It was 1977, the year the Sex Pistols stormed the British pop charts with "Anarchy in the U.K.", and John Waters marked the year with the release of his most joyously angry opus, "Desperate Living".Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) is a suburban housewife who returns home from the mental hospital to the care of her husband Bosley (George Stover) and her massive black maid Grizelda (Jean Hill). She is caught up in one long paranoid screaming fit, accusing a neighbourhood kid of trying to murder her with a baseball and fearing that her pre- pubescent children are having sex. When Bosley catches Grizelda stealing and tries to administer "fit medicine" to Peggy, the pair attack him and Grizelda kills him by sitting on his face.On the run from the law, Peggy and Grizelda have an encounter with a perverted policeman (Turkey Joe) with a panty fetish. In return for their panties, and wet soul kisses, he shows them the way to Morteville, a town so hideous that criminals can live there in a state of "mortification" rather than go to prison.The pair rent a room from a lesbian couple, butch Mole McHenry (Susan Lowe) and her busty man-loving girlfriend Muffy St. Jacques (ex-stripper Liz Renay). But they are soon arrested by the leather goons of Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey) who orders them to have a trash make- over.Carlotta's daughter Princess Coo-Coo (Mary Vivien Pierce) is in love with Herbert (Mike Figgs), the garbage collector at the local nudist colony.Mole makes the ultimate sacrifice for her lover, Peggy joins forces with Queen Carlotta, and Princess Coo-Coo becomes a victim of her mother's insanity, as Morteville moves inexorably toward revolution.This John Waters classic is a masterpiece of deranged comedy which repays multiple viewings. Beneath the camp humour and cheap gross-out gags is a surprisingly perceptive satire on the infantile, neurotic nature of fascism. Compare this film with Barbet Schroeder's classic documentary "Idi Amin Dada" (1974), and you will see that the psychology of real fascist dictators is not that different from that of Queen Carlotta. (Idi Amin's portrait is one of several that hangs on the wall in Carlotta's castle.)Some may not like this film as much as John Waters' other early works because of the absence of Divine, but really this is a benefit in a way as it allows Mink Stole to shine in her one starring role and gives great space also to the incomparable Jean Hill. But everyone is good in this film, with Susan Lowe having her one big role in a Waters' movie. The scene in which she reveals her special gift to Muffy actually has a profound undercurrent of tragedy you just don't expect in a Waters' film.Look out also for one of Waters' most obvious tributes to Herschell Gordon Lewis in the wrestling scene, an appearance by Waters' current casting director Pat Moran as the bathroom pervert (she also played Patty Hitler in deleted scenes from "Pink Flamingos") and the gorgeous Marina Melin (who had been appearing in Waters' films since "Eat Your Makeup" (1968)) baring all as the chief nudist.Waters really wears his "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Wizard of Oz" influences on his sleeve with this one.

from my life!!" - regarding a wrong number. i LOVE this John Water's film. It is my favorite. If ever there was a film where freedom of expression is used to create great and so horribly wonderful entertainment; this is it. It's one of John waters earliest works and is nice and raw, like listening to a great garage band. He sweeps us right out of suburbia and into the twisted underbelly of society that the suburbanites try to avoid. From an ornery maid to the misbehaving children to the Evil Queen Carlotta and her well endowed male servants and the transvestites trying to satisfy their wayward lovers; each character has their own special qualities. Watch and enjoy!

I was 15 and we had just gotten a satellite dish, i was flipping channels and was greeted by someone running over what looked like a REAL dog, then i saw and heard Mink Stole for the very first time and was hooked. I sat and watched in horror and stunned silence as i witnessed the wildest movie i had ever seen. I was speechless and a little scared to laugh out loud. This movie really opened my eyes, i had know idea a person would/could/should make a film like this...clueless. Anyway, this movie has some of the best lines of all time. "I was raped by those lottery officials" "I'm so hungry i could eat cancer" "I want a wang and i want it now" The list goes on and on you can just about quote almost every single thing anyone says. Years later a friend was a waters freak, and we watched it together and was able to understand a lot more of the filthy stuff, plus i had missed the beginning the first time, and wow what a beginning. I will never miss a chance to see this fantastic movie.

"Desperate Living" is about as disgusting as "Pink Flamingos" and at times worse. Mink Stole plays Peggy Gravel, a paranoid schizo housewife. Her and her maid Grizelda, who's a 400 lb. black woman, kill Peggy's husband. They flee in guilt and are stopped by a cop with an underwear fetish before driving to Mortville. Mortville is a town made up of all garbage. The evil queen Carlotta (Edith Masey) presides over the town in a fascist manner, her guards are forced to fulfill her bizarre sexual needs. The queen disowns her daughter princess Coo-Coo for wanting to marry Herbert, a nudist garbage man. We are treated to strange bright colored costumes and trash art galore. Delirious Peggy continues to bicker. Her and Grizela reside in an trashy apartment with a lesbian couple. The mean butchy Moe, longs to be a man and her lover Muffy is the the pretty one; blond and big breasted. In the films most hilarious and morbid flashback, we learn how Muffy had to flee to Mortville as a criminal. She gets upset at her stoned babysitter; not only for having a party while while she was away, but for leaving her baby in the refrigerator. She shoves the babysitter's face in dog food and screams "Eat dog food Bitch! Try and stick my baby in the refrigerator!" The sitter ends up suffocating in the dog food. Then Muffy kills her alcoholic husband, when his head gets caught in the car window. Although "Desperate Living" is missing drag actor Devine, it still is disgusting, depraved and hilarious as ever. With raunchy sex, nudity, perverse humor and low budget gore; it's in a town of its own.