Desperate Living

1977
X
1h 30m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A neurotic society woman murders her husband with her maid's help; on the lam, they escape to Mortville, a homeless community ruled by a fascist queen.A neurotic society woman murders her husband with her maid's help; on the lam, they escape to Mortville, a homeless community ruled by a fascist queen.A neurotic society woman murders her husband with her maid's help; on the lam, they escape to Mortville, a homeless community ruled by a fascist queen.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
The Mortville extras are mostly homeless people who were bussed in for the day. The crew had to work fast to get shots of them before they wandered off.

Goofs
When Mole first meets Peggy and Grizelda she tells them that there are no toilets in Mortville, but at the lesbian bar there are toilets, where Peggy is harassed by the 'bathroom pervert'.

Quotes
Peggy Gravel: Hello? What number are you calling? You've dialed the wrong number! Sorry? What good is that? How can you ever repay the last thirty seconds you have stolen from my life? I hate you, your husband, your children, and your relatives!

Crazy credits
Desperate Living's opening credits appear beside an overhead shot of a formal table setting, in which a maid serves a cooked rat as the main course, which is salted and eaten.

Alternate versions
In Italy, the film was heavily dubbed, censored, and retitled "Punk Story."

Connections
Featured in Divine Waters (1985)

User reviews64

Review

Featured review

7/10

Classic Waters

This is Waters' second best movie, next to Pink Flamingos. There are so many memorable lines in this puke-fest that it's nearly impossible to list them all. The story and events are so repulsive and sick that I'd rather let them be a surprise. Desperate Living is quite funny, quite gross, and quite nonsensical. If you are looking to watch something that makes any form of sense whatsoever, this is not your movie. If you want stomach-churning grossness for the sake of stomach-churning grossness, juvenile acting, low-budget film-making, and line after line of hilarious dialog, then Desperate Living should please you. John Waters still hasn't topped this one or Pink Flamingos to date.