Divine Movies
Drag-queen and cult-movie star Divine, born Harris Glenn Milstead, was a high-school acquaintance of John Waters in the early '60s. Waters indulged his chubby friend's penchant for crossdressing, and Divine's acting career was launched with Water's first films in the mid '60s, Roman Candles and Eat Your Makeup both filmed while Divine still worked as a hairdresser. As Waters' work became more funny and outrageous with Mondo Trasho(1969) and Multiple Maniacs(1970), Divine's performances became richer and wilder; the two achieved immortality with the outrageously raunchy cult classic Pink Flamingos(1972) in which Divine competes to become the "World's Filthiest Person." They continued working together during the late '70s and into the '80s making two of their best films, Female Trouble(1974) and Polyester(1981). Divine also began appearing for other filmmakers, playing a woman in Paul Bartel's Lust in the Dust(1985) and shedding his feminine garb to play a man in Alan Rudolph's Trouble in Mind(1986). In his/her last appearance for Waters's, Hairspray(1988), Divine played a dual role, one male, one female, and was quite effective in both parts.Those who could get past the unremitting weirdness of Divine's performance discovered that the actor/actress had genuine talent, including a natural sense of comic timing and an uncanny gift for slapstick. In 1989 Divine died suddenly of an enlarged heart at the age of 42 while preparing for a guest appearance on Fox TV's Married...With Children. ~ All Movie Guide
Divine was touring as a cabaret singer when director John Waters made this comedy of the grotesque, but he filled the void admirably with the equally rotund Jean Hill and burlesque-queen Liz Renay. The film tells the story of Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole), a mad housewife who kills her husband then goes on the lam with her 300-pound maid Grizelda (Hill). After being sexually accosted by a lewd, cross-dressing cop with gingivitis, the women are directed to Mortville, a shanty-town for fugitive criminals ruled by the evil Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey). Carlotta's daughter, Princess Coo-Coo (Mary Vivian Pearce) wants to renounce the throne and marry a nudist garbageman, so the Queen has him killed and enlists Peggy's aid in infecting the kingdom with rabies. Waters uses a fairy-tale framework to indulge his penchant for nauseating set-pieces, such as a transsexual lesbian (Susan Lowe) having her new penis cut off with scissors and fed to a dog, women being fed live cockroaches, and Peggy being assaulted at a lesbian glory-hole. Massey is hilarious as the Queen, urging her leather-clad bodyguards/sex-toys to "rob my safety-deposit box!," but the oddly-named actor Turkey Joe steals the show in his brief role as a lecherous cop, spouting lines like "I love the feel of cold nylon on my big butt!" and slobbering over Grizelda's huge underpants. The pinnacle of gross-out humor, Desperate Living is Waters' strangest and funniest film. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liz Renay, Mink Stole, (more)
- 1990
John Waters offers his personal tribute to the multi-talented Divine, a comic actor best known for his female impersonation, with these two short films, "The Diane Linkletter Story" and "The Neon Woman," featuring a seldom-seen filmization of one of Divine's life performances. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1983
Pink Flamingoes star Divine performs some of his trashiest hits before a live audience in this release showcasing two concert dates from his 1983 tour. Featuring such tasteless audience favorites as "Born to be Cheap", "Gang Bang", "Jungle Jezebel" and of course the title track "Shoot Your Shot", this performance shows without question why Divine's cult status as "the filthiest person alive" was well deserved. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1967
The movie with which future shock mega-star John Waters graduated to 16mm film, this third short from the "Prince of Puke" features a maniacal couple who kidnap young girls, forcing them to perform the titular duties before modeling themselves to death. Never shown commercially following it's two-evening run in a Baltimore church basement, Eat Your Make-Up remains one of the most sought-after films among Waters' die-hard fans. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1975
A riotously funny bad-taste epic from director John Waters, Baltimore's "Prince of Puke," this sick classic tells the depraved life story of obese criminal Dawn Davenport (Divine), from her bad-girl youth as a go-go dancer on Baltimore's infamous Block to her death in the electric chair. Mink Stole is terrific as Dawn's bratty daughter Taffy, conceived following a romp on a junkyard mattress with a fat derelict in soiled underpants (also played by Divine). Mary Vivian Pearce and David Lochary co-star as crazed owners of a beauty-parlor who are convinced that "crime equals beauty," and they take Dawn under their wings, forcing her to mainline liquid eyeliner to enhance her appeal. Edith Massey steals the film as Dawn's obsessive neighbor, Ida, who wants her nephew to be gay (because heterosexuals lead "sick and boring lives") and throws acid in Dawn's face when she marries him. A hilariously appalling film, Female Trouble is just as disgusting and far funnier than Waters' previous Pink Flamingos, if not as notorious. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Divine, David Lochary, (more)
- 2007
Filmmakers Tim Dunn and Michael O'Quinn profile Frances Milstead, the mother of late actor/drag queen and pop icon Divine, in this humorous documentary that explores how one unquestionably accepting mother became a cherished member of an entire community. A courageous humanitarian who always supported her flamboyant son, Milstead conveys her love for Divine on camera while reaching out to others in need and occasionally cutting loose with the iconic drag queen's legions of fans. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frances Milstead, Divine, (more)
Forever interested in the kitsch built into past eras, director John Waters chooses the TV dance show craze of the early '60s for his playful focus in Hairspray. Ricki Lake plays Tracy Turnblad, just one of several alliteratively named characters coming of age in 1962 Baltimore, where "The Corny Collins Show" is the most popular American Bandstand-type program, watched by hundreds of young dreamers each day after school. Being chosen to dance on it is the ultimate status symbol and every young girl's dream, and Tracy improbably wins a featured spot when she infiltrates a dance contest and makes a better impression than her favored rival, the catty Amber von Tussle (Colleen Fitzpatrick). Always able to have fun, even when she's being mocked by the jealous popular girls, Tracy wins the affections of Amber's boyfriend and soon begins leading a movement to integrate the dance show, which has previously featured blacks only in a once-weekly theme night. She is arrested following a demonstration at a local theme park owned by Amber's father (Sonny Bono), who subscribes to the same theory of race relations as "The Corny Collins Show." Tracy's adventures are also filtered through her loving but eccentric parents (Divine and Jerry Stiller) and involve a humorous cultural clash with pot-smoking beatniks (Ric Ocasek and Pia Zadora). ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ricki Lake, Michael St. Gerard, (more)
Don't confuse this film with such child-oriented videocassettes as I Wanna Be a Fireman. The fact that this quasi-documentary is hosted by legendary female impersonator Divine should clue us in as to the age and temperament of its target audience. With his/her usual gift for subtlety and understatement, Divine guides us through the "Alternative Miss World" pageant. We don't want to give the game away, but it's just possible that many of the contestants might not be of the female persuasion. Nice costumes, though. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A controversial spoof on the Spaghetti western (some love it, some hate it), Lust in the Dust features the 300-pound Divine as the inimitable Rosie Velez, riding into view in full drag on a poor donkey as solemn commentary muddles on about the passions that enslave men and women -- and then Rosie, who weighs more than the donkey, is gang-raped by Hard Case Williams' (Geoffrey Lewis) outlaws. Eventually Rosie is rescued by the tough, taciturn cowboy Abel Wood (Tab Hunter), and together they reach the miserable town of Chili Verde where the entire population, not many after all, can always be found at a saloon run by Marguerita Ventura (Lainie Kazan) and her nit-wit bouncer/gunslinger, Bernardo (Henry Silva). Abel soon discovers that the reason why the population is so interested in Marguerita's saloon has nothing to do with hard liquor -- Marguerita and Rosie each have one half of a map of buried treasure tattooed on their backsides, and everyone wants a look at the whole map. That situation introduces rather absurd bedroom farce. Viewers with a very broad if not bawdy sense of humor will most enjoy this earthy exercise in parody. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tab Hunter, Divine, (more)
- 1969
The first feature film directed by self-proclaimed "Prince of Puke" John Waters, this black-and-white, mostly silent comedy cost just 2000 dollars. Mondo Trasho looks its budget, but has some amusing moments as it tells the story of a woman (Mary Vivian Pearce) who has a very bad day. First, she is accosted in the park by a foot-fetishist who sucks her toes. When she runs away, she is hit by a car. The driver, played by 300-lb. transvestite Divine, lost control of the wheel while staring at a naked man (Mark Isherwood) hitch-hiking by the roadside. Divine takes Pearce along with her, shoplifting some clothes to dress her victim. Unfortunately, both women are kidnapped by a mad doctor (David Lochary) who amputates Pearce's feet, replacing them with those of a chicken. She eventually gets her feet back, gaining magical powers that let her click her heels like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz to escape her situation. Divine is not so lucky, however, and meets her doom in a muddy pigsty. Pearce materializes in downtown Baltimore, where elderly local women with beehive hairdos curse at her until she clicks her heels again and disappears. There isn't much here for casual viewers, as only die-hard Waters fans are likely to countenance the long stretches in which virtually nothing happens. A few laughs are to be had, but not enough to sustain interest, as Waters did not really hit his stride until Multiple Maniacs the following year. At its best, this very rough amateur film suggests interesting ways to tell a story without dialogue, as Waters uses evocative old trash-rock songs to advance the plot. At its worse, it's a bore, of interest to devotees and completists only. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Another effort from notoriously tasteless duo John Waters and Divine, Multiple Maniacs finds heavyweight transvestite Divine as the maniacal head of a group of murderous kidnappers. Bent on ridding society of it's most boring element, suburbanites, Divine and company tour under the guise of Lady Divine's Cavalcade of Perversions, a not-so-elaborate ruse to lure in the most complacent element of the population and slaughter them en masse. Mesmerized by promises of "actual queers, kissing on the lips," and other such promises of lurid thrills, the plan works like a charm until a vicious love triangle leads to a risky plot to murder ringleader Divine. Despite their past, Divine's partner David (David Lochary) and scheming newcomer Mary Mary Vivian Pierce) plot to dispose of the murderous murderess just as Divine is planning to fire David. Enraged at the sudden turn of events, Divine hits the streets in anger only to find innovative uses for a rosary before being raped by a man in a dress and a giant lobster. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1988
- R
In this suspense thriller with a few humorous touches, an employee of a phone-sex service (Lynn Danielson) is being stalked by a clown-masked psychotic killer (Cameron Dye) who has already murdered a number of her colleagues. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cameron Dye, Karen Black, (more)
- 1972
Renegade filmmaker and noted aficionado of expressive bad taste John Waters exploded into international infamy with this darkly comic, no-budget parade of the perverse (his third feature film, and first in color), in which plus-size cross-dresser Divine stars as Babs Johnson, a flashy criminal on the lam from the FBI who is hiding out in a trailer outside of Baltimore, MD. Accompanying Babs are her mother (Edith Massey), an obese and dim-witted woman who is malignly obsessed with eggs; her degenerate son, Crackers (Danny Mills); and Cotton (Mary Vivian Pierce), Babs' duplicitous "traveling companion" and Crackers' co-conspirator in unwholesome erotic play. While Babs would prefer to be left in peace, she takes great pride in her status as "the Filthiest Person Alive" (an honor confirmed by one of America's sleazier tabloid newspapers), and when Connie and Raymond Marble (Mink Stole and David Lochary) announce their plans to take the title away from her, Babs is not about to stand idly by. The Marbles are a hateful couple who kidnap women, force their homosexual manservant, Channing (Channing Wilroy), to impregnate them, and sell the babies to lesbian couples found unfit for legal adoption; the Marbles then turn the profits back into pornography and narcotics trafficking. Impressive stuff, to be sure, but Babs is not about to take a back seat to anyone in a battle of filth, and when the Marbles throw down the gauntlet, Babs and her family retaliate in a no-holds-barred battle to determine who truly are "the Filthiest People Alive." Featuring murder, bestiality, rape, dismemberment, coprophagia, a dizzying variety of sexual perversions, and a performance of "Papa Oom Mow Mow" you will not soon forget, Pink Flamingos is nonetheless a comedy, and a surprisingly successful one; shot on a budget of only 12,000 dollars, the film has grossed close to ten million dollars around the world, and its success launched John Waters into a career as America's leading authority on poor taste. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Divine, David Lochary, (more)
After making a name for himself with such underground gross-out epics as Pink Flamingos and Desperate Living, director John Waters made a bid for somewhat wider acceptance with this black comedy, which is sedate only by the standards of his previous work. Francine Fishpaw (Divine) is a housewife whose life has become a living hell. Her husband Elmer (David Samson) runs a porno theater (currently showing the classic My Burning Bush) and is having an affair with secretary Sandra (Mink Stole), a vision of sleaze in Bo Derek-style cornrow braids who informs Elmer, "Children would only get in the way of our erotic lifestyle!" Francine has two teenage children, Dexter (Ken King), who likes to sniff glue and stomp on women's feet, and Lulu (Mary Garlington), a brazen slut who hangs out with overage juvenile delinquent Bobo (Stiv Bators) and gleefully anticipates her next abortion. Francine's best friend, Cuddles (Edith Massey), is a slightly insane heiress who is somehow convinced she's a debutante. Francine's life has become so miserable that her dog commits suicide rather than witness it, but a light appears on the horizon -- Todd Tomorrow (Tab Hunter), the handsome and dashing owner of a local drive-in specializing in art films (their current bill is a Margurerite Duras triple feature), with whom Dawn enters into a torrid affair. Subversive on all fronts, Polyester was originally shown in "Odorama" (patrons were given a card with ten scratch-and-sniff patches, to be smelled at key points in the action) and featured a romantic theme song sung by that new hitmaking duo, Deborah Harry and Bill Murray. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Divine, Tab Hunter, (more)
- 1966
The sophomore effort by John Waters and first collaboration between the director and legendary drag queen Divine, Roman Candles presents a random sampling of images relating to The Wizard of Oz, sex, drugs and religion. Set against an equally random sampling of audio bytes of radio advertisements, rock and roll music and a press conference with Lee Harvey Oswald's mother, Roman Candles was shot on black and white 8mm film and shown in public three times. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Tally Brown was a star of New York underground films and a denizen of its underworld in the late 1960s -- about as far away as one could imagine as the destination for this classically trained opera and blues singer. In this documentary, Rosa von Praunheim relies on extensive interviews with Brown, as she recounts her collaboration with Warhol, Taylor Mead and others, as well as her friendships with Holly Woodlawn, Divine, and others. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tally Brown, Taylor Mead, (more)
- 1980
Targeted for audiences who find men in drag particularly amusing, this film documents the shenanigans at an annual "Alternative Miss World" contest hosted by Divine. Contestants go by names like Miss Proposition 13 or Miss Slightly Misanthropic, and several are literally tripped up coming down the entrance stairway. Riotous costumes and even a swimsuit competition add or subtract from the event, depending on one's perspective. After answering grueling questions like "What do you like to do best?" the winner is chosen in an atmosphere that is a cross between the Mardi Gras in New Orleans and a three-ring circus. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Divine, Andrew Logan, (more)
- 1985
- R
The time is The Future: the place is Rain City, formerly Seattle. The city is a police state, while the citizens have adopted the manner and dress of 1940s gangsters. Recently released from prison, ex-cop Kris Kristofferson tries to touch base with his ex-girlfriend Genevieve Bujold, who runs a 1950s-style cafe. Hoping to make up for past sins, thereby redeeming himself in Bujold's eyes, Kristofferson endeavors to save innocent, newly arrived couple Keith Carradine and Lori Singer from the evil designs of crooked Joe Morton. Trouble in Mind strives mightily for a film noir ambience, right down to the presence of a sinister, Greenstreetesque "fat man," played in male drag (for a change) by Divine. The title tune for Trouble in Mind is sung over the credits by Marianne Faithful. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kris Kristofferson, Keith Carradine, (more)
- 1976
In this film, outspokenly homosexual filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim has documented his encounters with friends in the New York "underground" arts movement, the better-known of whom are William Burroughs (who says nothing for the camera), Andy Warhol (seen in the distance) and Fernando Arrabal (who is interviewed in Spanish). The emigrants named in the title are notable Germans who left the country before World War II, such as Greta Keller and Grete Mosheim. Reviewers at the time of the film's release considered it to have been a sort of paid vacation for the filmmaker rather than a serious effort. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William S. Burroughs
