Female Trouble

Although John Waters is best known for "Pink Flamingos", his two best films are "Female Trouble" and "Desperate Living". Why? Well, as far as "Female Trouble" is concerned, it is the film that invented Dawn Davenport (Divine), one of the trashiest white schoolgirl tramps ever to strut her stuff in a pair of cha-cha heels. Dawn's amazing life is documented in this film and it's a cracker from beginning to end. You will laugh, you will cry, you will vomit and you will die as you behold the deliciously disgraceful antics of the indefatigable queen of crime and sleaze.

All the delightful Waters regulars (the achingly gorgeous Edith Massey, the fantastically filthy David Lochary, the marvellous Mink Stole and the putrid Ms. Mary Vivian Pearce) are paraded about like proud circus exhibits as Waters' weaves a rags to bitches story of one woman's rise from the suburbs of Baltimore to her fall in a city without pity.

Certainly this was one of the first films to explore the issue of criminals becoming celebrities. Dawn Davenport's ascent to the ceiling of crime is hilarious and perceptive and Waters clearly knew where all this was going. For mine, Waters lost his zing after "Desperate Living" when his movies got softer and his characters started turning up on TV shows like "Wally George", "Jerry Springer" and the earlier "Oprah" eps. What was fresh when Waters started doing it felt redundant when he kept doing it into the eighties and nineties.

Divine is, was and always will be a legend, and I consider myself fortunate that I once spent half an hour chatting with the great man and actor. Vincent Peranio's production design is spectacularly obnoxious and Van Smith's costumes, as always, are knitted from the threads of trash heaven.

Waters does not put a foot wrong and ends proceedings on a surprisingly emotional note.

God bless John Waters. He's made some of the best, crudest feel-good movies, and this is one of his crowning achievements. It's amazing how his film, ugly-looking and full of lipstick-smeared freaks, can feel positive and upbeat; while he's mocking everything in sight, he doesn't stand back and protect himself with irony or winks -- he jumps right in there, and that involvement, that energy, is easy to see and feel. It's amazing that he can feature masturbation with needle-nose pliers, beating a child with a chair, a game of "car accident," and Divine literally screwing himself and not have it be off-putting.

The very idea that Waters uses a fat transvestite with a beehive hairdo to illustrate his scorn for school shows he's not so interested in subtlety. And Divine is awesome, as always, his prissy, gravely scream -- a freak you want on your side. This is one of Waters' best satirical attempts -- there are digs at hippies and Hare Krishnas, and two scenes in particular are very prophetic: the gay encouraging, and the killing for art. Waters even mocks his own shameless exhibitionism in the testimony of the Dashers. 9/10

This film is my favorite of all time! All of the great elements of John Waters' films mesh together perfectly in this hilarious romp that operates around the theme of 'crime is beauty.' All of the classic John Waters' actors are here, and most of them give their best performances. John Waters has said that this film is the 'ultimate Divine vehicle', and he's right. Her look literally changes every ten minutes as she mutates from a teenage hair hopper with an attitude to an unwed, abusive mother, to crime fashion model to death row inmate. Divine also has a small male role as the father of her own illegitimate child. Edith Massey, my personal favorite actress, gives her funniest and best realized performance as Aunt Ida, the bitter, veangful fag hag who lives next door. This is not the most accesible of Waters' films, and truthfully, this probably isn't the one to start with if you're not yet a fan (I would recommend Polyester or Hairspray in that case), but if you want to see an early work thats not quite as gross as the others, check it out! Waters himself says that this is his favorite of his underground films.

Devine was certainly no stranger to trash films when John Waters assembled the cast of this Baltimore gem, and it shows. Devine is gregarious, derisive at times, a stunning fem fatale who nearly steals the show as both Dawn Davenport, and her alter-ego, Earl, who staggers and lurches his way into our hearts. This film is one of the few times Devine did male drag, and he pulls it off with astonishing effect. Mink Stole is priceless as Taffy, Dawn's long suffering daughter, and of course who could forget Edith Massey as the torturous Aunt Ida and Dawn's nemesis. Almost as brilliant are the performances of Mary-Vivian Pearce and David Lochary, the demented couple who, after interviewing her to become a client in their Le' Lipstick beauty salon, befriend Dawn and encourage her into a fetid and ribald modeling career. Yes, it's shameless, destined for ruin, utterly unbelievable, and I loved every minute of it. Water's dialog is vehement, abominable, and not to be equaled. It's a shame that he hasn't been able to find replacement versions of Devine and Massey. It was the unorthodoxy of his whole approach to film in the 1970s that endeared thousands and made Devine a gay household name. I hope one day he can return to his roots and get down to building more fine trash.

This is John Waters at his zenith. In ten minutes time this film has more hilarious, outrageous humor than most other underground, drive in films do in their entirety. Like with PINK FLAMINGOES it deserves accolades for it's sheer tasteless audacity. It is consistently funny, unrelentingly perverse, obnoxious, and ugly. Just like you would expect. It also has Waters film trademark of having the actors shout their lines instead of saying them.

This is much more of a solid satire than many may originally presume. In some ways it was way ahead of it's time. It keenly shows the cult of celebrity and the desperation some have to obtain it. How skewered the famous and infamous have become and our over emphasis on beauty. It also shows how the media exploits the desperate and causes the distorted image.

Above all though this is really Divine's vehicle. She (he) steals every scene she is in. Even just watching her do modeling poses or dancing on a bar top is hilarious. She also writes and performs the opening song and even plays a male character that has sex with her female character (very well edited). There's also one inglorious moment where you even see the close up of his genitals.

For those with the right mentality this is pure entertainment. It's also has a perverse brilliance that has lost non of it's edge of potency.

8 out of 10