# 'but, miss X – you're beautiful without your glasses' - or, Ugly Ducklings on film **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 15, 2004, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854 "2004-11-15T14:15:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/21 "2004-11-15T17:37:01Z")
For a well-done one, what about Bette Davis in _Now, Voyager_? She is a very convincing frumpy and thick-ankled old maid in the beginning of the film but after a nervous breakdown, losing some weight and getting rid of her glasses, she emerges from the rest home as elfinly pretty as Bette could be. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/22 "2004-11-15T17:45:45Z")
If one could for one minute believe that Audrey Hepburn could be frumpy, I suppose one could buy _Funny Face_. At first, she’s supposed to be a dowdy bookstore clerk, but once glammed up by a beauty magazine crew, she turns out to be a supermodel. However, even if she’s a complete knockout as the supermodel, she’s beautiful as the clerk, too. Well, I guess _My Fair Lady_ basically repeats this same plot. Put a nice dress and some makeup on frumpy old Audrey Hepburn and hey presto - she’s a stunner. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/23 "2004-11-15T18:07:48Z")
**Grease** featured the most unusual turn on the “ugly duckling to swan” routine: Olivia Newton-John’s late in the third-act transformation from sugary-sweet virginal good girl to braless, spandex-tight-leather wearing, cigarette-smoking, trampy bad girl. Uh-huh. Well, I suppose if you had already swallowed the premise that Jeff Conaway and Stockard Channing were teenagers in this film, that couldn’t be too much of a logical leap. But what a message for young girls - “If you want to win over the guy you like, you’ve got to look like a slutty biker girl!” ---
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/24 "2004-11-15T18:18:57Z")
> [@borschevsky](#): > > Sandra Bullock did this fairly well in Miss Congeniality. I didn’t buy her as an ugly duckling in that one but I thought she was pretty good at playing frumpy in _Love Postion No.9_, an earlier, really chessy comedy that seems to play constantly on cable… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Llama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@The\_Llama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Llama)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/25 "2004-11-15T18:20:26Z")
Angelina Jolie in Gia. Not that they were trying to make her ugly in the beginning, but there was definitely a good and believable transformation. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/26 "2004-11-15T18:43:55Z")
> [@borschevsky](#): > > Sandra Bullock did this fairly well in Miss Congeniality. Sandra did a far better (and more cliche nerd-to-beauty) transformation in (the forgettable) “Love Potion No. 9” I also second Toula’s transformation in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” as the most dramatic. I was stunned at how good she looked. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/27 "2004-11-15T18:54:14Z")
> [@Martha](#): > > Truth about Cats and Dogs - it took a massive suspension of disbelief to go along with the premise that the Janeanne Garofalo character was unattractive. She’s ugly on the inside. > [@Rufus Xavier](#): > > in Circle of Friends (1995), Minnie Driver is supposed to be unattractive at the beginning. Um, huh? If you call that unattractive, then let all whom you find unattractive be mine, MINE MINE!!! She looks much better in her transformation to every other character she’s played in every movie after that one. Brittany Murphy had quite a transformation in Clueless (once again, not as big as her transformation into every character since Clueless). ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/28 "2004-11-15T19:22:44Z")
They did a pretty good job of making Ally Sheedy look gross in the first half of Breakfast Club. If I remember The Truth About Cats & Dogs right, it wasn’t that Janeane was supposed to be _unattractive_, just that she wasn’t supposed to be the stereotypical “blonde bombshell” kind of attractive. I saw some movie where Julia Roberts was made to look like a gangly skeleton with horse teeth - Oh wait, that was _after_ the transformation. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/29 "2004-11-15T19:32:28Z")
Not used yet in one movie, but Cameron Diaz shows that she can be frumpy in _Being John Malkovich_. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/30 "2004-11-15T19:47:51Z")
**Grease** For some reason I would not go out with Bad Sandy, mostly for fear os STDs but Good Sandy on the other hand I just want to get under that poofy skirt. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/31 "2004-11-15T20:03:05Z")
**Blowero** , that’s exactly what I kept trying to explain to my husband, before giving up in exasperation. It’s not that she _is_ unattractive, it’s that she _feels_ unattractive because she doesn’t fit the 5’11", 120#, legs-up-to-your-chin, tits-out-to-New-Jersey, blonde supermodel stereotype. Because she doesn’t fit that mold, she doesn’t think any guy could possibly find her physically attractive. Clearly, the photographer guy didn’t think she was unattractive, though; she’s the one he kept photographing while Uma was preening. The point of the movie was that she went through all these machinations, and they were all completely unnecessary, because he thought she was wonderful exactly as she was. **Rufus** , they had Minnie Driver put on ten pounds or so to carry the implication that Benny was fat. It’s all much clearer in the book; Benny’s not fat, exactly, but she’s big and solid-built, and she _feels_ fat and thus unattractive. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/32 "2004-11-15T20:07:13Z")
> [@Art Vandelay](#): > > **Grease** \ But what a message for young girls - “If you want to win over the guy you like, you’ve got to look like a slutty biker girl!” That one always bothered me as well. At least in the play Danny changed himself to appeal to her - a much bigger deal is made of the fact that he turned into a preppy jock “Letterman” to please her. Makes it a little less offensive and a little more Gift of the Magi-ish. While she’s never ment to be ugly, Catherine McCormick in _Dangerous Beauty_ does a wonderful transformation from merely pretty girl to stunningly gorgeous courtesan. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/33 "2004-11-15T20:16:34Z")
Not quite the taking-off-her-glasses type transformation, but in Ruthless People, Bette Middler is kidnapped by a particularly clueless couple. During her month-long or so incarceration in their basement, she starts lifting weights and doing sit-ups and before you know it, she’s lost TWENTY POUNDS and is ecstatic. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/34 "2004-11-15T20:17:39Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#): > > There’s also that great scene with Bogart in the bookshop in THE BIG SLEEP, where she takes off her glasses and lets down her hair, and he says “Hello!” – obviously a joke on the cliche. She was played by future Oscar-winner [Dorothy Malone](http://www.suspense-movies.com/stars/dorothy-malone/malone2.html) Another good example is Lili Taylor in **Dogfight**. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/35 "2004-11-15T20:22:02Z")
They had this plot on Gilligan and Brady Bunch. Curse you, Sherwood Schwartz, for your lack of originality! ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/36 "2004-11-15T20:38:10Z")
> [@fusoya](#): > > yeah, but she was actually hotter before the transformation… True dat. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/37 "2004-11-15T20:44:45Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > That one always bothered me as well. At least in the play Danny changed himself to appeal to her - a much bigger deal is made of the fact that he turned into a preppy jock “Letterman” to please her. Makes it a little less offensive and a little more Gift of the Magi-ish. Oh, now that would have have made _so_ much more sense. I remember leaving the theater after seeing the movie just scratching my head, thinking _the moral of the story is - be a slut?_" Why on Earth did they change the premise? ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/38 "2004-11-15T21:17:15Z")
In **America’s Sweethearts** , Julia Roberts was supposed to be playing the overweight sister (and assistant) to Catherine Zeta-Jones’ character. Kathleen Turner did a fair transformation in **Romancing the Stone**. When we first see her, she crying – red-faced and slobbering – over the happy ending she wrote to her romance. After a series of adventures in South America, there’s a particular scene where she’s bending over, picking flowers in a field, in a slit skirt and peasant blouse. _zing!_ ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/39 "2004-11-15T22:13:43Z")
> [@blowero](#): > > Oh, now that would have have made _so_ much more sense. I remember leaving the theater after seeing the movie just scratching my head, thinking _the moral of the story is - be a slut?_" Why on Earth did they change the premise? I always hated **Grease** for exactly the same reason. IIRC there was a token nod to the ending of the stage version, in that Danny does briefly appear in a letter jacket and seems to be making some effort to change his image…but he tears off the jacket and reverts to his old self as soon as he sees the new Sandy. Ugh. I guess the moral is, “Guys, you may think you have to change in order to impress a girl, but actually you don’t. Just be yourself. Girls, on the other hand, should completely alter their appearance and behavior in order to comform to male desires.” ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854/40 "2004-11-15T23:26:22Z")
Not actually on topic for this thread, but I have to give a shout out to Michelle Meyrink as Jordan Cochran in _Real Genius_. She’s the nerdy, “unpopular” girl with bad hair who dresses funny. She’s totally hot, of course, but her personality is so hyper-active and generally wierd that you absolutely buy the character. And the best part? The main character falls in love with her _because_ she’s wierd and hyper-active, and at the end of the movie, she’s _still_ wierd and hyper-active, and she _still_ dresses funny and has bad hair, because _that’s what the main character fell in love with!_ Dammit, where can I find a sexy super-genius physics major who can knit me a sweater during a study break? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-miss-x-youre-beautiful-without-your-glasses-or-ugly-ducklings-on-film/274854.md?page=3)