dvlaries

John Waters is quoted in Hoberman & Rosenbaum's "Midnight Movies" (1981) as saying, with "Multiple Maniacs" he had finally flushed all the remaining religion out of his system, and that his intent was to "scare the world." In 1970, he likely did so with this. One shudders to ponder what he'd have to come up with Today, to achieve the same goal.

However, when one considers the parade of human failure and misery that willingly allows itself to be showcased in a weekly strip's worth of Jerry Springer episodes, Waters' Dreamlanders, not only in "Maniacs," but in "Flamingos," "Female Trouble," and "Desperate Living" too, come off as a misfit bunch of lovable zanies.

In self-defense for this fiasco, writer-director Larry Cohen pointed out that, while every one else in the last years of her life were handing Bette Davis yet another meaningless award, he offered her the thing she sought most: work. Fair enough. But as it proved when this was new, I believe time will increasingly show this employment opportunity for Bette Davis was the equivalent of offering a starving man a meal of coffee grounds and egg shells.

David died of cancer in October 1989, and the illness was plainly visible on her in her few scenes here. It is mournfully painful to watch her skeletal appearance in `Wicked Stepmother' if you loved her.

Avoid this aggressively. If you liked Davis's 'old-lady' period and want to watch a dignified 'good-bye' movie, seek the warm and bittersweet Lindsay Anderson drama, "The Whales of August" (1987) in which she co-starred with Lillian Gish. It is not only a classy farewell to those two legends, but now Ann Sothern and Vincent Price as well.