Female Trouble
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| Female Trouble | |
|---|---|
 French movie poster. |
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| Directed by | John Waters |
| Produced by | John Waters |
| Written by | John Waters |
| Starring | Divine Edith Massey Cookie Mueller Mink Stole Mary Vivian Pearce David Lochary Michael Potter |
| Music by | Joe Renzetti |
| Cinematography | John Waters |
| Editing by | Charles Roggero |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) |  October 4, 1974 |
| Running time | 97 min. |
| Country | US |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Female Trouble is a 1974 film by Baltimore, Maryland filmmaker John Waters starring Divine, Edith Massey, Cookie Mueller, Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pearce, Michael Potter and David Lochary.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Dawn Davenport (Divine) is a troubled teen who wants nothing more for Christmas than a pair of black cha-cha heels. When she doesn't get what she wants, she runs away from home and is promptly picked-up by a disgusting man in a fur cap named Earl Peterson (also Divine). After a less than romantic encounter with Earl at a nearby garbage dump, she becomes pregnant with a daughter, Taffy (Mink Stole), and begins a life of crime with her two girlfriends Concetta and Chiclet (Cookie Mueller and Susan Walsh). One day, to cheer Dawn up, her friends advise her to get her hair done at the Lipstick Beauty Salon, a bizarre establishment run by two fascist fashion photographers Donald and Donna Dasher (David Lochary) and (Mary Vivian Pearce). All potential customers have to be interviewed to have their hair done. Here, Dawn meets her future husband, Gator (Michael Potter), who styles hair at the salon and also lives next door to Dawn and Taffy in Baltimore.
Dawn clashes with Ida (Edith Massey), her peroxide blond, leather-clad, gay male-loving neighbor, and aunt to Gator. When her marriage to Gator begins to turn sour, she falls in with the Dashers, who employ her as their 'crime model' and have a theory which equates excessive crime with ultimate glamour. Taffy, left alone at home, surrounds herself with pieces of wrecked cars and with the help of a headless mannequin (and a bottle of ketchup) re-enacts auto crashes.
Ida, angry at Dawn for the departure of Gator (Gator, an automotive enthusiast, moved to Detroit to "be nearer the auto industry"), throws acid at Dawn's face. The Dashers persuade Dawn to retain the disfigured facial injury, making her believe that she is more beautiful than ever. As Taffy joins the Hare Krishna to rebel against her mother, Dawn shoots liquid eyeliner into her veins and embarks on a rampant cavalcade of criminal activity, which culminates in the death of her daughter and a theatre performance, where she shoots members of the audience "for art". Dawn is eventually sentenced to death in the electric chair. Near the start of the final scenes Dawn can be seen hugging and being a model-like figure to the other girls in prison and is also noted as having a possible lesbian relationship with one of them. After Dawn gets her last meal of two veal cutlets (which she then refuses anyway) she is walked into the room for her execution while a priest reads out parts of The Bible to her, in which she pays no attention whatsoever to. The scene ends with Dawn, equating her death on the electric chair to receiving an Oscar, goes into a rant about her celebrity status before she is electrocuted.
Rated NC-17 for explicit sexuality and nudity.
[edit] Cast
- Divine (actor) as Dawn Davenport / Earl Peterson
- David Lochary as Donald Dasher
- Mary Vivian Pearce as Donna Dasher
- Mink Stole as Taffy Davenport
- Edith Massey as Ida Nelson
- Cookie Mueller as Concetta
- Susan Walsh as Chiclette Fryer
- Michael Potter as Gator Nelson
- Ed Peranio as Wink
- Paul Swift as Butterfly
- George Figgs as Dribbles
- Susan Lowe as Vikki
[edit] Quotes
Aunt Ida: Queers are just better. I'd be so proud if you was a fag.
Taffy Davenport: What's that camera for? Donald Dasher: To take pictures of your mother. Taffy Davenport: HER? Donald Dasher: We happen to think she's quite beautiful. Taffy Davenport: You must be cockeyed, then!
Dawn Davenport: You want your spaghetti with or without cheese? Donna Dasher: I'll have two chicken breasts please. Dawn Davenport: Well, uh, we're not having that, we're having spaghetti. Donna Dasher: I couldn't possibly eat spaghetti, do I look Italian? Donald Dasher: We rarely eat any form of noodle. But I'll take a small portion to be polite, with cheese, please. Donna Dasher: I'll have an extremely large glass of ice-water.
Gator: Hello, Aunt Ida. Aunt Ida: Gator Nelson, what a coincidence! There's somebody here dying to meet you! Gater, this is Ernie; Ernie, this is Gater! Ernie: Hi, stud! Gator: Get him outta here! Aunt Ida: Gator Nelson, you be polite to Ernie! He wants a date with you! Gator: Well I don't want a date with him. I came to say goodbye Aunt Ida, I'm moving to Detroit. Aunt Ida: WHAT? Gator: I want to be near the auto industry, I'm sick of hairdressing and besides, Dawn had me fired. Ernie: I can get ya a job in the Bath, Mary! Gator: Look, fucker, take a walk! Ernie: Well...! Gator: Look, you better beat it before I punch your fuckin' face out that window. Ernie: No gay knocks for me, Ida! At best, all you've got is trade. Aunt Ida: Oh Gator! Ernie's your type! Move in with me again, and we'll get you a job as a female impersonator! Ernie: His hands are too big, dahling. BYE, Gator. It was... FAB meeting you! Gator: FUCK you, you're worse than my wife!
Aunt Ida: Fucker! Pig fucker! Hetero! Filthy hetero stink-shit!
Dawn Davenport: You're a pain, Taffy. A pain in my big asshole!
Dribbles: How's your little girl? Why don't you bring her in here more often? Sally: Why? So you can undress her with your eyes? For Christ's sake, she's only six years old. Dribbles: I know, but I just like to play with her. I wish I was a little girl. Sally: Well, throw a goddamn penny in a fountain and make a goddamn wish and maybe it'll come true.
Taffy: [showing up at Superstar nightclub dressed in saffron robes] Hare Krishna, mother! Dawn Davenport: You've finally done it, haven't you! Embarrassed me on my night of FAME! [grabbing her] Dawn Davenport: No reporters saw you did they?! [Taffy shaking off her mother's hands] Dawn Davenport: Look at you, I could vomit! Donald Dasher: THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF BEAUTY! Donna Dasher: Remember Alice Crimmins.
School snitch: Mr. Wineburger, Dawn Davenport is eating a meatball sandwich right out in class and she's been passing notes!! Dawn Davenport: I was not eating! Concetta: I got a knife here in my pocketbook and I'm gonna cut you up after class.
Concetta: Hey there, Taffy. Dawn Davenport: She's been a hideous little girl today, she was about to get a good whippin'! Chicklette: She's so cute. Taffy as a child: Who are you, UGLY? Dawn Davenport: You know who they are! Taffy as a child: I've never seen THEM before. Dawn Davenport: Oh, TAFFY. Chicklette: I just saw you yesterday, Taffy. Come sit here with your Aunt Chicklette! [Taffy bites Chicklette's arm] Chicklette: OH MY GOD, this kid's BITIN me! Dawn Davenport: This is ridiculous...
[Dawn discovers the shoe box under the Xmas tree does not contain cha cha heels] Dawn Davenport: WHAT are THESE? Mrs. Davenport: Those are your new shoes, Dawn! Dawn Davenport: Those aren't the right kind, I told you cha cha heels, black ones! Mr. Davenport: Nice girls don't wear cha cha heels! Dawn Davenport: Gimmie those presents, I'll never wear those ugly shoes! I told you the kind I wanted! You ruined my Christmas! [stomps the Xmas presents] Mrs. Davenport: Please, Dawn! Not on Christmas! Dawn Davenport: Get off me, you ugly witch! [pushes mother into the Xmas tree] Mr. Davenport: Dawn Davenport, are you crazy, look at your mother! Dawn Davenport: Get off me... LAY OFF ME! I hate you, fuck you! Fuck you both, you awful people! You're not my parents! I hate you, I hate this house, and I hate Christmas! Mrs. Davenport: Not on Christmas! Not on Christmas!
Aunt Ida: [to Taffy] And remember my offer still stands. If you get tired of being a Hare Krishna, you come live with me and be a lesbian!
[edit] Producton
The theme song was written by Waters to a pre-existing piece of music and sung by Divine. Set designer Vincent Peranio created Davenport's apartment in a condemned suite above a friend's store. Because Earl Peterson, the man who impregnates Dawn, was also played by Divine, shooting was difficult to schedule. Earl's scenes were filmed first because Van Smith sought to shave Divine's head and eyebrows for the role of Dawn. In the scenes filmed where Earl and Dawn are making love, a stunt double in the form of Sally Amsbaugh (the Elizabeth Taylor lookalike who appears as "Sally" in the film).
Divine chose to do all her own stunts, the most difficult of which involved doing flips on a trampoline during her final performance. Waters took her to the YMCA where she took lessons until the act was perfected. The birth scene was saved until the end of shooting, when Dreamlander Susan Lowe gave birth to a son. The umbilical cord was fashioned out of prophylactics filled with liver, while the baby (Ramsey McLean) was doused in fake blood. The scene created quite a scandal for Lowe's mother-in-law, who arrived on the set in a state of confusion.
[edit] External links
Hag in a Black Leather Jacket • Roman Candles • Eat Your Makeup • Mondo Trasho • The Diane Linkletter Story • Multiple Maniacs • Pink Flamingos • Female Trouble • Desperate Living • Polyester • Hairspray • Cry-Baby • Serial Mom • Pecker • Cecil B. DeMented • A Dirty Shame
