Female Trouble (Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray)

Glamour has never been more grotesque than in Female Trouble, which injects the Hollywood melodrama with anarchic decadence. Divine, director John Waters larger-than-life muse, engulfs the screen with charisma as Dawn Davenport who progresses from a teenage nightmare hell-bent on getting cha-cha heels for Christmas to a fame monster whose egomaniacal impulses land her in the electric chair in the ultimate expression of the film's lurid mantra, Crime is beauty. Shot in Baltimore on 16 mm, with a cast drawn from Waters beloved troupe of regulars, the Dreamlanders (including Mink Stole, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Edith Massey, and Cookie Mueller), this film, the director's favorite of his work with Divine, comes to life through the tinsel-toned vision of production designer Vincent Peranio and costume designer/makeup artist Van Smith. An endlessly quotable fan favorite, Female Trouble offers up perverse pleasures that never fail to satisfy.

Starring: Edith Massey, Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Betty Woods, Channing Wilroy, Cookie Mueller, Danny Mills, Ed Peranio, Elizabeth Coffey, George Figgs, George Hulse, Hilary Taylor, Michael Potter, Paul Swift, Roland Hertz, Sally Turner, Seymour Avigdor, Susan Lowe, Susan Walsh

Director: John Waters