***

A riotously funny bad-taste epic from director John Waters, Baltimore's "Prince of Puke," this sick classic tells the depraved life story of obese criminal Dawn Davenport (Divine), from her bad-girl youth as a go-go dancer on Baltimore's infamous Block to her death in the electric chair. Mink Stole is terrific as Dawn's bratty daughter Taffy, conceived following a romp on a junkyard mattress with a fat derelict in soiled underpants (also played by Divine). Mary Vivian Pearce and David Lochary co-star as crazed owners of a beauty-parlor who are convinced that "crime equals beauty," and they take Dawn under their wings, forcing her to mainline liquid eyeliner to enhance her appeal. Edith Massey steals the film as Dawn's obsessive neighbor, Ida, who wants her nephew to be gay (because heterosexuals lead "sick and boring lives") and throws acid in Dawn's face when she marries him. A hilariously appalling film, Female Trouble is just as disgusting and far funnier than Waters' previous Pink Flamingos, if not as notorious.

 Excerpt from B+N located HERE

New Line

Region 1 - NTSC

1.81:1 Original Aspect Ratio

16X9 enhanced
Average Bitrate: 5.64 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

Dual-layered Blu-ray MPEG-4 AVC Video

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

New Line (The John Waters Collection, Volume 3)

The Criterion Collection Blu-ray

LPCM Audio English 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit
Commentary:

Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen anamorphic - 1.81:1

Edition Details:
• Director Commentary
• Theatrical Trailer (2:11)

DVD Release Date: October 2, 2001
2 discs in digipack

Chapters 24
 

Chapters: 13

Criterion include the 2004 audio commentary featuring director John Waters. Lady Devine runs 33-minutes. Presented by filmmaker and artist Anton Perich, the roundtable interview with director John Waters and his regular collaborators Divine, Mink Stole, and David Lochary excerpted here was conducted by columnist R. Couri Hay at Andy Warhol's Factory, and aired on Manhattan public-access television in 1975. Crime and Beauty runs 18-minutes and has interviews as outtakes from Jeffrey Schwarz's 2013 documentary I AM DIVINE, and features director John Waters; actors Susan Lowe, Mink Stole, George Figgs, and Mary Vivian Pearce; film critic Dennis Dermody; production designer Vincent Peranio; and production manager Pat Moran. There is 11-minutes of On-Set rare footage from the set of Female Trouble was shot by filmmaker Steve Yeager, who later made two documentaries about Divine and director John Waters, Divine Trash and In Bad Taste. Dreamlanders is a rare audio interview with costume designer and makeup artist Van Smith and was conducted by filmmaker Steve Yeager in 1974. There are also rare archival interviews with production manager Pat Moran, actor Mary Vivian Pearce, and costume designer and makeup artist Van Smith conducted by filmmaker Steve Yeager in 1974. Little Taffy is a 17-minute conversation between John Waters and actor Hilary Taylor took place in Baltimore in April 2018. John Waters and Dennis Lim runs 23-minutes and is a conversation between director John Waters and critic and programmer Dennis Lim filmed for the Criterion Collection in 2018. There are 1/4 hour's worth of Trims and Cut Scenes footage from work prints, film trims, and cut scenes from Female Trouble. Before now, the elements had been in director John Waters' attic for over forty years.

This film is a personal favorite of mine. Criterion have wisely chosen to release this film on Blu-ray with tons of extras, in addition to a wonderfully film-like 4K-restored transfer. Fair warning though, the sense of humor here is not for everyone. Female Trouble is in-your-face trash royalty, from a rarely shown region of America. Take out the comedy and its' closest cousin could arguably be Hooper's 'Texas Chain Saw Massacre', another masterpiece. I highly recommend this Blu-ray set!

 -Colin Zavitz