Female Trouble (1974)

Director:

John Waters

Writer:

John Waters (writer)

Release Date:

28 March 1984 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Horror

Tagline:

Nice girls don't wear cha-cha heels.

Plot:

A spoiled schoolgirl runs away from home, gets pregnant while hitchhiking, and ends up as a fashion model for a pair of beauticians who like to photograph women committing crimes.

Plot Keywords:

Christmas | Cha Cha | Hitchhiking | Electric Chair | Trampoline

Cast

Divine	...	Dawn Davenport / Earl Peterson
David Lochary	...	Donald Dasher
Mary Vivian Pearce	...	Donna Dasher
Mink Stole	...	Taffy Davenport
Edith Massey	...	Ida Nelson
Cookie Mueller	...	Concetta
Susan Walsh	...	Chicklette
Michael Potter	...	Gator
Ed Peranio	...	Wink
Paul Swift	...	Butterfly
George Figgs	...	Dribbles
Susan Lowe	...	Vikki
George Hulse	...	Mr. Weinberger
Margie Skidmore	...	School snitch
Berenica Cipcus	...	Mean girl

Also Known As:

Rotten Mind, Rotten Face (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated NC-17 for explicit sexuality and nudity.

Runtime:

89 min | USA:92 min (16 mm version) | USA:97 min (original length)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Chace Surround (2001 re-release) | Mono

Certification:

Australia:R | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A | France:-16 | USA:NC-17 (1999) | USA:X (original rating) | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Company:

Dreamland

Trivia:

Many of the principal actors' and crews' parents played the jurors in the final courtroom scene, including the mother and brother of David Lochary (Donald Dasher) and the mother of set designer Vincent Peranio.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Dawn returns home from hospital with the Dashers and unwraps the birdcage containing Aunt Ida, Donald instructs her to, 'Cut off the hand that threw the acid!' Dawn then chops off Ida's left hand. Ida, however, threw the acid with her right hand.

Quotes:

Wink: I'm getting a hard-on! Beauty always gives me a hard-on!
Donna Dasher: Aim it the other way then, Wink. You know how I detest organs. Beauty has absolutely nothing to do with that WORD, that THING you have hanging there like an obscene pickle. Spare me your anatomy.

Movie Connections:

References "CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite" (1962)

Soundtrack:

Underwater

9/10

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