angelic persona even though Dorothy's behavior is the result of Frank's physical and sexual abuse. Frank has kidnapped her husband and young son as collateral in his quest to become the drug kingpin of Lumberton. Dorothy will do anything for Frank to keep her family alive. Jeffrey falls in love with Sandy yet cheats on her with Dorothy. Good vs evil. Black against white. It's the age old conflict that lurks in suburbia just as much as big cities. Lynch sums it up simply at the end when a robin lands on the Beaumont's window sill with a beetle in its beak. The robin represents good; the beetle evil. Good has triumphed.
My favorite films always have shots, montages, or set pieces that burn into my brain and never leave. In David Lynch films, these are affectionately known as "Lynchian." BLUE VELVET has many Lynchian moments, some obscure, others more vivid. Most are visual, some aural, thanks to Lynch collaborators cinematographer Frederick Elmes and sound designer Alan Splet. BLUE VELVET'S opening montage of bright Kodachrome Norman Rockwell shots (a red fire truck and a white picket fence with yellow flowers) that dissolves into a mass of black beetles scurrying just below the green grass sets the tone. You can almost feel BLUE VELVET'S texture while watching. Dorothy's bruised pink walls in her apartment. The black as Hades hallway outside her apartment. The thick blue curtains rippling in the opening credits. The severed ear tips us off that sound (as always in a Lynch film) will be important. The ominous humming of an air conditioning unit next to Dorothy's outside stairwell. The rippling flame that extinguishes at the end of a Jeffrey nightmare. Frank's oxygen mask pumping nitrous oxide into his nose and lungs, foreshadowing heinous acts to come.
BLUE VELVET'S set pieces would set the standard for future strange sequences in David Lynch films like WILD AT HEART (1990) and MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001) and hit television show TWIN PEAKS (1990-91). After the weird discovery of the severed ear, Lynch lulls us into a false sense we're watching a typical mystery until BLUE VELVET'S first set piece where we're forced (along with Jeffrey hiding in the closet) to watch the psychotic Frank Booth abuse and rape Dorothy. To make it stranger, Frank needs an oxygen mask to get him aroused. This bizarre scene begins with Dorothy catching Jeffrey spying on her undressing and turns the tables on Jeffrey forcing him to strip at knifepoint , teasing him before a knock on the door from Frank turns the whole scene upside down again. This was the sequence that divided my college buddies and I (briefly). Who would pay to watch this kind of sexual violence? Lynch had turned my classmates and I into voyeurs just like Jeffrey, appalled by Frank's actions but watching nonetheless.
BLUE VELVET'S second absurdist set piece begins with Frank and his gang taking Jeffrey and Dorothy to meet Ben. I always thought Ben's place was a safe house where Frank had Dorothy's husband and child stashed. It turns out it's a brothel but a brothel teleported from the 1960s. Ben's like a pimp queen, fluttering his eyes, wearing white makeup and a garish jacket with a white ruffled tuxedo shirt. The room is dark except for lava lamps. The prostitutes have beehive hairdos and cat-eye glasses. They're short or tall and not very attractive. Frank plays a cassette of Roy Orbison singing In Dreams while Ben lip syncs to the song holding a work light for a microphone. The bizarre sequences continues to an abandoned lumber yard. Frank and his crew beat up Jeffrey but not before Frank puts on red lipstick and kisses Jeffrey. Ben lip syncs to In Dreams again while a short hooker gyrates awkwardly to the music on the car's hood. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to David Lynch's world.
Lynch's earlier mainstream films like THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980) and DUNE (1984) were harbingers of Lynch's unique and weird vision that bubble to the surface in BLUE VELVET. In THE ELEPHANT MAN, the night porter Jim (Michael Elphick) at the hospital who sells tickets to his questionable friends to gawk and party with the Elephant Man (John Hurt) reminded me of Jeffrey surrounded by Frank, Ben, and Ben's strange middle-aged prostitutes and Frank's cretinous cronies. And Baron Vladimir Harkonnen's (Kenneth McMillan) sexual predation of a male slave in DUNE finds a more real, dangerous reimagining in Dorothy's apartment when Frank pays a visit to abuse and rape Dorothy. Both the Baron and Frank even have breathing apparatuses that aren't exactly for their health.
David Lynch would find his alter ego in Kyle McLachlan who plays amateur sleuth Jeffrey Beaumont in BLUE VELVET. Both were from small towns (Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana; McLachlan in Yakima, Washington). Lynch cast the unknown McLachlan in the pivotal role of Paul Atreides in his version of DUNE. The film (at the time) was not well received but McLachlan's solid in his first starring role. In BLUE VELVET, McLachlan finds his footing as the boyish, naive prodigal son who returns to his hometown to uncover menace he never knew existed. McLachlan even resembles Lynch in BLUE VELVET with his button up shirts to the neck and well coiffed 80s hair. Lynch would cast McLachlan as his surrogate in the widely popular (but brief) TV show TWIN PEAKS as young FBI Agent Dale Cooper. BLUE VELVET was the blueprint for TWIN PEAKS with its moody setting in the Pacific Northwest logging town of Twin Peaks as Cooper called in to investigate the murder of a high school prom queen and uncovers more sinister and quirky things about the town.
I will speak about Lynch's love of older, classic actors (sometimes forgotten) that he would cast in his films shortly yet Lynch (and his casting director) were great at finding new talent. BLUE VELVET is a great example. Laura Dern (daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd) had made an impression a year earlier in Joyce Chopra's SMOOTH TALK (1985) starring Treat Williams based on a Joyce Carol Oates short story. BLUE VELVET and later Lynch's WILD AT HEART would catapult Dern into the mainstream. Dern's Sandy Williams is the angel on Jeffrey's shoulder that mostly keeps him from succumbing to the blackness he encounters. She's virginal yet not quite. Lynch would let her play a sexier, wilder, looser version of Sandy in WILD AT HEART with Nicholas Cage and Willem Dafoe.
Isabella Rossellini was best known as the daughter of actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian director Roberto Rossellini (OPEN CITY). Rossellini was modeling and a spokesmodel for Lancome when she turned to acting. After appearing in Taylor Hackford's WHITE NIGHTS (1985), Lynch cast her as the tortured lounge singer Dorothy Vallens in BLUE VELVET. It's a brave performance from Rossellini who appears naked and abused through much of the film while maintaining her sole goal to keep her kidnapped son alive. For all of BLUE VELVET'S blackest sequences, Lynch provides the happiest moment at the film's end when we see Dorothy sitting at the park, watching her son play.
For two other key supporting players, BLUE VELVET resurrected their careers. Dennis Hopper (son of PERRY MASON actor William Hopper) stood out early in his career in supporting roles in Stuart Rosenberg's COOL HAND LUKE (1967) and Henry Hathaway's TRUE GRIT (1969). Hopper stepped behind the camera to direct and star in the cult classic, counter culture EASY RIDER (1969) with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. But after playing a drugged out photojournalist in Francis Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW (1979), Hopper disappeared from the cinema scene. He would resurface as the terrifying criminal Frank Booth in BLUE VELVET, searing himself into critics, casting directors, and movie fans permanently with his over the top performance. Hopper's Frank is scary and menacing yet he likes a good Pabst Blue Ribbon beer over a Heineken any day of the week. After BLUE VELVET, Hopper would go on an incredible run of fine, wide-ranging performances in films like Tim Hunter's THE RIVER'S EDGE (1986), David Anspaugh's HOOSIERS (1986), Tony Scott's TRUE ROMANCE (1993), and Jan de Bont's SPEED (1994).
Dean Stockwell who plays the eye fluttering, make up wearing pimp to Frank named Ben in BLUE VELVET started began his career as a child actor in films like Elia Kazan's GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT (1947) and KIM (1950) starring Errol Flynn and based on the Rudyard Kipling novel. Stockwell took a break from Hollywood in the 1960s to join the hippy movement (along with Dennis Hopper). Like Hopper, Stockwell rebounded in the 1980s. Stockwell's Ben in BLUE VELVET is the prototype for future bizarre Lynchian characters, strange and mesmerizing. Ben's living in another decade, the 50s or 60s with his ruffled tuxedo shirt and lip synching to Roy Orbison's In Dreams. Besides BLUE VELVET, Stockwell would have fine turns in Wim Wenders PARIS, TEXAS (1984) and Jonathan Demme's MARRIED TO THE MOB (1988) where he received a Best Supporting Actor nomination as a Mafia don. Stockwell, who did guest shots in television in the 70s returned to the medium in the 90s, gaining new fans on the popular sci-fi TV show QUANTUM LEAP (1989-1993) co-starring Scott Bakula.
For a person who started out in art school, you would think Lynch might not have a sense of classic Hollywood. Yet, many of Lynch's movies and television shows have veteran actors and actresses forgotten or not seen in a while or the occasional obscure cameo or two. In Lynch's first mainstream film THE ELEPHANT MAN , he cast legends John Gielglud (JULIUS CAESAR), Anne Bancroft (THE MIRACLE WORKER), and Wendy Hiller (SEPARATE TABLES). With DUNE, Lynch cast Jose Ferrer (CYRANO DE BERGERAC), Francesca Annis (CLEOPATRA), and Freddie Jones (FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED). I've mentioned Hopper and Stockwell comebacks in BLUE VELVET. WILD AT HEART gave us Diane Ladd (CHINATOWN). Veteran western actor Richard Farnsworth (TOM HORN) was the lead in Lynch's THE STRAIGHT STORY (1999). Lynch pulled from obscurity two WEST SIDE STORY stars Russ Tamblyn and Richard Beamer for his TV series TWIN PEAKS and added Piper Laurie (THE HUSTLER). John Ford stock player Hank Worden (THE SEARCHERS) even had a cameo at age 90 in TWIN PEAKS. David Bowie had a blink and you would miss it cameo in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (1992) and long forgotten Robert Blake (TVs BARETTA) showed up in Lynch's LOST HIGHWAY (1997) before he was charged with murdering his wife. Lynch liked to act too. One of his final appearances was playing famed director John Ford in Steven Spielberg's autobiographical THE FABELMANS (2022).
A few final BLUE VELVET tidbits. Actor Jack Nance first appeared in Lynch's debut film ERASERHEAD (1977) kicking off Lynch's film career. Lynch would reward Nance by casting him in DUNE, BLUE VELVET, as supporting character Pete Martell in the TV show TWIN PEAKS, and lastly LOST HIGHWAY. Sadly, Nance passed away from a head injury after an altercation with some homeless youths in 1996 in South Pasadena, CA. Lynch and composer Angelo Badalamenti first teamed up in BLUE VELVET (Badalamenti has a cameo as Dorothy's pianist at the lounge). The two worked together for the rest of Lynch's films. Badalamenti's music was the perfect counterweight to Lynch, sometimes dreamy, sometimes jazzy, and often sinister like Pink Room from TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME. Lastly, dejected after the critical and financial failure of DUNE, Lynch still had a deal to make another film for producer Dino de Laurentis. De Laurentis had a studio in Wilmington, North Carolina. Lynch had his BLUE VELVET script and de Laurentis and producer Richard Roth gave Lynch six million dollars and final cut. BLUE VELVET was critically acclaimed but not necessarily a financial success at first. Over time, BLUE VELVET became recognized as a classic and resurrect David Lynch's career.
As strange and sometimes violent Lynch's movies were like BLUE VELVET, David Lynch was a sentimentalist at heart. Lynch took us on surreal journeys that most of the time culminated with a happy ending. With Lynch's passing, I don't see any filmmaker at this time that will pick up his mantle which is extremely sad. Lynch's legacy lives on thru his films and television shows. I hope at colleges around the United States, young students (like me and my classmates in 1986) will have a chance to view David Lynch's works and open their eyes to a hidden world they never knew existed. "It's a strange world, isn't it?" Jeffrey Beaumont says. Yes it is Jeffrey. Yes it is.
