d. John Waters (1977)
I'll be honest and admit that, up until now, I hadn't seen a John Waters film that predated 1988's Hairspray, mainly because I could never quite remember which one it was where Divine eats dog shit and that was a moment of cinematic history I was happy to miss. Dangerous Living doesn't go that far, although it does feature multiple murders, sexual assault, vomit, mass cannibalism and someone hacking off their own recently transplanted penis with a pair of blunt scissors. It seems obvious to say that the film is in bad taste, but actually it goes beyond taste, it’s just in a feverish zone of high camp and offence where anything goes, and you either like it or you hate it and want it destroyed with fire. For me, it’s grotesque and hilarious, full of memorable and baroque dialogue and, most of all, outrageous people behaving badly and having fun.
Mink Stole plays Peggy Gravel, a shrill, neurotic housewife fresh out of the sanitorium who amplifies every tiny experience into grand opera. When the neighbourhood kids accidentally hit a baseball through her window she takes it as an assassination attempt, shouting 'don't tell me I don't know about Vietnam'. When she finds her son and daughter playing Doctors she screams 'my daughter has been raped - and now she's pregnant'. This hysteria has fatal consequences when her husband tries to calm her down and Peggy assumes he is trying to kill her. The Gravel's huge, black, kleptomaniac, dipsomaniac maid, Grizelda (Anita Lane, absolutely the star of the show) intervenes, sitting on the husband's face and killing him. Peggy and Grizelda go on the run, just getting out of the city limits before being pulled up by a cross dressing cop. In return for their underwear and a couple of sloppy kisses the Cop lets them go on the understanding that they should put themselves in exile in Mortville, a shanty town populated by misfits and criminals, all ruled over by the cruel and perverse Queen Carlotta. All this accounts for about ten minutes of screen time and, in legend, was where, during the premiere, the critic from Good Housekeeping walked out.
What follows is an amazing cavalcade of pantomimic action, all filmed on a set made out of bits of plywood, cardboard and rubbish placed in a field in Maryland. Every actor is in top form and top gear, all the time, emoting, screeching, rolling around on the floor, taking their clothes off or putting them on backwards. It sounds tiring but, actually, it's like watching a mad school play delivered by naughty children. There are adult fairy tale elements too, with the wicked snaggle toothed Queen and her retinue / army of well hung leather boys, not to mention a lot of lesbianism, some rabies, inter-gender wrestling, rat eating and someone having a gun inserted into their anus.
Best of all, there's line after line of incredible dialogue. I have a number of favourites but I'll limit myself to one example that is now stuck to the inside of my brain forever like a piece of filthy discarded bubblegum:
'He's not a garbage man, he just helps pick up trash at the nudist colony'
A work of crazed and evil genius.
I'll be honest and admit that, up until now, I hadn't seen a John Waters film that predated 1988's Hairspray, mainly because I could never quite remember which one it was where Divine eats dog shit and that was a moment of cinematic history I was happy to miss. Dangerous Living doesn't go that far, although it does feature multiple murders, sexual assault, vomit, mass cannibalism and someone hacking off their own recently transplanted penis with a pair of blunt scissors. It seems obvious to say that the film is in bad taste, but actually it goes beyond taste, it’s just in a feverish zone of high camp and offence where anything goes, and you either like it or you hate it and want it destroyed with fire. For me, it’s grotesque and hilarious, full of memorable and baroque dialogue and, most of all, outrageous people behaving badly and having fun.
Mink Stole plays Peggy Gravel, a shrill, neurotic housewife fresh out of the sanitorium who amplifies every tiny experience into grand opera. When the neighbourhood kids accidentally hit a baseball through her window she takes it as an assassination attempt, shouting 'don't tell me I don't know about Vietnam'. When she finds her son and daughter playing Doctors she screams 'my daughter has been raped - and now she's pregnant'. This hysteria has fatal consequences when her husband tries to calm her down and Peggy assumes he is trying to kill her. The Gravel's huge, black, kleptomaniac, dipsomaniac maid, Grizelda (Anita Lane, absolutely the star of the show) intervenes, sitting on the husband's face and killing him. Peggy and Grizelda go on the run, just getting out of the city limits before being pulled up by a cross dressing cop. In return for their underwear and a couple of sloppy kisses the Cop lets them go on the understanding that they should put themselves in exile in Mortville, a shanty town populated by misfits and criminals, all ruled over by the cruel and perverse Queen Carlotta. All this accounts for about ten minutes of screen time and, in legend, was where, during the premiere, the critic from Good Housekeeping walked out.
What follows is an amazing cavalcade of pantomimic action, all filmed on a set made out of bits of plywood, cardboard and rubbish placed in a field in Maryland. Every actor is in top form and top gear, all the time, emoting, screeching, rolling around on the floor, taking their clothes off or putting them on backwards. It sounds tiring but, actually, it's like watching a mad school play delivered by naughty children. There are adult fairy tale elements too, with the wicked snaggle toothed Queen and her retinue / army of well hung leather boys, not to mention a lot of lesbianism, some rabies, inter-gender wrestling, rat eating and someone having a gun inserted into their anus.
Best of all, there's line after line of incredible dialogue. I have a number of favourites but I'll limit myself to one example that is now stuck to the inside of my brain forever like a piece of filthy discarded bubblegum:
'He's not a garbage man, he just helps pick up trash at the nudist colony'
A work of crazed and evil genius.
No comments:
Post a Comment