Mondo Trasho

John Waters feature length film debut is a schlocky montage of crazy events following Mary Vivian Pearce and Divine as they travel throughout the gutters and alleyways of "Charm City" Baltimore. I can't do this film just by trying to describe the events that transpire. This film has to be seen to be believed. There's no dialog in this film, most of the soundtrack is a collage of 50's and 60's pop music, They're used as dialog and as a Foley track. I wonder if Mr. Waters received permission from the performers for use in this film?

Filmed on a shoe string budget and shot on 16mm uses a cast of friends, Waters hit the Midnight Movie/cult circuit big time. Only a sign of things to come.

Recommended, if you can find it.

All of John Water's films have their quirks and their staying power and each one is truly a beautiful piece of art but nothing comes close to "Mondo Trasho", John's earlier trash epic. Not only does it have a faster pace than some of his other films but the "story" keeps on coming with more and mnore drug induced imagery. Divine, John Water's regular performer, delivers an hilarious over the top performance as a gum chewing trashy splendor, driving about looking for men until she is distracted by a nude hitcher and runs over an un-named fashion fanatic played by Mary Vivian Pearce. In the course of the next 24 hours, they go through a variety of different adventues, each one unique. This film boasts some great performances by the likes of Mink Stole, David Lochary, Divine and Mary Vivian Pearce. The film also features a great soundtrack, comprised of hundreds of John Water's favorite tunes. No good tune is left untouched in this trash epic. The film is definitely a more mild one than, say, "Pink Flamingos", meaning that this film doesn't have a lot of gross acts although it does have chickens being killed for real and toe sucking. This John Waters film is definitely one of his most unkown and one of his best.

This is a very early film effort by the REAL gross-out king John Waters who would go on to make one of the most famous and sickest films of all time, Pink Flamingos. The plot follows a day in the life of a hit an run driver after she is distracted by a nude hitchiker and runs over a woman. It has some true 'John Waters' style moments.

Seeing any film by John Waters is an "at-your-own-risk" movie experience -- the story of CINDERELLA is one of several fantasy sequences within the film with "foot" or "shoe" themes. The WILD SOUND takes some adjustment for persons used to lip-synched dialogues. The movie could have been edited down to 77 enjoyable minutes, but I think Mr. Waters was preoccupied with including as much shock/schlock into his footage that he possiby could. IT'S WORTH SEEING AT LEAST ONCE. It is curious that Mr. Waters never made a twisted 'JEAN HARLOW' bio story, considering that Mary Vivian Pearce was a startling look-a-like during her teen years. The film is in black & white, and the opening scenes are astonishing!

It's amazing that one of John Waters best films would be his first feature length film. After making three short films, cult film director directed 'Mondo Trasho', a silent movie filled with a rock and roll soundtrack. It certainly shows some of the surreal brilliance that was to come in his movies and has a very dream like feeling. The plot, if you can call it that, is of a modern day Cinderella (Mary Vivian Pearce) who is run over by the sexy driver Divine (Divine). For the rest of the day, Divine and the corpse wander about all of Baltimore trying to find ways to get out of this nightmare and meet up with reporters, mental patients, a topless dancer (Mink Stole), saints, pigs and an insane doctor called Dr. Coathanger (David Lochary in arguably his best performance). It's a strange piece of fiction with the occasional unsynchronised dialogue. It hints at the brilliance that John Waters would achieve with the likes of 'Female Trouble', 'Hairspray' and 'Serial Mom'. It's actually quite good even though Waters always jokes about how bad it is and how over long it is. I found it be very fast paced and funny and satiric proving that John Waters is the best satirist in modern day America and always puts a new view on things. The acting in this film is also endearing. Although none of these people knew how to act, that's the beauty of many of John's earlier films. Divine's performance consists of looking sexy and doing exaggerated movements all the time. Lochary is good in this film, if only he hadn't died so young, I'm convinced he would have won an oscar. It's also an interesting note for Waters fans to watch this because everyone looks so young. Truthfully, the living members of Waters crew like Pearce and Stole don't really look old today but it's amazing to see them pre-cult fame. Although, it's a very hard film to get hold of and even if you do, it will probably be in bad quality, it's a must for Waters fans and people interested in him as well since it's one of his more accesible films.