Tag Archives: Cookie Mueller

1981 Films, Comedy, Cookie Mueller, Dark Comedy, David Samson, Divine, Edith Massey, Jean Hill, John Waters, Ken King, Mary Garlington, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Satire, Tab Hunter

Polyester-1981

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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.

#165 Favorite Film, 1972 Films, Channing Wilroy, Comedy, Cookie Mueller, Danny Mills, Dark Comedy, David Lochary, Divine, Edith Massey, Independent, Independent Comedy, John Waters, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Paul Swift, Susan Walsh, Top 250 Films

Pink Flamingos-1972

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Pink Flamingos-1972

Director John Waters

Starring Divine, David Lochary, Mink Stole

Top 250 Films #165

Scott’s Review #359

70032618

Reviewed January 9, 2016

Grade: A

One of the truest and best late-night gross-out films of all time, Pink Flamingos (1972) breaks down barriers I never thought possible in film and contains one of the most vomit-inducing scenes ever to grace the movies.

The film is certainly one of a kind and will only be appreciated by a certain type of film-goer. Pink Flamingos is raw, entertaining, and must be seen to be believed.

Outrageous in every way and shot in a documentary style, the film features weird close-ups and amateurish camera angles, only adding to the fun.

I love the film.

In what director John Waters famously dubbed the “Trash Trilogy”, along with similar films Desperate Living and Female Trouble, Pink Flamingos has the dubious honor of being the best of the three.

Waters’ stalwart, Divine, plays Babs Johnson, an underground criminal who lives a meager existence in a trailer with her mentally challenged son, Crackers, and her bizarre, egg-obsessed mother, Edie (Massey). Babs’s companion, Cotton, joins them.

In an attempt to win the “Filthiest Person Alive” contest and usurp Babs from achieving this distinction. The Marbles (Mink Stole and David Lochary) set out to destroy her career.

Pink Flamingos is complete and utter over-the-top fare, but I have fallen in love with the film over the years.

Let’s say it is a type of film that is an acquired taste, and one will eventually revel in the madness or be disgusted with its bad taste.

Waters, a truly creative person, breaks new ground in filth. On a budget of no more than $10,000, it is impressive how he pulled this off.

The antics that Babs and the Marbles engage in are downright crude, but the extreme nature of the fun is exactly what is to love about the film. Hysterical is the character of Babs’s mother, Edie.

Confined to a crib and constantly inquiring about the Egg Man, she is obsessed with eggs and wants to eat nothing else. She eventually marries the Egg Man. The character is entertaining beyond belief.

The Marbles run a clinic in which they sell stolen babies to lesbian couples for cash.  When they send Babs a box of human excrement and a card that says “fatso”, the war between the two sides is on.

The highlight of the film is the main sequence in which Babs holds a birthday party. A male contortionist flexes his anus in rhythm to the song “Surfin’ Bird”, which may be the only film featuring an anus.

How Waters got away with some of this stuff is mind-blowing.

The most disturbing scene occurs at the very end, when Babs watches a dog do “its business” on the street and then picks up the excrement and eats it, revealing to the audience a toothy (and brown) smile.

Reportedly, Divine did this act. As the film ends, Babs truly is “The Filthiest Person Alive”.

Thanks to the genius of John Waters and Divine, and the superlative supporting cast, Pink Flamingos (1972) is a reminder that creativity and unique humor need not conform to a specific style or follow a road map.

Waters throws out any film criteria, instead creating a masterpiece of warped fun and disgust.

#168 Favorite Film, 1974 Films, Camp, Channing Wilroy, Comedy, Cookie Mueller, Dark Comedy, David Lochary, Divine, Edith Massey, Independent, Independent Comedy, John Waters, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Paul Swift, Susan Lowe, Susan Walsh, Top 250 Films

Female Trouble-1974

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Female Trouble-1974

Director John Waters

Starring Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce

Top 250 Films #168

Scott’s Review #146

70032612

Reviewed August 4, 2014

Grade: A

Female Trouble (1974) is a deliciously naughty treat by the famous Independent film legend, John Waters.

Not exactly family-friendly, it is a gem for those desiring more left-of-center fare with depravity and gross-out fun mixed in for good measure.

The film’s theme is “crime is beauty,” and it is dedicated to Manson family member Charles “Tex” Watson.

Meant for adult, late-night viewing, the film tells the story of female delinquent Dawn Davenport, who angrily leaves home one Christmas morning after not receiving her desired cha-cha heels as a Christmas present.

Her parents, religious freaks, disown her, and she is left to fend for herself on the streets of Baltimore.

The film then tells of her life story of giving birth and subsequently falling into a life of crime in the 1960s.  Her friends Chicklet and Concetta are in tow as they work various jobs and embark on a career of theft.

Female Trouble stars Waters’ regulars Divine, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, Cookie Mueller, and others.

Interestingly, Divine plays a dual role- Dawn Davenport (in drag, of course) and also the father of her bratty child, Earl Peterson.

Dawn and Earl have a less-than-romantic interlude on a dirty mattress on the side of the road when he picks her up hitchhiking, which results in the birth of Taffy.

Also featured is the hilarious feud between Dawn and her love interest’s (Gator) Aunt Ida, as the women engage in tactics such as acid throwing and chopping off of limbs as they constantly exact revenge on each other.

Favorite scenes include Dawn’s maniacal nightclub act, in which she performs an acrobatic routine and then begins firing a gun into the crowd. Another is of Dawn’s dinner party with Donald and Donna Dasher- serving a meal consisting of spaghetti and chips, Taffy’s tirade hilariously ruins the evening.

This film is not for the prudish, squeamish, or uptight crowd, but a ball for all open-minded, dirty fun-seekers. The film contains one over-the-top, hilarious scene after another.

The line “just cuz you got them big udders don’t make you somethin’ special” is a Waters classic.

Female Trouble is one of a series of outrageous cult classics featuring the legendary camp star Divine.

Not meant to be overanalyzed, or some might say, analyzed at all, Female Trouble (1974) is unabashedly trashy and makes no apologies for its outrageousness.

#225 Favorite Film, 1977 Films, Camp, Channing Wilroy, Comedy, Cookie Mueller, Dark Comedy, Edith Massey, Independent, Independent Comedy, Jean Hill, John Waters, Liz Renay, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Paul Swift, Susan Lowe, Top 250 Films

Desperate Living-1977

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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.