To add to the hijack: In Grease 2, the nice-guy lead has to transform himself into a dangerous biker punk to win Michelle Pfeiffer. Not that I wouldn’t do the same thing, given the chance, but the message seemed wrong.
Not a transformation but another “pretty girls don’t wear glasses” role is Marilyn Monroe in * How to Marry a Millionaire*. Marilyn’s character is blind as a bat without her glasses(as in walking into walls rather than through doors). She refuses to wear her glasses when around potentially rich men on the grounds that “You know what they say about girls who wear glasses”.
Eventually, though, she ends up falling in love with a guy who knows she needs glasses and tells her she’s pretty with her glasses on so she starts wearing them in public.
C’mon, she was lots cuter before being turned into Miss Prom Night.
That what makes Charlize Theron’s performance in Monster all the more extrordiary, a total reverse of the norm. She was still chosen to be Babe of the Year in many publications.
Not sure if this counts, but the Lindsey Lohan character in Mean Girls at least kind of fits into this. I thought she looked much, much better in her geek chic style than the ‘napkin-disguised-as-a-skirt’ look later.
Anyway, I almost always think these girls/women look better in their first style than later on. To take the genre-killing movie She’s All That for example, I would much rather have dated Rachel Lee Cook in her original style, opposed to her later style.
But then, I’m attracted to geeks, so YMMV.
Jordan (Michelle Meyrink) did not have bad hair in that movie. In fact, her “Louise Brooks-bob” looked a lot a better than some of the 80’s hairstyles worn by the other girls in the cast.
Well, I can’t argue with that, but I think it was meant to be bad hair.
I can’t remember which Cary Grant movie this was, but he asks his frumpy stenographer to take off her glasses. She does that, but he shakes his head in disillusionment because now she’s just a frumpy stenographer who’s squinting.
This plot is a sub-genre of the teen romance genre. In Some Kind of Wonderful the “unattractive” best friend is Mary Stuart Masterson. In Secret Admirer (one of the best, and most underrated, teen comedies ever made) she’s Lori Lochlin. In Only You she’s, again, Helen Hunt. Buffy the Vampire Slayer introduced this as a plot thread in season one, but then had the guy actually get the gorgeous, shallow girl and never end up with the nearly as attractive, nerdy girl.
In Frankie and Johnny, Michelle Pfeiffer is supposed to be playing {opposite Al Pacino, whom I gather isn’t entirely unattractive} a dowdy waitress: she coudln’t look dowdy if she was in a gorilla suit with a paper bag over her head.
How about “Carrie” who got to breifly shine at her prom before having the whole thing turn into a bloody mess?
I almost posted about this one last night.
The movie is That Touch of Mink, starring Cary Grant and Doris Day.
Gig Young plays a supporting character with a pinched-faced, bun-haired secretary (“Miss Smith”). He dictates something to her, then as she’s leaving the office he says (paraphrased), “Just a minute, Miss Smith. Would you mind taking your glasses off?” She takes them off and squints at him.
He says, “Now, let your hair down.” She does, and shakes it out a little, and it’s a stringy lifeless mess.
Gig says, “That’s funny. It always works in the movies.”
Heh.
Back in my Young and Cute Days, I was working as office manager/fitting model at one of the 7th Avenue fashion houses. One of the designers—who was famous as having been the only hetereosexual male models in the '70s—was flirting with me. Great guy, very funny.
I showed him my modeling photos. He looked at the photos, looked at me, whipped his glasses off, and said, “Why Miss Golden—without my glasses on, you’re beautiful!”
I promptly fell in love.
In Loaded Weapon 1 Allyce Beasley lets her hair down…
…and promptly turns into Kathy Ireland.
I’m enjoying all your posts.
I had another example but it vanished from my head. I’ll be back when it comes back to me. :smack:
I’ve always wondered if the producers were being ironic in this movie. If you discount the different hairstyles, you’ll see that Mary Stuart Masterson and Lea Thompson look so similar they could be sisters.
I totally ruined the whole point of the story. It was supposed to be about two ordinary people. IIRC Pfeiffer’s character was originally played on Broadway by Kathy Bates. Kinda changes things don’t it? That’s Hollywood for you.
I’m surprised no one mentioned Alison Hannigans band geek transformation between the second and third American Pie movies.
The SDMB muse, Ms. Bailey Quarters, is absolutely stunning without her glasses.
Of course, she looks danged good with glasses as well.
UGH, that’s the plot of EVERY Disney live action film starring a girl!
When she firsts walks on screen she’s wild, carefree, fun kid who turns into Prom Queen by the end of the movie because we all know women aren’t worth a damn thing if they aren’t perfectly dressed and coiffed with dainty little manners and no interest in running, jumping or otherwise having fun as real peaople!
Hmmm sorry about the run on sentence! Maybe I need to go run around the yard or something 