Pink Flamingos
Encyclopedia
Pink Flamingos is a 1972 transgressive
Transgressive art
Transgressive art refers to art forms that aim to transgress; i.e. to outrage or violate basic mores and sensibilities. The term transgressive was first used by American filmmaker Nick Zedd and his Cinema of Transgression in 1985...

 black comedy film
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...

 written, produced, composed, shot, edited, and directed by John Waters
John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...

. When the film was initially released, it caused a huge degree of controversy and thus became one of the most notorious cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...

s ever made. It made an underground star of the flamboyant drag queen
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...

, Divine. The film co-stars David Lochary
David Lochary
David Crawford Lochary was one of the regular "Dreamlander" actors in early films of the controversial "trash" film director John Waters. He starred in such films as Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Multiple Maniacs, in which he typically played exotically-dressed, sophisticated perverts...

, Mary Vivian Pearce
Mary Vivian Pearce
Mary Vivian Pearce is an American actress. She has worked primarily in the films of John Waters.Pearce is the childhood best friend of John Waters and has appeared as an actress in all of his films. Because of her work with Waters, she is considered one of the Dreamlanders, Waters' ensemble of...

, Mink Stole
Mink Stole
Nancy Paine Stoll better known by the stage name Mink Stole, is an American actress from Baltimore, Maryland. She began her career working for director John Waters, having appeared in all of his feature films to date...

, Danny Mills, Cookie Mueller
Cookie Mueller
Dorothy Karen "Cookie" Mueller was an underground American actress, writer and Dreamlander, who starred in many of filmmaker John Waters' early films, including Multiple Maniacs,...

, and Edith Massey
Edith Massey
Edith Massey was an American actress and singer. Massey was best known for her appearances in a series of movies by director John Waters...

. Produced on a budget of only $10,000, it was mostly shot on weekends in Phoenix
Phoenix, Maryland
Phoenix is an affluent unincorporated community located in Baltimore County in the State of Maryland in the United States of America. It is located at latitude 39°30'59" North, longitude 76°36'59" West...

, a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland. After screenings at universities across the U.S. including Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

 in 1973, the film was distributed theatrically by Saliva Films, and later by New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...

 and became a nationally known film.

Since its release it has had a rather devoted cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...

 and is one of Waters' most famous or downright notorious films due to some shocking scenes and the wide range of perverse, taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...

 acts performed in the film. In 1997, for the 25th anniversary of the 1972 premiere, the film was re-released. The new version featured an improved stereo soundtrack (which, unlike the original, was made available to the general public, on compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

), and after the end of the original film, the new version contained a brief video commentary by Waters, plus a few scenes cut
Deleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...

 from the original release. The re-release was rated NC-17 by the Motion Picture Association of America
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. , originally the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , was founded in 1922 and is designed to advance the business interests of its members...

; this edition was later released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

.

The film came in at #29 on the list of 50 Films to See Before You Die
50 Films to See Before You Die
50 Films to See Before You Die was a television programme first shown on Channel 4 on Saturday 22 July 2006, to celebrate the relaunch of Film4 as a free-to-air TV channel available to digital terrestrial homes in the United Kingdom. It consisted of a list of 50 films compiled by film critics,...

on a show in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

Plot

Divine lives under the pseudonym "Babs Johnson" with her simple-minded, egg-loving mother Edie (Edith Massey
Edith Massey
Edith Massey was an American actress and singer. Massey was best known for her appearances in a series of movies by director John Waters...

), delinquent son Crackers (Danny Mills), and voyeuristic
Voyeurism
In clinical psychology, voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature....

 traveling companion Cotton (Mary Vivian Pearce
Mary Vivian Pearce
Mary Vivian Pearce is an American actress. She has worked primarily in the films of John Waters.Pearce is the childhood best friend of John Waters and has appeared as an actress in all of his films. Because of her work with Waters, she is considered one of the Dreamlanders, Waters' ensemble of...

). They reside in a mobile home
Mobile home
Mobile homes or static caravans are prefabricated homes built in factories, rather than on site, and then taken to the place where they will be occupied...

, in front of which can be found a pair of eponymous plastic pink flamingos
Plastic flamingo
Pink plastic flamingos are one of the most famous of lawn ornaments in the United States, along with the garden gnome and other such ornamentation....

. The trailer is off Philpot Road in Phoenix
Phoenix, Maryland
Phoenix is an affluent unincorporated community located in Baltimore County in the State of Maryland in the United States of America. It is located at latitude 39°30'59" North, longitude 76°36'59" West...

, a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland. After learning that Divine has been named "the filthiest person alive" by a tabloid paper, wealthy rivals Connie (Mink Stole
Mink Stole
Nancy Paine Stoll better known by the stage name Mink Stole, is an American actress from Baltimore, Maryland. She began her career working for director John Waters, having appeared in all of his feature films to date...

) and Raymond Marble (David Lochary
David Lochary
David Crawford Lochary was one of the regular "Dreamlander" actors in early films of the controversial "trash" film director John Waters. He starred in such films as Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Multiple Maniacs, in which he typically played exotically-dressed, sophisticated perverts...

) set out to destroy the tight-knit family but come undone in the process.

The Marbles run an "adoption clinic", which is actually a black market baby ring. They kidnap young women, have them impregnated by their homosexual manservant, Channing (Channing Wilroy
Channing Wilroy
Channing Wilroy is an American film actor who has appeared in seven films by John Waters. His first film role was the character Channing, the manservant in the film Pink Flamingos...

), and sell their babies to lesbian couples. The proceeds are used to finance a network of dealers selling heroin in inner-city elementary schools. Raymond also gets money by exposing himself
Exhibitionism
Exhibitionism refers to a desire or compulsion to expose parts of one's body – specifically the genitals or buttocks of a man or woman, or the breasts of a woman – in a public or semi-public circumstance, in crowds or groups of friends or acquaintances, or to strangers...

 (with large kielbasa
Kielbasa
Kielbasa, kołbasa, kobasa, kovbasa, kobasa, kobasi, and kubasa are common North American anglicizations for a type of Eastern European sausage. Synonyms include Polish sausage, Ukrainian sausage, etc...

 weiners tied to his penis) to unsuspecting women in a park and stealing their purses when they flee. The Marbles send a spy named Cookie (Cookie Mueller
Cookie Mueller
Dorothy Karen "Cookie" Mueller was an underground American actress, writer and Dreamlander, who starred in many of filmmaker John Waters' early films, including Multiple Maniacs,...

) to the trailer in the guise of what Crackers thinks is a date. In one of the film's most infamous scenes, he has sex with her while crushing a live chicken between them as Cotton looks on voyeuristically. Cookie then informs the Marbles about Divine's real identity, her whereabouts, and her family, as well as information about her upcoming birthday party.

The Marbles send human feces
Feces
Feces, faeces, or fæces is a waste product from an animal's digestive tract expelled through the anus or cloaca during defecation.-Etymology:...

 to Divine as a birthday "gift" with a card addressing her as "Fatso" and proclaiming themselves "The Filthiest People Alive". Worried her title has been seized, Divine proclaims whoever sent the package must die and her two associates agree. Meanwhile, at the Marbles, Channing dresses up as Connie and Raymond, wearing Connie's clothes and imitating their earlier overheard conversations. When the Marbles return home, they catch Channing imitating them and react with outrage, firing him and locking him in a closet until they can return from their chores and kick him out for good. The birthday party begins as the Marbles arrive to spy on it. They witness a topless dancing woman with a snake, a contortionist who "lip sync
Lip sync
Lip sync, lip-sync, lip-synch is a technical term for matching lip movements with sung or spoken vocals...

s" a song with his exposed anus, and the gifts Divine receives, such as lice shampoo, a pig's head, and an axe. One of the guests, the Egg Man (Paul Swift
Paul Swift
Paul Swift was an American film actor.-Career:Between 1970 and 1977 he appeared in roles in four of the early feature films directed by John Waters. He additionally appeared as himself in two documentary films....

), who delivers eggs to Edie daily, confesses his love for her and proposes marriage. She accepts his proposal and he carries Edie off in a wheelbarrow for a honeymoon around the egg industry. The Marbles, disgusted by the reveling, call the police, but this proves unsuccessful as Divine and the other partygoers kill the cops. Divine hacks up their bodies with the axe and the revelers eat them
Cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...

.

After the party ends, Divine and Crackers head to the Marbles' house (they received the address from an offscreen helper, the local gossip Patty Hitler) where they lick and rub everything in their house to spread their "filthiness", which excites them to the point of engaging in oral sex
Oral sex
Oral sex is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a sex partner by the use of the mouth, tongue, teeth or throat. Cunnilingus refers to oral sex performed on females while fellatio refer to oral sex performed on males. Anilingus refers to oral stimulation of a person's anus...

. Licking the furniture also causes it to "reject" the Marbles when they return home: when they try to sit down, the cushions fly up, throwing them to the floor. Divine and Crackers find Channing in a closet where he protests about his treatment by the Marbles, but they are not sympathetic as they tie him up and take him to the basement where the two pregnant girls are held. They free both girls and hand them a knife so they can emasculate
Emasculation
Emasculation is the removal of the genitalia of a male, notably the penis and/or the testicles.By extension, the word has also come to mean to render a male less of a man, or to make a male feel less of a man by humiliation. This metaphorical usage of the word is much more common than the...

 him.

Meanwhile, Connie and Raymond burn Divine's beloved trailer to the ground. Afterwards, Crackers, Cotton, and Divine find the trailer reduced to flame and ash. This is the last straw for Divine, and soon after Connie and Raymond find that Channing has bled to death and the two girls are gone, Divine takes them hostage at gunpoint. She then calls the local media to witness the Marbles' trial and execution, as she proclaims her belief in "filth politics":
Divine holds a "kangaroo court
Kangaroo court
A kangaroo court is "a mock court in which the principles of law and justice are disregarded or perverted".The outcome of a trial by kangaroo court is essentially determined in advance, usually for the purpose of ensuring conviction, either by going through the motions of manipulated procedure or...

", asks Cotton and Crackers for testimony, and sentences the bound and gagged Marbles to death for "first-degree stupidity" and "assholism". They tie the Marbles to a tree, coating them in tar and feathers
Tarring and feathering
Tarring and feathering is a physical punishment, used to enforce unofficial justice or revenge. It was used in feudal Europe and its colonies in the early modern period, as well as the early American frontier, mostly as a type of mob vengeance .-Description:In a typical tar-and-feathers attack, the...

. Divine then shoots them in the head and the media leave shortly afterward, satisfied with their scoop of a "live homicide
Homicide
Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...

". Divine, Crackers, and Cotton talk about where to base their seat of operations next and they enthusiastically decide to relocate to Boise, Idaho
Boise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...

.

The infamous ending opens as Crackers, Cotton, and Divine walk down the street, where they spot a dog and its owner. The dog defecates
Defecation
Defecation is the final act of digestion by which organisms eliminate solid, semisolid or liquid waste material from the digestive tract via the anus. Waves of muscular contraction known as peristalsis in the walls of the colon move fecal matter through the digestive tract towards the rectum...

 on the sidewalk, and Divine sits down next to it. She takes the feces in her hand and puts it in her mouth
Coprophagia
Coprophagia or coprophagy is the consumption of feces, from the Greek κόπρος copros and φαγεῖν phagein . Many animal species practice coprophagia as a matter of course; other species do not normally consume feces but may do so under unusual conditions...

, proving as the narrator states, she is "not only the filthiest person in the world, but is also the world's filthiest actress".

Cast

  • John Waters
    John Waters (filmmaker)
    John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...

     (narrator
    Narrator
    A narrator is, within any story , the fictional or non-fictional, personal or impersonal entity who tells the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for...

    ) as Mr. J
  • Divine as Divine / Babs Johnson
  • David Lochary
    David Lochary
    David Crawford Lochary was one of the regular "Dreamlander" actors in early films of the controversial "trash" film director John Waters. He starred in such films as Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Multiple Maniacs, in which he typically played exotically-dressed, sophisticated perverts...

     as Raymond Marble
  • Mink Stole
    Mink Stole
    Nancy Paine Stoll better known by the stage name Mink Stole, is an American actress from Baltimore, Maryland. She began her career working for director John Waters, having appeared in all of his feature films to date...

     as Connie Marble
  • Edith Massey
    Edith Massey
    Edith Massey was an American actress and singer. Massey was best known for her appearances in a series of movies by director John Waters...

     as Edie
  • Danny Mills as Crackers
  • Mary Vivian Pearce
    Mary Vivian Pearce
    Mary Vivian Pearce is an American actress. She has worked primarily in the films of John Waters.Pearce is the childhood best friend of John Waters and has appeared as an actress in all of his films. Because of her work with Waters, she is considered one of the Dreamlanders, Waters' ensemble of...

     as Cotton
  • Cookie Mueller
    Cookie Mueller
    Dorothy Karen "Cookie" Mueller was an underground American actress, writer and Dreamlander, who starred in many of filmmaker John Waters' early films, including Multiple Maniacs,...

     as Cookie
  • Channing Wilroy
    Channing Wilroy
    Channing Wilroy is an American film actor who has appeared in seven films by John Waters. His first film role was the character Channing, the manservant in the film Pink Flamingos...

     as Channing
  • Paul Swift
    Paul Swift
    Paul Swift was an American film actor.-Career:Between 1970 and 1977 he appeared in roles in four of the early feature films directed by John Waters. He additionally appeared as himself in two documentary films....

     as The Egg Man
  • Susan Walsh
    Susan Walsh
    Susan Walsh was an American actress. She worked primarily in the films of John Waters. Because of her work with Waters, she is considered one of the Dreamlanders, Waters' ensemble of regular cast and crew members.-Biography:...

     as Suzie
  • Linda Olgierson as Linda
  • Pat Moran
    Pat Moran
    Patrick Joseph Moran was an American catcher and manager in Major League Baseball. As a manager, he led two teams to their first-ever modern-era National League championships: the 1915 Philadelphia Phillies and the 1919 Cincinnati Reds...

     as Patty Hitler
    Adolf Hitler
    Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

  • Steve Yeager as Nat Curzan
  • George Figgs
    George Figgs
    George Figgs is an American actor and projectionist. He began his career portrayingcharacters in the early films of John Waters. Because of his work with Waters, he is considered one of the Dreamlanders, Waters' ensemble of regular cast and crew members.Figgs is a film historian interested in...

     as Bongo player
  • Elizabeth Coffey
    Elizabeth Coffey
    Elizabeth Coffey is an American actress. She had notable roles in two of the early films of John Waters. Coffey is a post-operative transsexual woman....

     as Chick with a dick
    Shemale
    Shemale is a term used in sex work to describe trans women with male genitalia and augmented female breasts from breast augmentation and/or use of hormones...

  • Anonymous (uncredited) as The Singing Asshole


The actor who plays the Singing Asshole, who performs at Divine's party, is not credited, and has remained anonymous at his own request.

Soundtrack

The film used a number of mainly single B-sides and a few hits of the late '50s/early '60s, sourced from John Waters' record collection when he made the film. They were released as a soundtrack CD in 1997 on the 25th anniversary release of the film on DVD.
  1. "The Swag" - Link Wray
    Link Wray
    Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and occasional singer....

     and His Ray Men
  2. "Intoxica" - The Centurions
    The Centurions
    The Centurions were an American surf rock band from Newport Beach, California, active in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In recent times, they are best known for their recording "Bullwinkle Part II", a dark and saxy surf tune from their eponymous album. This tune was featured in Quentin...

  3. "Jim Dandy
    Jim Dandy (song)
    "Jim Dandy" is a song written by Lincoln Chase, and was first recorded by American R&B singer LaVern Baker in 1956. It reached the top of the R&B chart and #17 on the pop charts in the U.S...

    " - LaVern Baker
    LaVern Baker
    LaVern Baker was an American rhythm and blues singer, who had several hit records on the pop chart in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her most successful records were "Tweedlee Dee" , "Jim Dandy" , and "I Cried a Tear" .-Early life:She was born Delores LaVern Baker in Chicago, Illinois...

  4. "I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent" - Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers
  5. "The Girl Can't Help It
    The Girl Can't Help It
    The Girl Can't Help It is a 1956 comedy musical film starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, and Edmond O'Brien. It was produced and directed by Frank Tashlin, with a screenplay adapted by Tashlin and Herbert Baker from an uncredited novel Do Re Me by Garson Kanin...

    " - Little Richard
    Little Richard
    Richard Wayne Penniman , known by the stage name Little Richard, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, recording artist, and actor, considered key in the transition from rhythm and blues to rock and roll in the 1950s. He was also the first artist to put the funk in the rock and roll beat and...

  6. "Ooh! Look-a-There, Ain't She Pretty?
    Joey's Song
    "Joey's Song" was a 1959 release for Bill Haley & His Comets. It was one of the band's last successful commercial releases. The song only made #46 on the Billboard Charts and #35 on Cashbox, however the song did make #1 in Australia for 8 weeks from December 12, 1959 to January 30, 1960 based on...

    " - Bill Haley & His Comets
    Bill Haley & His Comets
    Bill Haley & His Comets was an American rock and roll band that was founded in 1952 and continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band, also known by the names Bill Haley and The Comets and Bill Haley's Comets , was the earliest group of white musicians to bring rock and roll to the attention of...

  7. "Chicken Grabber" - The Nighthawks
    The Nighthawks
    The Nighthawks are an American blues and roots music band, based in Washington, D.C. The Nighthawks currently are Mark Wenner , Paul Bell , Johnny Castle , and Mark Stutso...

  8. "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby" - The Tune Weavers
  9. "Pink Champagne" - The Tyrones
    The Tyrones
    The Tyrones were a popular Philadelphia rock and roll group of the 50s run by Tyrone DeNittis and featuring George Lesser that recorded a number of hit songs including "Blast Off" and "I'm Shook" and appeared singing "Blast Off" in the film Let's Rock. Sponsored in part by Bill Haley, the Tyrones...

  10. "Surfin' Bird
    Surfin' Bird
    "Surfin' Bird" is a song performed by the American surf rock band The Trashmen; it is also the name of the album that featured this hit single. It was released in 1963 and reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100...

    " - The Trashmen
    The Trashmen
    The Trashmen are a rock and roll band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1962. The group's original lineup was Tony Andreason on lead guitar and vocals, Dal Winslow on guitar and vocals, Steve Wahrer on drums and vocals, and Bob Reed on bass guitar...

  11. "Riot in Cell Block #9" - The Robins
    The Coasters
    The Coasters are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group that had a string of hits in the late 1950s. Beginning with "Searchin'" and "Young Blood", their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team of Leiber and Stoller...

  12. "(How Much is) That Doggie in the Window" - Patti Page
    Patti Page
    Clara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music. She was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s, and has sold over 100 million records...



The song "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby" is used as a replacement for "Sixteen Candles
Sixteen Candles (song)
"16 Candles" is a 1958 song performed by The Crests and written by Luther Dixon and Allyson R. Khent.-Tracklisting:7" Vinyl# "16 Candles"# "Beside You"Single originally released in 1958 on Coed Records # 506-Chart performance:...

", which appeared in the original 1972 cut of the film. (For the 1997 reissue, "Sixteen Candles" could not be used in the film or the soundtrack due to copyright problems.) The original version of Pink Flamingos also used a brief excerpt of Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....

's The Rite of Spring
The Rite of Spring
The Rite of Spring, original French title Le sacre du printemps , is a ballet with music by Igor Stravinsky; choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky; and concept, set design and costumes by Nicholas Roerich...

, which was removed for the re-release.

DVD release

Pink Flamingos was released in the John Waters Collection DVD box set along with the NC-17 version of A Dirty Shame
A Dirty Shame
A Dirty Shame is a 2004 satirical sex comedy written and directed by John Waters, and starring Tracey Ullman, Selma Blair, Johnny Knoxville, Chris Isaak, Suzanne Shepherd, and Mink Stole.-Plot:...

, Desperate Living
Desperate Living
Desperate Living is a 1977 American crime comedy fantasy horror film directed, produced, written, and photographed by Baltimore, Maryland filmmaker John Waters starring Liz Renay, Jean Hill, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, and Mary Vivian Pearce.-Plot:...

, Female Trouble
Female Trouble
Female Trouble is a 1974 dark comedy film co-composed, filmed, co-edited, written, produced, and directed by John Waters starring Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, Michael Potter, Cookie Mueller, and Susan Walsh....

, Hairspray, Pecker
Pecker (film)
Pecker is a 1998 comedy-drama film written and directed by John Waters and starring Edward Furlong and Christina Ricci. Like all Waters' films, it was filmed and set in Baltimore; this film in the Hampden neighborhood....

, and Polyester
Polyester (film)
Polyester is a 1981 comedy film directed, produced, and written by John Waters, and starring Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, and Mink Stole...

. It was also released in a 2004 special edition with audio commentaries
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...

 and deleted scene
Deleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...

s as introduced by Waters in the 25th anniversary re-release (see below).

Alternate versions

  • The 25th anniversary re-release version contains a re-recorded music soundtrack, re-mixed for stereo, plus 15 minutes of deleted scene
    Deleted scene
    In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...

    s following the film, introduced by John Waters.
  • Because of this film's explicit nature, it has been edited for content on many occasions throughout the world. In 1973, the U.S. screened version edited out most of the blowjob scene, which was later restored on the 25th anniversary DVD. Canadian censors recently restored five of the seven scenes that were originally edited in that country. A town on Long Island, New York banned the film altogether. The Japanese laserdisc version contains a blur superimposed over all displays of pubic hair. Prints also exist that were censored by the Maryland Censor Board.
  • The first UK video release of Pink Flamingos in November 1981 (prior to BBFC
    British Board of Film Classification
    The British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...

     video regulation requirements) was completely uncut. It was issued by Palace as part of a package of Waters films they had acquired from New Line Cinema. The package included Mondo Trasho
    Mondo Trasho
    Mondo Trasho is a 1969 16mm mondo black comedy film by Baltimore, Maryland filmmaker John Waters starring Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, David Lochary and Mink Stole. It contains very little dialogue, the story being told mostly through musical cues.-Plot:...

    (double-billed with Sex Madness), Multiple Maniacs
    Multiple Maniacs
    Multiple Maniacs is a 1970 comedy film by American cult filmmaker John Waters; his second feature film. The film features several actors who were part of the Dreamland acting troupe for Waters' films, including Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, David Lochary, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, and Cookie...

    (double-billed with Cocaine Fiends), Desperate Living
    Desperate Living
    Desperate Living is a 1977 American crime comedy fantasy horror film directed, produced, written, and photographed by Baltimore, Maryland filmmaker John Waters starring Liz Renay, Jean Hill, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, and Mary Vivian Pearce.-Plot:...

    and Female Trouble
    Female Trouble
    Female Trouble is a 1974 dark comedy film co-composed, filmed, co-edited, written, produced, and directed by John Waters starring Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, Michael Potter, Cookie Mueller, and Susan Walsh....

    . The 1990 video re-release of Pink Flamingos (which required bbfc approval) was cut by three minutes and four seconds (3:04), the 1997 issue lost two minutes and forty-two seconds (2:42), and the pre-edited 1999 print by two minutes and eight seconds (2:08).
  • The 2009 Sydney Underground Film Festival
    Sydney Underground Film Festival
    The Sydney Underground Film Festival is an annual film festival that takes place in Sydney, Australia, and shows independent, experimental and arthouse films from Australia and abroad...

     screened the film in Odorama for the first time, using scratch 'n' sniff cards similar to the ones used in Waters' later work Polyester.

Audience participation

The film has a reputation as a midnight movie classic cult
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...

 with audience participation similar to The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...

.
  • The Funday Pawpet Show
    Funday PawPet Show
    Funday PawPet Show is an Internet show that is cast by puppet characters. It was created by Randy "Yappy" Fox in November 1999 and is broadcast over the Internet on Sunday nights from 16:00 to 20:00 EST from his home in Kissimmee, Florida. Before November 25, 2007 the show aired from 19:00 to 23:00...

    holds what is called the "Pink Flamingo Challenge," in which the ending to the film is played to the audience while they eat a (preferably chocolate) confection. Videos of the show are forbidden from showing the clip, only the reaction of the audience.
  • People watching it in the theater often received free "Pink Phlegmingo" vomit bags.

Ban

The film was initially banned
Banned films
For nearly the entire history of film production, certain films have been banned by film censorship or review organizations for political or moral reasons...

 in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, as well as in some provinces in Canada and in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. It was eventually released on VHS in Australia in the late 1980s with a X rating, but distribution of the video has since been discontinued. The 1997 version was cut by the distributor to achieve an R18+ after it was also refused classification. No submissions of the film have been made since, but it has been said that one of the reasons for which it was banned (as a film showing unsimulated sex cannot be rated X in Australia if it also features violence, so the highest a film such as Pink Flamingos could be rated is R18+) would now not apply, given that the depiction of unsimulated sex was passed within the R18+ rating for Romance
Romance (1999 film)
Romance is a 1999 French movie written and directed by Catherine Breillat. It stars Caroline Ducey, pornographic actor Rocco Siffredi, Sagamore Stévenin and François Berléand. The film features explicit copulation scenes, especially one showing Caroline Ducey's coitus with Rocco Siffredi...

in 1999, two years following Pink Flamingos re-release.

Proposed sequel

Waters had considered making a sequel
Sequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...

, titled Flamingos Forever, for which he had written a script. It takes place fifteen years after the action of the original film, showing Babs' return to Baltimore with Cotton, Crackers, Miss Edie, and her new grandson, Duane, an eight-year-old transvestite
Transvestism
Transvestism is the practice of cross-dressing, which is wearing clothing traditionally associated with the opposite sex. Transvestite refers to a person who cross-dresses; however, the word often has additional connotations. -History:Although the word transvestism was coined as late as the 1910s,...

. Their foe in this film is Vera Venninger, Connie Marble's sister, and her husband, Wilbur, a necrophile
Necrophilia
Necrophilia, also called thanatophilia or necrolagnia, is the sexual attraction to corpses,It is classified as a paraphilia by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. The word is artificially derived from the ancient Greek words: νεκρός and φιλία...

 who runs a mortuary. The film would have ended with the death of Divine, who would travel to Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...

 while riding upon a giant turd. Troma Films
Troma Entertainment
Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974.The company produces low-budget independent movies that play on 1950s horror with elements of farce...

 offered to finance the picture but it was never made, as Divine refused to be involved, and in 1984, Edith Massey
Edith Massey
Edith Massey was an American actress and singer. Massey was best known for her appearances in a series of movies by director John Waters...

 died.

After reading the script, Divine had refused to be involved as he believed that it would not be a suitable career move, for he had begun to focus on more serious, male roles in films like Trouble in Mind
Trouble in Mind
Trouble in Mind may refer to:* Trouble in Mind , 1985 neo-noir* "Trouble in Mind" , 1926 blues standard* Trouble in Mind , 1955 drama by Alice Childress...

. According to Divine's manager, Bernard Jay, "What was, in the early seventies, a mind-blowing exercise in Poor Taste, was now, we both believed, sheer Bad Taste. Divi[ne] felt the public would never accept such an infantile effort in shock tactics some fifteen years later and by people fast approaching middle age." Waters was also uncomfortable with Troma's editing facilities, which at that time were Moviolas from the very early days of film editing. The screenplay to this work is available with those of Pink Flamingos and Desperate Living in a collection entitled "Trash Trio".

See also

  • Cult film
    Cult film
    A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...

  • Midnight movies
    Midnight movies
    The term midnight movie is rooted in the practice that emerged in the 1950s of local television stations around the United States airing low-budget genre films as late-night programming, often with a host delivering ironic asides...

  • List of banned films
  • Divine Trash
    Divine Trash
    Divine Trash is a 1998 documentary film directed by Steve Yeager about the life and work of John Waters.-Cast:*Steve Yeager*John Waters*Robert Shaye*Mink Stole*Divine *David Lochary *Edith Massey...

  • In Bad Taste
    In Bad Taste
    In Bad Taste is the second documentary film from Steve Yeager, who had first made Divine Trash in 1998. The documentary follows the cinematic ideas of American filmmaker John Waters, and includes interviews with Waters and his ensemble cast, known as the Dreamlanders.-Cast:*Steve Yeager*John...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK