My Review of Multiple Maniacs (1970)

 

Written And Directed by John Waters 

Lady Divine: "And you're still the most beautiful woman in the world! Nothing can change that!"

I had something of a challenge with Mondo Trasho and in a lot of ways, this follow up had some similar issues. Fortunately, it's a talkie, so no intrusive music to be had. That somewhat helped with this one.

Once again, we've got Divine leading proceedings and here, she went by Lady Divine. Divine ran The Cavalcade of Perversion. It's as depraved as you'd expect it to be. There's even a character called the Puke Eater. Oh and Divine's rather murderous in this one when she wasn't stealing from customers too.

She's also got a man named Mr David (David Lochary). Needless to say, he's been cheating on her with another woman named Bonnie (Mary Vivian Pearce) and before she can confront them, she's sexually assaulted by two glue sniffers. Yes, it's a rather grim display here.

Throw in a daughter named Cookie (Cookie Mueller) and the latter's boyfriend, Steve (Paul Swift) and maybe it's no wonder that Divine turned to lesbianism with a woman named Mink (Mink Stole). They met in church and certainly committed unholy acts of love making.

The rest of the movie then just upped the body count. David and Bonnie murdered Cookie and had Ricky (Rick Morrow) tied up and gagged. Ricky was later killed by Mink. Mink was eventually killed by Divine and the latter killed both David and Bonnie. Yes, there's a high body count on display here.

I'm not sure the movie was totally successful in showing how Divine got so crazy but what she did to David was probably the most gruesome act in the film. Divine's own fate on the other hand was a pretty daft but oddly humourous way to give her a comeuppance of sorts.

- I watched the Criterion release of this with commentary from John Waters. That proved to be insightful.

- Other players in this movie included Edith Massey, George Figgs and Michael Renner Jr.

- Standout music: There's a memorable use of America The Beautiful at the end of the movie.

- Chronology: It was filmed in Baltimore and presumably set there too.

I'd say marginally better than the movie that came before it. Multiple Maniacs certainly didn't hold back on the depravity or outright silliness on display.

Rating: 6 out of 10