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Pink Flamingos is a 1972 American surrealist independent black comedy film[a] by John Waters.[3] It is part of what Waters has labelled the “Trash Trilogy”, which also includes Female Trouble (1974) and Desperate Living (1977).[3] The film stars the countercultural drag queen Divine as a criminal living under the name of Babs Johnson, who is proud to be “the filthiest person alive”. While living in a trailer with her mother Edie (Edith Massey), son Crackers (Danny Mills), and companion Cotton (Mary Vivian Pearce), Divine is confronted by the Marbles (David Lochary and Mink Stole), a pair of criminals envious of her reputation who try to outdo her in filth. The characters engage in several grotesque, bizarre, and explicitly crude situations, and upon the film’s re-release in 1997 it was rated NC-17 by the MPAA “for a wide range of perversions in explicit detail”. It was filmed in the vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland, where Waters and most of the cast and crew grew up.
Displaying the tagline “An exercise in poor taste”, Pink Flamingos is notorious for its “outrageousness”, nudity, profanity, and “pursuit of frivolity, scatology, sensationology [sic] and skewed epistemology”.[4] It features a “number of increasingly revolting scenes” that center on exhibitionism, voyeurism, sodomy, masturbation, gluttony, vomiting, rape, incest, murder, animal cruelty, cannibalism, zoophilia, castration, foot fetishism, and concludes, to the accompaniment of “How Much Is That Doggy in the Window?”, with Divine’s consumption of dog feces – “The real thing!” narrator Waters assures us. The film is considered a preliminary exponent of abject art.[5][6]
The film, at first semi-clandestine, has received a warm reception from film critics and, despite being banned in several countries, became a cult film in subsequent decades. In 2021, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.[7]
Plot
Notorious criminal Divine lives under the pseudonym “Babs Johnson” with her mother Edie, delinquent son Crackers, and traveling companion Cotton. They share a trailer on the outskirts of Phoenix, Maryland, next to a gazing ball and a pair of plastic pink flamingos. After learning that Divine has been dubbed “the filthiest person alive” by a tabloid paper, jealous rivals Connie and Raymond Marble attempt to usurp her title.
The Marbles run a black market baby ring: they kidnap young women, have them impregnated by their manservant Channing, and sell the babies to lesbian couples. The proceeds are used to finance pornography shops and a network of dealers selling heroin in inner-city elementary schools. Raymond also earns money by exposing himself—with a large kielbasa sausage or turkey neck tied to his penis—to women and stealing their purses when they flee. Later in the film, one of Raymond’s would-be targets, a trans woman, thwarts his scheme by exposing her breast, which excites him, and then showing her penis and scrotum, causing Raymond to flee in shock.
The Marbles enlist a spy, Cookie, to gather information about Divine by dating Crackers. Cookie is raped by Crackers while he tortures and crushes a live chicken between them as Cotton looks on through a window. Cookie then informs the Marbles about Babs’ identity, her whereabouts, and her family—as well as her upcoming birthday party.
The Marbles send a box of human feces to Divine as a birthday present with a card addressing her as “Fatso” and proclaiming themselves “the filthiest people alive”. Worried that her title has been seized, Divine declares that whoever sent the package must die. While the Marbles are gone, Channing dresses in Connie’s clothes and imitates his employers’ overheard conversations. When the Marbles return home, they are outraged to find Channing mocking them while wearing Connie’s clothes, so they fire him and lock him in his “room” (a closet) while they head out to do evil deeds until they can return and throw him out for good after searching his stuff.
The Egg Man, who delivers eggs to Edie daily, confesses his love for her and proposes marriage, which she accepts. The Marbles arrive at the trailer to spy on Divine’s birthday party. The birthday gifts include poppers, fake vomit, lice shampoo, a pig’s head, and a meat cleaver. Entertainers feature a topless woman with a snake act and a contortionist who flexes his prolapsed anus in rhythm to the song “Surfin’ Bird”. Disgusted by the outrageous party, the Marbles anonymously contact the police, but Divine and her guests ambush the officers, hack up their bodies with the meat cleaver, and eat them. Afterwards, Edie and The Egg Man are wed, and he carts her off in a wheel barrow.
Divine and Crackers head to the Marbles’ house, where they lick and rub the furniture, which excites them so much that Divine fellates Crackers. They find Channing and he begs to be released, but they are not sympathetic and force him to show them the two pregnant women held captive in the basement. Divine and Crackers free the women and hand them a large knife to deal with the tied-up Channing, stating they can kill him and Divine will do so herself if they aren’t interested. The women then use the knife to emasculate Channing.
The Marbles burn Divine’s beloved trailer to the ground; when they return home, their furniture—cursed by being licked by Divine and Crackers—”rejects” them, the cushions flying up and throwing them to the floor when they try to sit down. They also find that Channing has bled to death from his emasculation and the two women have escaped.
After finding the remains of their burned-out trailer, Divine, Crackers, and Cotton return to the Marbles’ home, kidnap them at gunpoint, and bring them to the arson site. Divine calls the local tabloid media to witness the Marbles’ trial and execution. Divine holds a kangaroo court and convicts the bound-and-gagged Marbles of “first-degree stupidity” and “assholism”. Cotton and Crackers recommend a sentence of execution, so the Marbles are tied to a tree, coated in tar and feathers, and shot in the head by Divine.
Divine, Crackers, and Cotton enthusiastically decide to move to Boise, Idaho. Spotting a small dog defecating on the sidewalk, Divine scoops up the feces with her hand and puts them in her mouth—proving, as the voice-over narration by Waters states, that Divine is “not only the filthiest person in the world, but she is also the filthiest actress in the world”.
Cast
Divine as Divine/Babs Johnson
David Lochary as Raymond Marble
Mary Vivian Pearce as Cotton
Mink Stole as Connie Marble
Danny Mills as Crackers
Edith Massey as Edie
Channing Wilroy as Channing
Cookie Mueller as Cookie
Paul Swift as The Egg Man
Susan Walsh as Suzie
Linda Olgierson as Linda
Pat Moran as Patty Hitler
Steve Yeager as Nat Curzan
George Figgs as bongo player
David Gluck as The Singing Asshole
Elizabeth Coffey as a transgender woman who shocks Raymond
Vince Peranio as musician at party
Van Smith as party guest
Pat LeFaiver as Etta
Jacqueline Zajdel (credited as Jackie Sidel) as Merle
John Waters as Mr. J, the narrator (uncredited)