Steve Parker Movies
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)
- 1964
Politics and sports clash in this occasionally funny spoof centered around a downed U2 pilot and an extravagant oil sheik. John Goldfarb (Richard Crenna), a former football player, now pilot, sent on a reconnaissance mission over the Soviet Union, is lost and crash-lands in the Middle Eastern kingdom of Fawzia. King Fawz (Peter Ustinov) is constructing a football team to defeat Notre Dame and demands that Goldfarb coach his team or be handed over as a spy. In the interests of international relations, the U.S. State Department not only complies with King Fawz's request to bring the Notre Dame team to his country but in true diplomatic form insists that they throw the game. The romantic interest appears in the form of Jenny Ericson (Shirley MacLaine), an American reporter on an undercover assignment in the king's harem. A pleasant view in scanty harem garb, she lends mild amusement to the story with attempts to avoid the king's amourous advances. Although the humor falls short of its potential, the film was fortuitously saved from obscurity due to publicity generated by an unsuccessful lawsuit brought agianst the studio by the University of Notre Dame, which objected to a scene involving Notre Dame players fraternizing with harem girls. The screenplay for John Goldfarb, Please Come Home was written by William Peter Blatty who was later known for his award winning novel and screenplay The Exorcist. ~ Lucinda Ramsey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley MacLaine, Richard Crenna, (more)
In this romantic comedy, a popular actress disguises herself as a Japanese geisha to land a part in a film directed by her husband. Shirley MacLaine stars as Lucy Dell, a comic actress married to equally successful director Paul Robaix (Yves Montand). Though Paul has found success creating comic vehicles for Lucy, he wants to expand his range by making a lavish adaptation of Madame Butterfly on location in Japan, using a local actress as the star. Lucy feels she can play the part just as well as any Japanese woman, and, with the help of the film's producer (Edward G. Robinson), she hatches a plot to prove it. She poses as Yoko Mori, an innocent young geisha on her way to joining a convent, and her husband is immediately determined to cast her. Of course, the masquerade proves more difficult than imagined, and things become especially complicated when Lucy's Hollywood playboy co-star (Robert Cummings) falls in love with her demure Yoko persona. Opting for mild, character-driven humor over farce, My Geisha provides a few knowing jibes at Hollywood and comfortable performances from MacLaine and Montand, but the film's treatment of Japanese culture will likely seem dated to modern audiences. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley MacLaine, Yves Montand, (more)
