Desperate Living

Desperate Living
DVD cover
Directed by	John Waters
Produced by	John Waters
Written by	John Waters
Starring	Liz Renay Mink Stole Edith Massey Mary Vivian Pearce
Cinematography	John Waters
Distributed by	New Line Cinema Dreamland
Release date(s)	May 27, 1977
Running time	90 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$65,000

Desperate Living (1977) is a film by Baltimore, Maryland filmmaker John Waters starring Liz Renay, Mink Stole, Susan Lowe, Edith Massey, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Jean Hill.

Plot

Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole), a neurotic, delusional, suburban housewife, and her overweight maid Grizelda (Jean Hill) go on the lam after they murder Peggy's husband, Bosley (George Stover). The two are arrested by a policeman (Turkey Joe) who gives them an ultimatum: go to jail or be exiled to Mortville, a filthy shantytown ruled by the evil Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey) and her treasonous daughter, Princess Coo-Coo (Mary Vivian Pearce).

Peggy and Grizelda choose Mortville, but still engage in lesbian prison sex. They become associates of self-hating lesbian wrestler Mole McHenry (Susan Lowe), who wants a sex change to please her lover, Muffy St. Jacques (Liz Renay). Most of Mortville's social outcasts — criminals, nudists, and sexual deviants — conspire to overthrow Queen Carlotta, who banishes her daughter Princess Coo-Coo after she elopes with a garbage collector, who is later shot to death by the guards. Coo-Coo hides in Peggy and Grizelda's house with her dead lover. Peggy calls for the guards who fight with Grizelda, soon the house collapses and Grizelda dies. Peggy Gravel, however, joins the queen in terrorizing her subjects, even infecting them (and Princess Coo-Coo) with rabies.

Eventually, Mortville's denizens, led by Mole McHenry, overthrow Queen Carlotta and execute Peggy Gravel by shooting a gun up her anus. To celebrate their freedom, the townsfolk roast Queen Carlotta on a spit and serve her, pig-like, on a platter with an apple in her mouth.

Cast

• Mink Stole as Peggy Gravel
• Jean Hill as Grizelda Brown
• Edith Massey as Queen Carlotta
• Mary Vivian Pearce as Princess Coo-Coo
• Susan Lowe as Mole McHenry
• Liz Renay as Muffy St. Jacques
• George Stover as Bosley Gravel
• Turkey Joe as Cop
• Brook Yeaton as Bosley, Jr.
• Cookie Mueller as Flipper
• Channing Wilroy as Lt. Wilson
• Ed Peranio as Lt. Williams
• Paul Swift as Mr. Paul
• George Figgs as Herbert

Actor profile

This is the only feature film John Waters made without Divine prior to the actor's death in 1988. Divine was touring as a live performer and couldn't fit Desperate Living into his schedule. This was also Waters' first film without David Lochary, who bled to death after accidentally cutting himself whilst on PCP just before production.

Due to his Pink Flamingos infamy, Waters began to attract actors from outside his circle of friends. Liz Renay was a convicted felon and author of My Face for the World to See, her still-in-print autobiography (referenced in Waters' previous film Female Trouble). Casting Renay presaged Waters' later use of other crime-related celebrities like Patty Hearst and Traci Lords in his films.

Foreign release

In Italy, the film was heavily dubbed, censored, and retitled Punk Story. Desperate Living was rejected for a UK cinema release by the BBFC in 1977. It was finally released on video in 1990 after an eyeball-gouging scene was trimmed by four seconds.

Tributes paid to Desperate Living

John Waters

The musician and band Marilyn Manson include a tribute to Desperate Living in their 1994 album, Portrait of an American Family. The last track on the album has a recording of Mink Stole's character, Peggy Gravel, shouting at children playing baseball (having just broken her window).

The line is spoken as follows:

"Go home to your mother! Doesn't she ever watch you? Tell her this isn't some communist daycare center! Tell your mother I hate her! Tell your mother I hate you!"

The sound of a ringing telephone is then heard on a loop before, at the very end of the track, a message from the Marilyn Manson Family Intervention Hotline answering machine is heard, specifically a mother asking for her son's name to be removed from the band's mailing list.

The musical Miss Saigon features a song called "Coo-Coo Princess".

Horse the Band's forthcoming album has been titled "Desperate Living" after the film.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Desperate Living

• Desperate Living at the Internet Movie Database