Sparkle's Tavern

Sparkle’s Tavern is the name of the place siblings Buster (Jerry Terranova) and Beth Sue (Melinda McDowell) Blake have created to escape their puritanical Midwestern upbringing, where the showgirls perform on stage before moving to the stalls in the backroom for their encores. When a jealous backup singer (Connie Mercede) and her would-be boyfriend (Jay Zuckerman) hatch a plot to seize control of the tavern and expose Buster and Beth Sue’s double lives to their conservative mother (Marion Eaton), the mysterious Mr. Pupik (George Kuchar) show up to give everyone a little bit of the “enlightenment” they’ve been missing.

Reuniting much of the creative team behind his midnight movie classic Thundercrack! (1975), Sparkle's Tavern stands as one of legendary underground filmmaker Curt McDowell's most personal and accessible—yet also most underseen—films.

New 4K restoration by Muscle Distribution.