John Waters in Douglas Sirk/Ross Hunter territory, with a bit of William Castle thrown in. It’s a melodrama about a long-suffering suburban housewife (Divine) – hubby runs a porno theatre and cheats with his secretary, mum taunts her, son is hooked on glue on stomping on feet, the daughter is a tramp who wants an abortion, the hunk down the road (Tab Hunter) is actually a louse.
Ocasionally this is tiresome, in part because there’s no real overall story, just a series of bad things happening to Divine (who is passive most of the time).
But some of it is hilarious eg drive in playing a triple feature of Maguerite Duras films – and Waters really goes there (eg abortion satire). Like the William Castle pictures, when watching it without the gimmicks you can’t help thinking ‘gee this would be better with the gimmick’ so you kind of feel like a second class citizen.
Hunter doesn’t strike the right note in his first few scenes but gradually grows more comfortable and he’s very well cast. (It's not a very big part - due to his fee being relatively expensive for Waters - and he doesn't appear for a while).
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