User Reviews

John Waters never apologizes for his movies- and this one is both funny and disgusting. Mink Stole as the hysteric and Miss Edie as the queen are both off the wall good. Waters doesn't shy away from nudity- both male and female-- but it all works to make this a hilarious spoof.

This is Waters' second best movie, next to Pink Flamingos. There are so many memorable lines in this puke-fest that it's nearly impossible to list them all. The story and events are so repulsive and sick that I'd rather let them be a surprise. Desperate Living is quite funny, quite gross, and quite nonsensical. If you are looking to watch something that makes any form of sense whatsoever, this is not your movie. If you want stomach-churning grossness for the sake of stomach-churning grossness, juvenile acting, low-budget film-making, and line after line of hilarious dialog, then Desperate Living should please you. John Waters still hasn't topped this one or Pink Flamingos to date.

DESPERATE LIVING, John Waters' first movie without his muse Divine, is a fitfully entertaining and really bizarre affair that's hard to sit through at times, but still kind of works by sheer force of will. The story (if one can call it that) is about a woman named Peggy (Mink Stole) who has been recently let out of a mental institution. After accidentally killing her husband, she runs away to the (fictional) town of Mortville, a slum which is ruled by a tyrannical queen, Carlotta (Edith Massey). This film serves as kind of an intermediary between his earlier "trash" and the more mainstream fare Waters began making in the 80's. The cinematic quality has yet to be cemented, and his actors shout most of their lines as if the audience was deaf, but there still is humor found in some pretty dark and off-the-wall material. Towards the end, there's even some political commentary thrown in about fascism, oppressive government and class warfare. It would seem slightly shoehorned if the movie hadn't taken place in this fictional/alternate universe, but it still gives the film a little depth. As far as acting goes, nobody really gives a "great" performance, but they still have fun with the lines they were given to say. Edith Massey was probably the most entertaining out of them all, as a sick "monarch" who gets pleasure out of making her subjects miserable, and even torments her own daughter. The camera-work and cinematography isn't too great either, but it was fairly standard for Waters' lower-budget work. The music was fine too, and there's a nice tune that bookends the film. Overall, it's not as great as the collaborations with Divine but it still stands out as one of John Waters' better films before he went more mainstream. For me, it was a little hard to sit through at times but I'm glad that I stuck it out until the end.

All of John Waters' early films, beyond being purposefully shocking and repulsive, have this really tangible dirty, raunchy quality to them. They're movies with bad hygiene, like the porno movies whose actors have dirt under their fingernails or pimples in all the wrong places. Waters has a special gift for compiling the most disgusting items and the most disgusting combinations of items (lesbian glory holes, marshmallows and Cheez-its, egg-addicted 250-lb women, bleeding gums and French kissing, 'Surfin' Bird' and anal lip-syncing) for maximum effect, filming everything in grainy, artless 16mm with alternately wooden and over-the-top line-readings not dissimilar to the acting in a porno flick.

If you've seen Waters on television, he has a certain sophisticated charm to his wit, and perhaps a dirtier director wouldn't have the right sensibility to make films as authentically dirty as this one, or the discretion enough to choose performers as dirty-looking as Turkey Joe and Kenny Orye. The fact that Waters does not show any contempt or opinion about his subjects is important. He has this open, accepting non-judgmental affection for everyone in his films that makes the films themselves OF the filth they are depicting rather than simply about that filth, and he embraces those of notoriety and dubious character such as Patty Hearst and Liz Renay. He's subversive not by philosophy or decision, but by nature. Subversiveness for Waters means a good time. What distinguishes his work as "underground" rather than "exploitation" is that he celebrates the depravity and freakishness of his performers rather than exploiting.

Every single character in 'Desperate Living' is a sociopath, as it takes place primarily in a fairy-tale town called Mortville, to which housewife Peggy Gravel (Mike Stole) and her 300-lb black maid Grizelda (Jean Hill) flee after the latter murders Stole's husband by sitting on his face. Everyone in Mortville is trashy and, well, desperate, and there's a vivid pre-punk vibe here amongst psycho-dyke Mole, played by Susan Lowe, and others, and in the garish, tacky colors of the town's decor, which Waters reports was constructed entirely out of garbage with only one exception.

While I find Waters' 'Pink Flamingos' boring once the shocks become familiar, 'Desperate Living' is a fascinating movie to watch. It's probably Waters' most depraved and outrageous movie, and the funniest of his pre-'Polyester' movies. You get to see the hefty Jean Hill naked, rolling around in bed with Mink Stole, and you get to see Waters regular Edith Massey in all her snaggletoothed wonder as the wicked Queen Carlotta, being pleasured by one of her many leather-clad man-servants. You'll see this and, if nothing else, probably want to catalogue these bits to friends or show them the film, just to get a rise out of them.

"Desperate Living" and "Female Trouble" are Waters' best films, fully realized trash epics with great characters, gorgeous production design and an unapologetic affection for trailer trash values.

The story is simple. Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole), a neurotic suburban snob, flees to Mortville, the town where criminals live scot-free, after her obese maid, Grizelda Brown (Jean Hill), sits on and squashes her sermonizing husband, Bosley Gravel (the great George Stover). The women share a bed in Mortville under the roof of a disgusting hovel run by Mole McHenry (Susan Lowe), a snot-dispensing, pre-op transsexual with impeccable table manners and a luscious lesbian lover Muffy St. Jacques (Liz Renay). But the living arrangements prove less than harmonious and the entire place is trashed when the women offer refuge to Princess Coo-Coo (Mary Vivian Pearce), the downtrodden offspring of the domineering, boy-crazy Queen of Mortville (Edith Massey), who objects to her daughter's hippy-fied lifestyle. Complications ensue once the sycophantic Peggy worms her way into the Queen's chamber (and confidence) and a groundswell of support for a revolution intensifies.

The set-up of "Desperate Living" is pure magic. The idea of there being a town where miscreants can live scot-free is brilliant, as is Waters' enthusiastic take on the entire thing. The tone is that of a fairytale painted with snot and mucus and every detail is consistent in its intention to make you want to puke. The sight of Mary Vivean Pearce doing the town with rabies is a green, grotesque delight, as is the scene in which Mole's new penis is severed, then roughly sewn back on.

This is an unforgettable freak show from the puke-loving pope of popular culture.

You'd be a misfit to miss it.

Fans of John Waters have always disputed which of his films is his best. Two titles will almost always come up: "Female Trouble" and this movie. While I prefer the former, I can understand why "Desperate Living" would also be considered his best!

While Divine was touring with an off-Broadway play, Waters decided to make a movie starring only women! While there are a few men here and there, the cast is predominantly women! Mink Stole is Peggy Gravel, the snobby upper-class lunatic who goes into frantic anxiety attacks and thinks her children have sex! Jean Hill makes one of two film performances as Grizelda Brown, the black maid who smothers Peggy's husband by sitting on him! Susan Lowe is the butch Mole and Liz Renay is the slutty Muffy, two lesbian lovers in the scuzzy town of Mortville! Edith Massey is the evil Queen Carlotta, the tyrannical ruler of Mortville whose soldiers are leather-clad homosexuals! Mary Vivian Pearce is Princess Coo Coo, the half-wit who wants to marry a nudist garbageman! Cookie Mueller is Flipper, a sadistic nightclub performer who tortures men on stage, and Susan Niesp is her lover who sleeps with midgets! If this sounds like entertainment to you, "Desperate Living" is right up your alley! Additional highlights: a transvestite motorcycle cop with bleeding gums, a bizarre lesbian scene between Peggy and Grizelda, and a sex change resulting in a disgusting penis for Mole, which is eventually cut off with scissors and eaten by a dog!

All of the performances are top-notch, the script and dialogue are hilarious, and overall, "Desperate Living" is worthy of being called Waters' best film (but it isn't). Recommended for those who are looking for a comedy that's different.

I'm not familiar w/ John Waters' early 'underground' works, but if *Desperate Living* is any indication I've seen more than enough! The lesbian molestation scene between the 400 pound maid & her scrawny lady boss was truly awful-- I can't believe he went there! And the whole sequence following the one woman's sex change was truly the most disgusting thing I've ever seen! And yet, I laughed... the film has got some great lines ("Look, we killed ya husband, and I'm not cha maid anymore, b--ch, I'm ya *sista in crime*!)

Possibly more depraved than "Pink Flamingos", if that's possible, "Desperate Living" is a paradox for the senses. Although tasteless and shocking, it is ultimately warm hearted and uproariously hilarious. Those familiar with John's style know that these contradictions work splendidly within the context that he intended them to. Never mean spirited, the outrageousness lends itself to an overall statement on the callousness of society itself. Mink Stole is simply incredible as Peggy Gravel. Her ranting and raving throughout the film is side splitting. Special mention to Jean Hill as Grizelda, Liz Renay as Muffy, and of course the ever demure (ha!) Edith Massey as Queen Carlotta. Leave all inhibitions at the door and enjoy this twisted fairy tale roller coaster ride of a good time! A definite 9/10!!

A film that embodies the youthful energy of a teenage class clown who just wants to shock the world with whatever over the top antics they can get away with. It's a relentless blitzkrieg of absurd obscenity. After awhile, you start to grow desensitized to the filth as you are bombarded with one insane scenario after another, but I guess that's kinda the point of it all. Later day John Waters does attempt to put some method to the madness, but this is him at his most unfiltered.

I can't believe anyone would characterize this movie as hilarious. A few scenes were slightly humorous, but nothing to make one laugh out loud. Even the raw niblets of comedy were not to my liking. It was mostly an assortment of junior high gross out jokes and stunts. I truly believe that John Waters, while making this movie, either consciously or unconsciously, was constantly repeating to himself, "how can I twist the plot around (and the lack thereof made it quite easy) to allow for the most possible amount of nudity and gruesomeness?"

The thing is, I like the idea of a satiric anti-family values movie, but there's a line in the sand of corniness, which if crossed, causes the entirety of the satire to recoil upon itself. You end up thinking, "not only are family values fanatics stupid, but so are anti-family value fanatics."

Yet there was some potential. There is something funny, yet not contrivedly funny, in things like naked men jumping around on po-go sticks and 400 pound lesbian having sex. Also, I was impressed by the beginning soundtrack and the first panning over the city and inhabitants of Mortville. Some of the characters, though usually when their mouths were shut, intrigued with their eccentric dress and demeanor. Which brings me the the most ANNOYING part of this movie: in every single scene somebody was yelling! Even normal conversation consisted of hysterical screachings. I do not know what the point of this was but it probably ruined any open-mindedness I had towards attempting to like this movie.

I rented this movie because I found 'Pecker' amusing. I can see the beginning of the peckerness in this movie, but this does not make the movie worthwhile. Overall, I've given up on 'Desperate Living,' but I'll give Waters at least one more chance.

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.

So it didn't match up to Pink Flamingos but in my mind I enjoyed it just as much, if not more, than Female Trouble. I mean it was one of Mink Stole's best work. I listened to the commentary and Waters admitted that at that time in movie making, the fan base was changing and the cult status of movies were beginning to phase out. I believe that Waters made the best of what he could. He knew a change was happening and he overcame it. Desperate Living is one of my personal favourites in the Waters series of films and will remain that way. Edith Massey's portrayal of Queen Carlotta was very humourous, especially the absurd line "Seize her a f**k her". It's outrageous.

It's hard for me to believe that there could be John Waters fans who know only his mainstream films. They're pretty good movies, don't get me wrong; but they walk meekly in the shadow cast by his amazing Trash Trio (this, FEMALE TROUBLE & PINK FLAMINGOS). This one is his all-time best, partly because of Divine's absence. Had he been available, he would not only have nabbed the Queen Carlotta role, but become the focus of every viewer's attention as he usually did. (Well, nobody cites FEMALE TROUBLE for the Donald Dasher character, right?) The way DESPERATE LIVING worked out, you finally get a chance to see how good Waters' other Dreamland divas really were; and they're very, very good. Fact, DESPERATE features some of the most inspired, OTT female acting ever featured in a movie, "trash" or otherwise.

Mink Stole is unbeLIEVABLE as Peggy Gravel; she seethes with constant neurotic dementia throughout. Her portrayal of misery to the power of ten is less overacting than it is finding the perfect pitch for the role, and making camp on the very spot. The movie-opening running tantrum she spews is one of the funniest things I've ever seen - every third or fourth word is shouted for maniacal emphasis ("The CHILDREN are having SEX!! Beth is PREGNANT!! And I NARROWLY escaped an ASSASSINATION attempt!!") Brilliant. But she's matched, step for weaving step, by Susan Lowe's unforgettable diesel-dyke Mole and the nonpareil Edith Massey as the evil Queen of the criminal shanty-kingdom, Mortville. (If you've never experienced Edith Massey, nothing I can say could possibly prepare you for her....unique...greatness. Let's just leave it at that, okay?) And that's not to discount the typically outre work by Mary Vivian Pearce - who plays her character as if she'd gotten lost on her way to the set of a Julie Andrews musical - or the CGI effect that is Miss Jean Hill. This assembly of female firepower results in one incredible movie that STILL has the power to make you squirt liquid out your nose in helpless laughter, Farrelly Brothers or no Farrelly Brothers. As a matter of fact, the more Waters' early assaults on good taste have become absorbed into mainstream entertainment, the better and more shocking his films look for it. When DESPERATE LIVING stood alone, one hardly knew what to make of it. Now that every lesser talent in show-biz is trying to finance a swimming pool by imitating the Waters touch, it's easy to see, and appreciate, who the innovator and true original is. When Waters made this movie, he was a pariah with nothing to lose...he knew better, but still didn't care. Thus, there's an intoxicating power and thrift-shop integrity to DESPERATE LIVING that none of the Johnny-come-latelies can approach, now that "bad taste" is boxoffice, and safe as milk. If you're gonna wallow in slime, then accept no substitutes, folks: demand DESPERATE LIVING.

John Water's Lesbian Tour de Force. Edith Massey is at the peak of her career in this film as the incorrigible Queen Carlotta, a diminutive monarch who leads a group of leather-clad henchmen into subjugating and terrorizing the town of Mortville. Mink Stole and her companion, the buxom Jean Hill are riotous as newcomers to this edgy, trashy community inhabited by people `who are so ashamed at what they've done.' Susan Lowe and Liz Renay steal the show as the lesbian couple who rent `the room out back' to Mink and Jean. This film has many memorable scenes and unforgettable characters, and Desperate Living is by far one of John Water's best films. Check out Mr. Paul, Flipper, Princess Cuckoo, the Baby in the Refrigerator, and Big Jimmy Dong, the Human Blockhead. It's raw, remorseless, and reprehensible. Only from the brain of Waters could this scandalous, imaginative and wildly unapologetic romp emanate.

DESPERATE LIVING is an hilarious assault on "good taste" and the last real John waters film before he went mainstream in the '80s. This "Alice In Wonderland on acid" cartoon full of "sex & savagery" (not to mention necrophilia, incest, and cannibalism) kicks off when suburban mom Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) goes on the lam with her 400 lb. maid after the hefty domestic kills the man of the house by sitting on him. "Thelma & Louise" make their way to Mortville, a safe haven for criminals ruled over by the megalomanical nymphomaniac Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey) but as Mole the lesbian points out, "it isn't very pretty what a town without pity can do" and they land right smack in the middle of a dictatorship ripe for bloody revolution.

I wouldn't watch something like this unless I was stoned and at first it was so shrill (with everybody screaming until I thought I'd get a headache) but once I started laughing I couldn't stop right up until the hysterical, anarchic ending. There's as many inventive deaths and set- piece slaying in this movie as there are in any good giallo and that kept me happy, too.

I think the reason why I never tried too hard to track DESPERATE LIVING down before was because Divine wasn't in it but former Hollywood glamor girl and Mickey Cohen moll Liz Renay more than made up for it. Liz was an ex- con and a stripper at that point in her life and had no problem shedding her inhibitions to run around nude, bend over to have the queen kiss her butt, or get raped by her lesbian lover after a sex-change operation. I'm sorry I waited so long to see this -it's outrageous fun!

"Hello? What number are you calling? You've dialed the wrong number! Sorry!? What good is that? How can you ever repay the last thirty seconds you have stolen from my life? I hate you, your husband, your children, and your relatives!" I do think there is some value to this movie, just like I think there are some absolutely hysterical parts. But, there is also a fair amount of nudity and overblown sexual scenarios (though all of them are played for laughs); a fair amount of violence; a scene where a real baby is put in a refrigerator; and a few moments of gross out comedy- like excessive blood/ vomit/ bodily fluids... Even writing that all down, I feel a little strange proclaiming that this film does have some artistic worth, but it does. In terms of unique directorial voice this film is incredible; it's a cliché to say I've seen nothing like it, but in this case it's absolutely true. It's an absurdist surreal attack on class divide and fascism- it's a political statement that incorporates lowbrow humor to make its point even more apparent. More than that, it comes with Waters' trademark one-liners that pop up so frequently it's hard to keep up with the jokes.

Oh, John Waters. Is there anything this man won't do? From the outset it's clear that compared to his other early films this one enjoys a slightly larger budget (wow, an original score!) that lends to slightly better production values - but rest assured such financing in no way diminishes the kinship this title shares with its brethren. This 1977 picture is reliably outlandish, outrageous, over the top, overcooked, wildly gauche, and still bears the unmistakable appearance of abject low-budget garishness. For whatever money Waters had to put into this project, he worked hard to ensure his movie retained the same look and feel as his others, tirelessly cheap in every sense. That includes fabulously and deliberately vulgar, tasteless, yet wonderfully imaginative production design and art direction, costume design, and hair and makeup work; Mortville is like the smashing together of sitcom suburbia, 'Alice in Wonderland' fancy, the silliness of Monty Python, the colorfulness of Jim Henson settings, and the modest rural living of 'The Waltons.' Does all this sound like an unseemly, questionable hodgepodge? Welcome to John Waters. Welcome to 'Desperate living.'

Utterly preposterous, as consciously filthy and perverse as it can be, and aiming always for insincerity, inauthenticity, and obscene and unremitting bombast and bluster, this is an incredible oddity. It's also a whole lot of fun! I'm not sure how much of the entertainment here is out of purposeful humor versus sheer bewilderment and disbelief, but there can be no doubt that the cast (mostly Waters' regular Dreamlander collaborators) is having a total blast, unreservedly embracing all the brazen nonsense, and that free-wheeling zest is passed on with all fidelity to the audience. Moreover, for all the many, many peculiarities of Waters' style, I think that this represents the tightest and most focused writing and direction that the filmmaker had achieved up to this point. 'Desperate living' is a flagrant, flamboyant, low-brow spectacle of indecency and inanity, yet the narrative and scene writing also boast coherence and cohesiveness that arguably surpass those of its its predecessors. This is hardly to in any way count out what the likes of 'Pink flamingos' or 'Female trouble' represent, mind you; by the same token, again, there's no shortage of foulness here despite any ways in which it's a small step up.

What we effectively have in this movie is proof positive of growth in Waters' film-making and storytelling prowess during his period of utmost sleazy schlock, while that bent toward salaciousness is in its way both more refined and possibly more extreme in the same measure. Of course, by all means, anyone who isn't already on board with Dreamland's distinct flavors will find nothing here to change their mind; this claims the same barbarity, sensationalism, and smuttiness as any of its brethren. Yet for those appreciative of all the unrestrained, impulsive self-indulgence and lewd, crude extravagance of John Waters, this might actually be the premiere example of the man at his awful, unclean best. Yes, 'Desperate living' is shocking, shameless, repugnant, bold, beastly, iniquitous, and fully enamored of its own debauchery. Yet for all that, it's also a pure, depraved delight from start to finish. It's only a niche audience who will admire this, but for those few - what an absolute joy!

It's disgusting (in the good sense)! Yet, it's probably one of the best movies Waters has filmed, besides it's obnoxious at some moments. It screams politic lesbian anarchic revolution and I just LOVE it!

I read most of the comments on this board before renting the video, so I had very high expectations. This is _the_ worst movie I have ever seen. I didn't know movies this bad were made available to the public. I really don't know what is supposed to be so hilarious about this monstrosity. The acting was atrocious, and the dialogue even worse. I give this movie 2/10. It would have been 1, but I almost smiled at a few parts.

After rich housewife Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) accidentally murders her husband and runs away with her overweight black maid Grizelda Brown (Jean Hill) to Mortville, a community of outcasts and criminals ruled by Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey), Desperate Living starts losing the power of John Waters's greatest merit--attack on the norm of the American value. For a Waters film, the more fictitious and metaphysical its format is, the less effective the outcome of his attack is; that's why realistic (for Waters) Female Trouble is intense but fairytale-ish Desperate Living is not. Freaky actors screaming and doing nonsense are amusing to watch, but, needless to say, missing irreplaceable Divine is a significant disadvantage for early Waters.