Female Trouble *** (1974, Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Edith Massey) – Classic Movie Review 4099

John Waters is writer, producer, photographer and director for this incredibly cheaply made, utterly tasteless, totally outrageous 1974 satirical comedy from his early prime.

Waters hitches up with his larger-than-life and twice as naughty drag star, the late, lamented Divine (Glen Milstead) as Dawn Davenport, who starts as a loving schoolgirl but runs away from home, is raped, becomes a single mother and a criminal, and finds redemption from her terrible life in a night-club act, where she becomes a crazed mass murderer and shoots the audience. Alas it all leads to the electric chair…

It also stars David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Edith Massey and Cookie Mueller, all the gang from its 1973 predecessor, Pink Flamingos.

Female Trouble is trash with flash, more tacky than funny, with Divine at her most outrageous best, and of course definitely not for the easily offended.

Also in the cast are Susan Walsh, Susan Lowe, Roland Hertz and Al Strapelli.

See also Desperate Living and Pink Flamingos.