“The movie that I did that did the worst was called Desperate Living … It was a fairytale about lesbian anguish and mental illness and politics and corruption in a town called Mortville. When this movie came out, lesbian groups stopped it from being shown in Boston at the Orson Welles Cinema where all my movies played at the time by saying “How dare a man make a comedy about lesbians?” Well, today it’s the movie that lesbian groups bring on colleges all the time to raise money!”
/ John Waters in the 2006 film This Filthy World /
Released on this day (27 May 1977) in Baltimore: John Waters’ ultra-twisted punk-y black comedy Desperate Living (1977). (Tagline: “It isn’t very pretty …”). Re-titled Punk Story in Italy, it's one of Waters’ comparatively lesser-known gems (probably because his usual muse and leading lady - three hundred pound “hog princess” Divine - isn't in it). Lambasted by Variety as “amateur night on the psycho ward” and described by Waters himself as “the worst of all my films. And it’s the grimmest!”, the genuinely nasty Desperate Living has something to offend everyone! Pictured: Susan Lowe (as Mole McHenry – the role originally intended for Divine).
