A group of degenerate misfits mount a traveling show called the Cavalcade of Perversion, which goes from town to town with the specific intent of upsetting middle-class squares. Complications ensue when fearsome and ferocious ringleader Lady Divine (the one and only Divine in peak crazed form) gets whipped up into a bloodthirsty rage after she discovers that her smarmy boyfriend Mr. David (played to the slimy hilt by David Lochary) has been cheating on her.
The second feature by John Waters naturally serves as a gloriously crude, lewd, and rude upraised cinematic middle finger that's done as a deliberately appalling affront to good taste, proper decorum, and basic moral decency. However, despite such blithely disgusting moments as the infamously blasphemous rosary job scene and the outrageous climactic rape committed by a giant lascivious lobster, this picture proves to be way too gleeful in its giddy depravity to be considered genuinely offensive. Moreover, the enthusiastic cast attack the raunchy material with lip-smacking aplomb: Mary Vivian Pearce as the eager Bonnie, Mink Stole as fawning groupie Mink, Cookie Mueller as Divine's ditsy tramp daughter Cookie, and Edith Massey as helpful barmaid Edith. The choice rockabilly soundtrack hits the right-on groovy spot. A total scuzzy hoot.
The second feature by John Waters naturally serves as a gloriously crude, lewd, and rude upraised cinematic middle finger that's done as a deliberately appalling affront to good taste, proper decorum, and basic moral decency. However, despite such blithely disgusting moments as the infamously blasphemous rosary job scene and the outrageous climactic rape committed by a giant lascivious lobster, this picture proves to be way too gleeful in its giddy depravity to be considered genuinely offensive. Moreover, the enthusiastic cast attack the raunchy material with lip-smacking aplomb: Mary Vivian Pearce as the eager Bonnie, Mink Stole as fawning groupie Mink, Cookie Mueller as Divine's ditsy tramp daughter Cookie, and Edith Massey as helpful barmaid Edith. The choice rockabilly soundtrack hits the right-on groovy spot. A total scuzzy hoot.