Dottie Gets Spanked
In one of his early short films — and the only one made for TV — writer/director Todd Haynes tells the post-war suburban tale of a boy whose obsession with an I Love Lucy-esque television comedienne exacerbates his social status as a “feminino,” and his father’s disgust at his “sissified” ways.
Series
APT Presentation
Premiere Date
November 23, 1994
Length
30 minutes
Another dazzling suburban phantasm from writer-director Todd Haynes, Dottie Gets Spanked (made post-Poison and pre-Safe) is a stylized, bittersweet nod to his childhood fascination with I Love Lucy. Deep in the heart of pre-hippie 1960s America, young, artistically inclined Steven Gale is obsessed with Dottie Frank, wacky star of the eponymous hit sitcom The Dottie Show. While his mother gently encourages the boy’s fixation, his father grows increasingly frustrated by his son’s apparently “sissified” interests. This provocative, heartfelt mini-feature anticipates Haynes’ Oscar-nominated Far From Heaven with its excavation of placid mid-century surfaces and deeply buried emotions. — Zeitgeist Films