“David was saying, ‘Wow, we've gotta use it in the movie!'” said Bankson, who was the driver for Blue Velvet star Dennis Hopper. Producer Fred Caruso was outraged and did his best to talk Lynch out of it.

Watch the “In Dreams” segment, though ­– the one where Dean Stockwell shines the light in his face – and you'll spot Brad Dourif holding a snake in the background. “That's it,” Bankson said.

Blue Velvet was that kind of movie. It wasn't the first ever filmed in Wilmington, or the highest grossing, but by all accounts, it was the weirdest. And in the 20 years since its official release ­– Sept. 19, 1986 – it's achieved the status of a cult classic.

Written and directed by Lynch, the creator of Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet was not exactly a typical Hollywood production. Notorious in its time for its kinky sex, violence and profanity, the surreal, convoluted mystery also included scenes with syrupy sweet dialogue and an incongruously old-fashioned sentimentality.

Brawley and friends celebrated Blue Velvet's 20th anniversary this summer with a screening at Jengo's Playhouse, a reunion of some local cast and crew members and an exhibit of artworks inspired by the movie.

The Cinematique Film Series plans to screen the feature this week in Thalian Hall, in honor of its anniversary. An “after-party” will follow each screening at the Barbary Coast Lounge on Front Street, which served as one of the movie's seedier dives.

While it doesn't have the fan base of more recent TV shows, such as Dawson's Creek or One Tree Hill, a steady stream of Blue Velvet aficionados still calls the Cape Fear Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Callers often ask for the site of the apartment house in the movie, which was the Carolina Apartments at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Market Street, or the site of the movie's joy ride, which was largely along Front Street in the vicinity of the Barbary Coast Lounge.

The mysterious severed ear, found in a field outside the fictional town of “Lumberton,” sets college student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) on an investigation.

The confusing clues lead him to the beautiful but sad and haunted nightclub singer, Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) and a violent, foul-mouthed and exceedingly peculiar thug named Frank (Hopper). It seems that Frank kidnapped Dorothy's husband and son and is using her as a sort of sex slave.

The discovery scene was filmed in a wooded lot across Chestnut Street from Snipes Elementary School, near the rugby field, according to Johnny Griffin, director of the Wilmington Regional Film Commission.

Officially, shooting on Blue Velvet ran from Feb. 10 to April 22, 1986, according to Internet Movie Database, although much of the crew was in town the previous summer. The De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, better known by its initials DEG, was the production company of record.

Italian-born film mogul Dino De Laurentiis had descended on the region three years earlier to make Firestarter. Since then, Wilmington and the Lower Cape Fear had played host to a number of productions, many of them, like Firestarter, adapted from the books of Stephen King.

Griffin of the film commission was working with tech services at the time. Among his jobs was retrieving David Lynch's laundry from the cleaners.

Pickler, a former sheriff's deputy who was a sales representative for Smith & Wesson at the time, saw another example of Lynch's eye in action.

“I lived around the corner from the Carolina Apartments, and I'd get home from work at 1 o'clock in the morning and see all these lights,” said Henry Farber, then a copy editor at the Star-News.

Farber wandered over one night to watch the filming. A friend on the crew introduced him to Rossellini, who was scooping chips and dip at the caterers' snack table during a break.

Farber had never seen any of the star's movies. Only the next day, when he mentioned the incident during a phone call to his mom, did he learn he'd been making small talk with Ingrid Bergman's daughter.

Jock Brandis, a gaffer on the Blue Velvet production, came home from work one day and found his young daughter frolicking in an inflatable wading pool in the back yard with another toddler. Sitting beside them, with a large smile, was Rossellini, “looking in the setting sun as gorgeous as you can imagine,” Brandis said. Rossellini, whose daughter Elletra was then a year old, had somehow met Brandis' wife, and the two mothers had set up a play date.

Bankson, a recent English-and-film graduate from Chapel Hill, landed a job driving for Dennis Hopper. By then, the once-notorious Easy Rider star was clean and sober.

Shirley West remembers the night they were shooting along her street, Keaton Avenue, when crew members politely but firmly asked any children to leave the area. It was the scene when Rossellini as Dorothy bursts naked from a row of bushes. Apparently the crowd expanded after that.

Part of Brandis' job was to set up the lights for filming after sunset. One night's assignment involved shooting the Carolina Apartments at a complex angle, across Kenan Fountain, with a view of the lights in one particular apartment.

Word went down the chain of command, more insistent at each level. Someone knocked on the apartment door, with no answer. Eventually, a Teamster from a Northeastern state volunteered to jimmy the lock and pull in the flag.

When he did, however, a woman in the apartment woke up and called the police. The last Brandis saw of the Teamster, Wilmington officers were leading him away.

Whatever problems arose from the shoot, however, didn't seem to sour the cast on Wilmington. Laura Dern, who played Jeffrey's sweetheart Sandy, returned to film Rambling Rose with Robert Duvall and director Martha Coolidge.

Hopper ­– who staged a major comeback, thanks to Blue Velvet ­– settled in Wilmington for a while. He bought downtown real estate and restored much of the Masonic Temple building on North Front Street, now home to City Stage and the Level Five club.

Hopper later played the villain King Koopa in the made-in-Wilmington Super Mario Bros. (1993) and directed the military comedy Chasers (1994), with locations in Wilmington and Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Blue Velvet's box office proved decidedly modest. Spy magazine reported that DEG, set up to handle the release, earned back just $2.2 million in rental fees; the film had cost about $6 million to make.

It also drew acclaim from critics. Although some dissented ­– Roger Ebert thought much of it was “a campy in-joke” ­– Blue Velvet won “Best Film” citations from various film critic societies, as well as a host of regional and foreign film festivals. Lynch received an Oscar nomination as Best Director.

Many signature features of future Lynch features – the ironic approach, the dreamlike atmosphere, the juxtaposition of artificial and brutally naturalistic acting styles – made their appearances here.

The movie was notorious for its heavy profanity. Listen carefully, though, and you'll notice that only Frank Booth ever uses the “F” word. (Of course, he uses it in virtually every sentence.) The only other character to utter that particular word is Ben – because Frank forces him to say it.

Jeffrey Beaumont, has an earring that appears, disappears and reappears unpredictably from scene to scene. Jeffrey's cheek wound also fades and reappears.

because he thought the script was “pornography.” (He later said he regretted that decision.) Molly Ringwald of “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club,” was up for the role of Sandy, but her mom vetoed her participation because of the graphic content. Sandy wound up being played by Laura Dern.

Vallens, and then sought English actress Helen Mirren, before meeting Isabella Rossellini in a New York restaurant. (Lynch and Rossellini subsequently became a couple for many years.) Tough guy Robert Loggia tried hard for the role of Frank Booth.

under her blue bathrobe. Dennis Hopper didn't realize this fact, though, until shooting was in progress. This scene, by the way, was the first time Rossellini and Hopper worked together.

• The song Blue Velvet caused the filmmakers a lot of grief. At first the producers didn't want to pay for the rights to the 1963 Bobby Vinton hit, so David Lynch had the film's composer, Angelo Badalamenti, come up with a different, sound-alike arrangement. Then the producers hired Bobby Vinton to record their new version -- but it had to be rescored 2½ notes lower because Vinton's voice had changed as he aged. After all this, Lynch decided he liked the original Blue Velvet better – and he finally convinced the producers to cough up for the rights.

• For the controversial rape scene, Isabella Rossellini later revealed that she was naked under her blue bathrobe. Dennis Hopper didn't realize this fact, though, until shooting was in progress. This scene, by the way, was the first time Rossellini and Hopper worked together.

• Originally, the character Ben was supposed to lip-synch In Dreams into a microphone. Lynch decided to substitute a worklight, shining into Dean Stockwell's face, after he saw Stockwell fooling around with one during a lighting session.

• Speaking of In Dreams, Roy Orbison refused to release the rights to his song because it was to be used in a brothel scene. David Lynch eventually found a way to use the song without Orbison's permission. After Blue Velvet was released, Orbison appeared in a music video version, produced by Lynch and using footage from the film.

• The movie's original prosthetic ear, found by Kyle MacLachlan's character in an early scene, is now on permanent display at the Movie Madness video outlet in Portland, Ore.

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