Desperate Living

Desperate Living is a 1977 American black comedy film directed, produced, and written by John Waters.^[2] The film stars Liz Renay, Mink Stole, Susan Lowe, Edith Massey, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Jean Hill.

It is the third installment of what Waters has labeled the "Trash Trilogy", which also includes Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974), and the only one without Divine.^[3] The film generated a cult following around Renay, who appeared in at least two dozen other films.^[4]

Following the murder of her husband, a suburban housewife and her maid agree to be exiled to Mortville, a shantytown ruled by a tyrannical queen regnant.

Neurotic Guilford housewife Peggy Gravel and her housekeeper Grizelda Brown go on the lam after killing Peggy's husband. After being detained by a cross-dressing police officer, they are given an ultimatum: arrest for murder or exile to Mortville, a shantytown of criminals and social outcasts ruled by the fascist Queen Carlotta.

Peggy and Grizelda choose Mortville and settle at the boarding house of lesbian wrestler Mole McHenry and her lover Muffy St. Jacques, the "most beautiful woman in Mortville". Mole wins the Maryland Lottery with a ticket confiscated from Peggy and uses the money for gender reassignment surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, but when Muffy is repulsed by Mole's phalloplasty, he gives himself a penectomy.

Carlotta's rebellious daughter Princess Coo-Coo attempts to elope with a nudist garbage collector, but he is killed by Carlotta's royal guards. Coo-Coo hides in Peggy and Grizelda's home, but Peggy alerts the guards to her location, and Grizelda is killed in the ensuing fight after their house collapses on her. Carlotta, having grown weary of her subjects, enlists Peggy in a plot to genocide the residents of Mortville by infecting them with rabies. An armed group led by Mole storms the castle, where they overthrow Carlotta and install Muffy as the new queen. The townsfolk celebrate their new freedom by roasting Carlotta on a spit and serving her, pig-like, on a platter.

Art director Vincent Peranio built the exterior sets for Mortville on a 26-acre farm in Hampstead, Maryland, owned by Waters' friend, Peter Koper.^[5] The exterior sets were largely constructed of plywood and rubbish Peranio and Waters had collected from around Baltimore.^[6] Production manager Robert Maier recalled the challenges of shooting without adequate facilities, how the cast and crew overwhelmed the farm's septic system, how heavy rains nearly washed away the set, and how "charmed" Waters seemed through it all.^[7]

The Mortville interiors were filmed in a 5000-sq-ft, second-story loft in a rented warehouse located in Fells Point, Baltimore. The space was unheated, noisy, and poorly suited for film production according to Maier.^[8]

Desperate Living was edited for 10 weeks in the basement of editor Charles Roggero's home. It was Waters' first film with original music, by Chris Lobingier and Allen Yanus, whom Waters asked to provide a "cheesy Doctor Zhivago -type score".^[9]

As with Waters' previous films, the premiere was held in the auditorium of the University of Baltimore. A brief controversy arose when lesbian groups attacked the film for its depiction of lesbianism, and for taking the title of a defunct lesbian magazine.^{[citation needed ]}

New Line Cinema blew the film up from 16 to 35 mm and opened it at midnight in Manhattan, though the original poster (featuring a cooked rat on a plate) was rejected by The New York Times to run, forcing a new poster to be created three days before the opening.^{[citation needed ]} The new poster featured Liz Renay in a screaming pose, fashioned from a production still.

Critics from Good Housekeeping walked out of the film after 10 minutes.^{[citation needed ]} Otherwise, Playboy enjoyed the film, stating it had to be "seen to be believed". David Chute of The Boston Phoenix said of the film: "In Desperate Living, Waters comes close to creating a work of true trash art."^{[citation needed ]}

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 73% based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10.^[13]

• Desperate Living at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
• Desperate Living at Rotten Tomatoes Edit this at Wikidata
• Desperate Living at the TCM Movie Database (archived) Edit this at Wikidata