Desperate Living (1977)

Director:

John Waters

Writer:

John Waters (writer)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Fantasy | Horror

Tagline:

It isn't very pretty.....

Plot:

A rich housewife enlists her maid's help to murder her husband; they go on the lam and end up in Mortville, a homeless community built into a garbage dump.

Plot Keywords:

Queen | Shack | Lesbian | Female Wrestler | Political Satire

Cast

Liz Renay	...	Muffy St. Jacques
Mink Stole	...	Peggy Gravel
Susan Lowe	...	Mole McHenry
Edith Massey	...	Queen Carlotta
Mary Vivian Pearce	...	Princess Coo-Coo
Jean Hill	...	Grizelda Brown
Brook Yeaton	...	Bosley Jr. (as Brook Blake)
Karen Gerwig	...	Beth
Jay Allan	...	Kid
Al Strapelli	...	Doctor Evans
George Stover	...	Bosley Gravel
Turkey Joe	...	Motorcycle Cop
Willie Brooks	...	Pieman
James Yeaton	...	Dead Bum
Ed Peranio	...	Lieutenant Wilson
Steve Butow	...	Lt. Grogan
Channing Wilroy	...	Lieutenant Wilson
Steve Parker	...	Goon
Pete Denzer	...	Goon
Chuck Yeaton	...	Goon
David Klein	...	Goon
Ralph Crocker	...	Goon
Peter Koper	...	Goon
Sally Albaugh	...	Hag
Kenny Orye	...	Eater
Warren Newcomb	...	Page
Roland Hertz	...	Muffy's Husband
Pirie Woods	...	Baby Sitter
Damien Overholser	...	Baby In Refrigerator
Ed Butner	...	Referee
H.C. Kliemisch	...	Big Jimmy Dong
Paul Swift	...	Mr. Paul
George Figgs	...	Herbert
Marina Melin	...	Shina
Cookie Mueller	...	Flipper
Pat Moran	...	Bathroom Pervert
Sharon Niesp	...	Shotsie
George Hulse	...	Sex Change Doctor
Delores Delux	...	Nurse
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Frank J. Butler	...	Harmonica Player (uncredited)
Richard Ellsberry	...	Patient in waiting room (uncredited)
Alan Reese	...	Extra (uncredited)

Directed by
John Waters

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
John Waters		writer

Produced by
James McKenzie	....	associate producer
William Platt	....	associate producer
David Spencer	....	associate producer
John Waters	....	producer

Original Music by
Chris Lobingier
Allen Yarus

Cinematography by
Thomas Loizeaux		(director of photography)
John Waters

Film Editing by
Charles Roggero

Art Direction by
Vincent Peranio

Costume Design by
Van Smith

Makeup Department
Jon Aaron	....	assistant hair stylist
Celeste Hall	....	assistant hair stylist
Christine Mason	....	hair stylist
Van Smith	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Robert Maier	....	unit manager
Pat Moran	....	production manager

Art Department
Delores Delux	....	assistant art director (as Dolores Deluxe)
Steve Parker	....	assistant set designer
Ed Peranio	....	assistant set designer
Vincent Peranio	....	set designer

Sound Department
Richard Ellsberry	....	assistant sound
Robert Maier	....	sound

Special Effects by
Ed Peranio	....	special effects
Tom Watkins	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Laurel Douglas	....	still photographer
David Insley	....	assistant camera
Kevin Weber	....	lighting assistant
Steve Yeager	....	still photographer

Music Department
Chris Lobingier	....	music arranger
Allen Yarus	....	music arranger

Other crew
William Platt	....	video
Alan Rose	....	credits
Pete Garey	....	production advisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Charm City Productions

Distributors

• Saliva Films (1977) (USA) (theatrical)
• Continental Video (1985) (USA) (video)
• Cinema Group Home Video (1987) (USA) (VHS)
• Image Entertainment (1997) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• New Line Home Video (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• New Line Home Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• New Line Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• New Line Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Oppidan Film Productions (????) (UK) (theatrical)
• Castle Home Video (????) (UK) (VHS)
• Entertainment in Video (????) (UK) (VHS)
• New Line Home Video (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Palace Video (1983) (UK) (VHS)
• Palace Video (1983) (UK) (video) (Betamax)

Other Companies

• Quality Film Labs  technical assistance

Also Known As:

Mortville (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

France:-18 | USA:X (self applied) | Australia:R | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A | UK:18 | USA:R (re-rating) | UK:(Banned) (1977)

Filming Locations:

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Company:

Charm City Productions

Trivia:

Production designer Vincent Peranio cooked a real rat so that it could be "eaten" during the opening titles.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Mole first meets Peggy and Grizelda she tells them that there are no toilets in Mortville, but at the lesbian bar there are toilets, where Peggy is harassed by the 'bathroom pervert'.

Quotes:

Bosley Jr.: [Kids are in the attic playing doctor] Breathe hard. Do it again.
Beth: [Giggles as she breathes] Let me do it to you.
Peggy Gravel: [Enters room and goes berserk when she sees the kids] SODOMITES!
[Rushes to them]
Peggy Gravel: CAUGHT RIGHT IN A SEX ORGY! FILTHY! DIRTY! FILTHY!
Bosley Jr.: [Crying] We're only playing!
Peggy Gravel: [Slapping them] Is that what you learned in private school?
Beth: Don't, Mother, we're only playing!
Peggy Gravel: [Hysterically to herself] NUDE! NUDE! NUDE!
[Suddenly seriously]
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Problem Child 2 (1991)

Bad movie hygiene

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.