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Polyester-1981

Director John Waters

Starring Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey

Scott’s Review #1,527

Reviewed April 6, 2026

Grade: A-

Polyester (1981) is the film that brought raunchy director John Waters to the mainstream, some well-deserved respectability, and what better timing than the 1980s, a time of conservatism.

To many, the film is vile, outlandish, raunchy, and numerous other adjectives, steering many viewers away from even seeing it. But compared to his earlier works of filth, such as Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974), Polyester is quite tame and accessible.

In fact, the film is one of New Line Cinema’s earliest releases.

I see Polyester as a bridge between his early 1970s works and the sentimentality of his later works.

Waters’ stalwarts like Divine, Edith Massey, Mink Stole, and others return to the fold to wreak havoc on virgin film goers who may not be familiar with his dark comic situations.

An attention-grabbing gimmick called Odorama, in which moviegoers can smell what they are viewing on-screen using special scratch-and-sniff cards, is a unique add-on to the film.

Scents like roses, pizza, and farts are a few examples.

In the story, a frustrated middle-class housewife, Francine Fishpaw (Divine), tries to maintain her sanity while managing her dysfunctional household. Her husband, Elmer (David Samson), the owner of a controversial adult theater, is sleeping with his secretary, Sandra (Mink Stole).

Meanwhile, her delinquent teen son, Dexter (Ken King), and pregnant teen daughter, Lulu (Mary Garlington), have problems of their own.

But when Francine meets handsome and wealthy Todd Tomorrow (Tab Hunter), the owner of a theater specializing in art films, her life takes a positive turn.

The biggest change from Waters’ previous works, which were always set in his hometown of Baltimore, is that the setting is a more upscale suburban neighborhood rather than the rank slums of downtown.

The Fishpaws reside in a powder blue house with a paved driveway and shutters. While not a mansion, it’s respectable, and they forge a decent lifestyle. Francine dreams away the days while dutifully cooking and cleaning for her husband and fixing his evening cocktail, while enduring jokes about her weight.

The story is told from Francine’s perspective, and she is joined by her best friend and former maid, Cuddles (Massey), who is now wealthy after an enormous sum of money was left to her by a former client.

The ladies chat over fattening cake, discussing Francine’s numerous problems and her scheme to catch her philandering husband in the act of cheating.

Francine’s pale blue phone rings constantly with one nuisance after another.

The film is a satire of suburban life in the early 1980s, involving topics such as divorce, abortion, adultery, alcoholism, racial stereotypes, foot fetishism, and the religious right.

Naturally, in wacky form.

My favorite sequence comes when a religious right group prances around Francine’s house protesting Elmer’s pornographic theatre. When one woman smacks Francine, she proudly proclaims, ‘That’s from Jesus.

Later, when on a shopping trip to try on dresses with Cuddles, a hungover Francine pukes in her handbag to the horror of a stuffy saleswoman.

It makes a mockery of religion, particularly Catholicism, as when wicked nuns enter the story in relation to a pregnant Lu-Lu. Shown as ridiculous, they are able to ‘reform’ Lu-Lu into the straight and narrow.

Polyester is filled with terrific moments tamer than Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, but nonetheless laugh-out-loud and raucous.

For those curious about a John Waters film, left of center from the normal yet important Hairspray (1988), but still nicely subversive, Polyester (1981) is a great choice.

Desperate Living-1977

Director John Waters

Starring Mink Stole, Liz Renay, Susan Lowe

Top 250 Films #225

Scott’s Review #534

Reviewed December 4, 2016

Grade: B

Desperate Living (1977) will not be everyone’s cup of tea. It is a raunchy, late-night comedy, similar to other John Waters-directed cult classics.

This one, however, suffers from the absence of Waters’ staple, Divine, who did not appear due to scheduling conflicts.

For this glaring omission, Desperate Living is not the greatest of the Waters films, but it is a fun experience all the same.

The film features choruses of political satire, specifically on fascism and the overthrow of the government.

Mink Stole (Peggy Gravel) takes on the lead role as a crazed, mentally unhinged, neurotic woman on the lam with her maid, Grizelda, after they accidentally cause the death of Peggy’s husband.

Peggy has been in and out of mental hospitals and is clearly off her rocker as she yells at neighbors about communism.

After an encounter with a lewd police officer, the duo is banished to Mortville, a town filled with outcasts and social deviants. They align with others in the town to overthrow the tyrannical Queen Carlotta, played by Waters fixture Edith Massey.

Carlotta plots to spread rabies throughout the community and is at war with her daughter, Princess Coo Coo.

The issue with Desperate Living is the absence of Divine, originally set to play Mole McHenry, a self-loathing female wrestler, determined to receive a sex change operation.

One imagines the Divine in this important role, which Susan Lowe, a capable star, played, but not the Divine. With Divine in the part, the hilarious possibilities are endless.

Mink Stole carries the movie well, but traditionally being a supporting player in Waters’s films, she is not quite the star the film needs to be a true success.

This is not to say that the film is a dud- it is entertaining and will please most Waters fans. It contains gross-out moments and vulgarity from the very first scene- as the opening credits roll, we see a roasted rat, daintily displayed on good china, on an eloquent dinner table, presumably to be served.

Later, Carlotta meets her fate by being roasted, pig style, on a spit with an apple in her mouth. Another character is executed by being shot in the anus. The offensive moments never end!

There also exists a quite controversial scene that I am surprised made the final cut. Peggy, already in a frazzled state due to a neighbor boy accidentally shooting out her bedroom window, is shocked to find another boy playing “doctor” with a little girl in her downstairs basement.

Both children are completely naked, leaving not much to the imagination. This scene is tough to watch as one wonders what the child actors thought of all of this.

I have never viewed another scene quite like this in a film.

Otherwise, Desperate Living is filled with cartoon-like characters, lots of sexually deviant leather men, grizzled men with facial hair, and other odd-looking characters who make up the community of Mortville.

Water’s set creations for the exterior scenes of the town are great using mainly cardboard and rubbish he found throughout Baltimore where the film was shot, the sets show a bleak yet colorful underworld.

Desperate Living (1977) is a raunchy good time with over-the-top acting, trash-filled moments, and laugh-out-loud fun.

The lack of any Divine makes it not the first offering to watch from the Waters collection. Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974) would take that honor.