Barnes & Noble

John Waters, once dubbed the Ambassador of Filth, reached a deliriously new low in this cult favorite from 1977. He has described DESPERATE LIVING as a "monstrous fairy tale," and indeed, the film resembles a perverse version of THE WIZARD OF OZ crossed with a Jacobean revenge drama. The hilarious story begins when a psychotic suburban housewife, Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole), and her ferocious nurse (400-pound Jean Hill) murder Peggy's husband. Once on the lam, the pair run into a twisted cop with an underwear fetish and wind up in Mortville, a bizarre shantytown whose population of flamboyant criminals is ruled by the evil Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey). The last feature from Waters before he entered the mainstream with his film POLYESTER, DESPERATE LIVING is -- strange as this may sound -- considered by some to be his most personal film. Not for the faint of heart, DESPERATE LIVING is for hard-core Waters enthusiasts who like their raunchiness unmitigated. The opening credits sequence, which features a sautéed rat, is the tip-off that multiple gross-outs are soon to follow. Monica McIntyre

All Movie Guide

Divine was touring as a cabaret singer when director John Waters made this comedy of the grotesque, but he filled the void admirably with the equally rotund Jean Hill and burlesque-queen Liz Renay. The film tells the story of Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole), a mad housewife who kills her husband then goes on the lam with her 300-pound maid Grizelda (Hill). After being sexually accosted by a lewd, cross-dressing cop with gingivitis, the women are directed to Mortville, a shanty-town for fugitive criminals ruled by the evil Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey). Carlotta's daughter, Princess Coo-Coo (Mary Vivian Pearce) wants to renounce the throne and marry a nudist garbageman, so the Queen has him killed and enlists Peggy's aid in infecting the kingdom with rabies. Waters uses a fairy-tale framework to indulge his penchant for nauseating set-pieces, such as a transsexual lesbian (Susan Lowe) having her new penis cut off with scissors and fed to a dog, women being fed live cockroaches, and Peggy being assaulted at a lesbian glory-hole. Massey is hilarious as the Queen, urging her leather-clad bodyguards/sex-toys to "rob my safety-deposit box!," but the oddly-named actor Turkey Joe steals the show in his brief role as a lecherous cop, spouting lines like "I love the feel of cold nylon on my big butt!" and slobbering over Grizelda's huge underpants. The pinnacle of gross-out humor, Desperate Living is Waters' strangest and funniest film. Robert Firsching

Product Details

• UPC: 794043751424
• Source: NEW LINE HOME VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Sound: Dolby Digital Mono
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Time: 1:31:00
• Sales Rank: 28,797

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