Female Trouble (1974)

Director:

John Waters

Writer:

John Waters (writer)

Release Date:

28 March 1984 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Horror

Tagline:

Nice girls don't wear cha-cha heels.

Plot:

A spoiled schoolgirl runs away from home, gets pregnant while hitchhiking, and ends up as a fashion model for a pair of beauticians who like to photograph women committing crimes.

Plot Keywords:

Christmas | Cha Cha | Hitchhiking | Electric Chair | Dressing Room

Cast

Divine	...	Dawn Davenport / Earl Peterson
David Lochary	...	Donald Dasher
Mary Vivian Pearce	...	Donna Dasher
Mink Stole	...	Taffy Davenport
Edith Massey	...	Ida Nelson
Cookie Mueller	...	Concetta
Susan Walsh	...	Chicklette
Michael Potter	...	Gator
Ed Peranio	...	Wink
Paul Swift	...	Butterfly
George Figgs	...	Dribbles
Susan Lowe	...	Vikki
George Hulse	...	Mr. Weinberger
Margie Skidmore	...	School snitch
Berenica Cipcus	...	Mean girl

Also Known As:

Rotten Mind, Rotten Face (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated NC-17 for explicit sexuality and nudity.

Runtime:

89 min | USA:92 min (16 mm version) | USA:97 min (original length)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Chace Surround (2001 re-release) | Mono

Certification:

Australia:R | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A | France:-16 | USA:NC-17 (1999) | USA:X (original rating) | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Company:

Dreamland

Trivia:

A scene was filmed in which Concetta (Cookie Mueller) burst into the courtroom in an attempt to rescue Dawn Davenport ('Divine'). According to John Waters, the scene was "technically bad" (visible boom mic, light poles, etc.) and not included in any released version.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Dawn returns home from hospital with the Dashers and unwraps the birdcage containing Aunt Ida, Donald instructs her to, 'Cut off the hand that threw the acid!' Dawn then chops off Ida's left hand. Ida, however, threw the acid with her right hand.

Quotes:

Aunt Ida: Oh, Ernie! Have another pretzel for Chrissakes! Wait 'til you meet my little Gator. You two are gonna fall right in love.
Ernie: My dear, I hope so. Are you sure he's gay?
Aunt Ida: Well I just use common sense. I mean, if they're smart they're queer, and if they're stupid they're straight, right Earnie? Are you sure you won't have another pretzel?
Ernie: I'm sure, miss Thing, I'm sure. Pretzels give you plaque.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Indie Sex: Taboos (2001) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Jingle Bells

The film that introduced Dawn Davenport to an ungrateful world

Although John Waters is best known for "Pink Flamingos", his two best films are "Female Trouble" and "Desperate Living". Why? Well, as far as "Female Trouble" is concerned, it is the film that invented Dawn Davenport (Divine), one of the trashiest white schoolgirl tramps ever to strut her stuff in a pair of cha-cha heels. Dawn's amazing life is documented in this film and it's a cracker from beginning to end. You will laugh, you will cry, you will vomit and you will die as you behold the deliciously disgraceful antics of the indefatigable queen of crime and sleaze.

All the delightful Waters regulars (the achingly gorgeous Edith Massey, the fantastically filthy David Lochary, the marvellous Mink Stole and the putrid Ms. Mary Vivian Pearce) are paraded about like proud circus exhibits as Waters' weaves a rags to bitches story of one woman's rise from the suburbs of Baltimore to her fall in a city without pity.

Certainly this was one of the first films to explore the issue of criminals becoming celebrities. Dawn Davenport's ascent to the ceiling of crime is hilarious and perceptive and Waters clearly knew where all this was going. For mine, Waters lost his zing after "Desperate Living" when his movies got softer and his characters started turning up on TV shows like "Wally George", "Jerry Springer" and the earlier "Oprah" eps. What was fresh when Waters started doing it felt redundant when he kept doing it into the eighties and nineties.

Divine is, was and always will be a legend, and I consider myself fortunate that I once spent half an hour chatting with the great man and actor. Vincent Peranio's production design is spectacularly obnoxious and Van Smith's costumes, as always, are knitted from the threads of trash heaven.

Waters does not put a foot wrong and ends proceedings on a surprisingly emotional note.