Desperate Living

John Waters never apologizes for his movies- and this one is both funny and disgusting. Mink Stole as the hysteric and Miss Edie as the queen are both off the wall good. Waters doesn't shy away from nudity- both male and female-- but it all works to make this a hilarious spoof.

I LOVE THIS MOVIE. I have always been a big John Waters fan, and I think that this is definitely his early masterpiece. Polyester is without a doubt his later masterpiece, although Serial Mom contains some of the funniest stuff ever. But back to Desperate Living, I just can't get over this awesome awesome movie, which I saw for the first time last night. Although Pink Flamingos may be Waters most well known work, it seems almost as though Waters was practicing in comparison to this film, which is equally funny and shocking and sick to no end. The plot is better and more structured than Pink Flamingos, and as a whole the color scheme throughout is fantastic, especially Jean Hill in a sea green tutu with bright green makeup and bleach blonde hair. Queen Carlotta definitely has some amazing lines, and her stripping sessions with her henchmen are hysterical, but the best line in the movie has to go to magnificent Mink Stole, who in her sexual encounter with Grizelda moans, "If it was good enough for Gertrude Stein...!" Of special note is Waters homage to his personal childhood hero, the Wicked Queen from Snow White, as Mink Stole becomes the spitting image of the Queen as she prepares her rabies potion. Ahhh, Bliss!

A lot of the world knows about John Waters who made the historic "Pink Flamingos". Probably most famous for it's dog-s*** eating scene, a scene where a man has sex with a chicken plus cannibilism, artificial insemination and mother-son blowjob. But this film is probably his most shocking film. Its "plot" is about Peggy Gravel(The hilarious Mink Stole), an ultra-neurotic woman who has just been released from the asylum. When she comes back home, she is under the impression that the neighborhood children are trying to kill her just because they accidently smash a footbal through a window. She is also under the impression that her five year old son raped his equally young sister just because they were playing doctor. Her husband tries to help her with no success after the 500 pound maid crushes him(The maid played by Jean Hill, but this role was NOT written for the absent Divine). Peggy and the maid, Grizelda then go on the run to Mortville, a small Baltimore town where criminals of Baltimore come out to hide. When there, Peggy and Grizelda meat up with Mole(Susan Lowe) and Muffy(Liz Renay, in a role originally intended for Divine) and ake refuge at a motel. The rest of the film is a blur of male and female nudity, vaginal gun shot wounds, ass-kissing and a DIY sex change. This truly is one of Waters most shocking films and something that even tops the likes of the blowjob scene in Pink Flamingos. It starts off with a rat getting served on a plate and in the middle we see a penis get cut off and at the end we see Edith Massey kissing Liz Renay's ugly pornographic ass. This is Waters last real gross out movie. After this movie, no more blowjobs or s*** eating. He went strictly mainstream. See this film as soon as you can.

Seven out of Ten

All of John Waters' early films, beyond being purposefully shocking and repulsive, have this really tangible dirty, raunchy quality to them. They're movies with bad hygiene, like the porno movies whose actors have dirt under their fingernails or pimples in all the wrong places. Waters has a special gift for compiling the most disgusting items and the most disgusting combinations of items (lesbian glory holes, marshmallows and Cheez-its, egg-addicted 250-lb women, bleeding gums and French kissing, 'Surfin' Bird' and anal lip-syncing) for maximum effect, filming everything in grainy, artless 16mm with alternately wooden and over-the-top line-readings not dissimilar to the acting in a porno flick.

If you've seen Waters on television, he has a certain sophisticated charm to his wit, and perhaps a dirtier director wouldn't have the right sensibility to make films as authentically dirty as this one, or the discretion enough to choose performers as dirty-looking as Turkey Joe and Kenny Orye. The fact that Waters does not show any contempt or opinion about his subjects is important. He has this open, accepting non-judgmental affection for everyone in his films that makes the films themselves OF the filth they are depicting rather than simply about that filth, and he embraces those of notoriety and dubious character such as Patty Hearst and Liz Renay. He's subversive not by philosophy or decision, but by nature. Subversiveness for Waters means a good time. What distinguishes his work as "underground" rather than "exploitation" is that he celebrates the depravity and freakishness of his performers rather than exploiting.

Every single character in 'Desperate Living' is a sociopath, as it takes place primarily in a fairy-tale town called Mortville, to which housewife Peggy Gravel (Mike Stole) and her 300-lb black maid Grizelda (Jean Hill) flee after the latter murders Stole's husband by sitting on his face. Everyone in Mortville is trashy and, well, desperate, and there's a vivid pre-punk vibe here amongst psycho-dyke Mole, played by Susan Lowe, and others, and in the garish, tacky colors of the town's decor, which Waters reports was constructed entirely out of garbage with only one exception.

While I find Waters' 'Pink Flamingos' boring once the shocks become familiar, 'Desperate Living' is a fascinating movie to watch. It's probably Waters' most depraved and outrageous movie, and the funniest of his pre-'Polyester' movies. You get to see the hefty Jean Hill naked, rolling around in bed with Mink Stole, and you get to see Waters regular Edith Massey in all her snaggletoothed wonder as the wicked Queen Carlotta, being pleasured by one of her many leather-clad man-servants. You'll see this and, if nothing else, probably want to catalogue these bits to friends or show them the film, just to get a rise out of them.

I can definitely say this is one of my favorite movies. The characters and the script shine through as utterly hilarious and shockingly original. Mink Stole and her outrageous, shrieking portrayal of Peggy Gravel is one of the best performances in any of John Waters' movies. Seriously, when she accuses her (9 year old) children of having sex and then informs her husband that their daughter is now pregnant.. let me just say that clip was on my answering machine for at least a month. When Grizelda the alcoholic maid and Peggy make off after murdering Peggy's husband, they are pulled over in the woods by another great Waters character, Turkey Joe, the motorcycle cop who wears womens panties. You have not lived until you hear him moan in a thick Baltimore accent about fitting his "Big business" into Peggy's panties . The real fun begins in Mortville, however, where all the trash of Baltimore run to escape the law. Queen Carlotta, portrayed by the unbelievable Edith Massey, runs rampant over some seriously depraved subjects, and still finds time to have (unconvincingly simulated) disgusting sex with slimy leatherboys whom she instructs to bathe more regularly because there is a "most unpleasant odor about your BODY". I have read other posts that comment on the wonderful colors in this movie and I could not agree more. The sets and costumes are also excellent. Even though Divine is not in this one, some of the other Dreamlanders (Waters crack troop of actors from the early days) get a chance to shine. Mink Stole and Edie in particular give great performances. If you have to choose between this one and "Pink Flamingos", see this one first. It is truly a choice slice of vintage Waters from opening credits to the end. I want to go watch it right now!