MONDO TRASHO (1969)

This early John Waters' outing finds Mary Vivian Pearce getting her toes sucked in a public park while she dreams about Cinderella.  Afterwards, she's hit by a car driven by Divine.  Divine tosses the unconscious Pearce in her backseat and drives around town.  All kinds of crazy stuff happens including seeing the Virgin Mary in a pig pen, them being committed to an insane asylum and Pearce's feet being amputated and replaced with some kind of chicken feet that when clicked together give her the ability to teleport to different places around town.  The End.

I liked MONDO TRASHO, but at 95 minutes it's way too long.  It would have been much better at just half that time.  Wacky, off-the-wall stories like this are much better told quickly and without giving the audience a chance to think too much about what's going on.  With MONDO TRASHO the viewer has plenty of time to daydream.  Simple scenes go on and on without reason.  Example: the scenes showing Mary Vivian Pearce leaving her residence, waiting on the bus and then riding the bus before arriving at the park take from 2:45 to 7:23.  That's over 4 minutes of literally nothing!  No dialogue, no forward movement.  Nothing.  It's the opening scene of the movie (post-opening credits), so why not just start the film at the park!?  There's many unneeded scenes like this.  That said, I love early John Waters' stuff, so even watching Dreamlanders running around doing nothing is still interesting.

Crude B&W photography, Divine briefly out of drag, slow as molasses pace, crazy story that doesn't make a lick of sense, chickens murdered, a ridiculous amount of songs snipped and spliced together.  Worth a watch for fans of Waters, but most other people would probably be bored to tears. I would love to one day see a proper release with a John Waters audio commentary.

FEMALE TROUBLE (1974)

"The world of hetrosexual is a sick and boring life."

Featuring at least 18 (by my count) cast members from PINK FLAMINGOS, FEMALE TROUBLE tells the entertaining story of Dawn Davenport (played by Divine).  When the film starts Dawn is in high school and desperately wants some "cha-cha heels" for Christmas.  When she doesn't get them she goes berserk and attacks her parents.  Even knocking the Christmas tree down on her mother.  She storms out of the house and is picked up by a seedy stranger (played by Divine not in drag).  They have loud sex on a mattress in the woods and she ends up pregnant.  She supports herself and her daughter (Mink Stole) by stealing.  Then one fateful day she meets the bizarre couple (Mary Vivian Pearce and David Lochary) that own the Lipstick Beauty Salon and her life changes forever.

FEMALE TROUBLE isn't as good as PINK FLAMINGOS but it's still a really fun film with lots of great performances.  Divine has the most outrageous screen presence, but Mink Stole was so hilarious she steals every scene she had with Divine.  Non-stop vulgar behavior, unattractive nudity I didn't even take screenshots of, lots of screaming, trampoline jumping, tons of flabby flesh on display, dismemberment, acid throwing, incest and a quick pace that never gives you time to be bored.  Recommended for fans of filth.