Back in 1986, when "Blue Velvet" was first screened for the Chicago
press, someone, I think it was Dave Kehr of the Tribune, muttered with rueful satisfaction as Dennis
Hopper first came on the screen: "Who
else?"
Who else, indeed, could have barked out to a
cowering Isabella Rossellini, "Where's my fucking bourbon?" and then, gas mask
in hand, regressed to horrifyingly hilarious Oedipal infantilism?