The second feature by John Waters, and in many respects his key film. It offers a Rosetta stone to his career-long proclivities and obsessions, and no wonder: it was highly personal project for its creator, who wrote, produced, directed, photographed and edited the 1970 film, which was filmed largely in the front yard of his parents’ Baltimore home, and starred his longtime friend and muse Divine (a.k.a. Harris Glenn Milstead).
…it was highly personal project for its creator…
Waters’ first film to be made with direct sound (leading to the critique “John Waters’ first talkie is also his first sickie”), MULTIPLE MANIACS was also for many decades one of his most elusive. The ever-pesky music rights issues were to blame for its obscurity, with Waters having scored the film with pre-recorded songs to which he didn’t bother purchasing the rights (something he’d done with his previous feature MONDO TRASHO, for which reason that film is now effectively “lost”). It took until 2016 for the issue to be sorted out, when the film underwent a Criterion Collection sponsored restoration that, I can say with some authority, looks infinitely better than the near-unwatchable VHS print that was previously MULTIPLE MANIACS’ only source.
“John Waters’ first talkie is also his first sickie”
In the bowels of Baltimore, “Lady Divine” runs a “Cavalcade of Perversions.” The object is to lure curious normies via acts that include a guy eating his own vomit and two guys making out (which in 1970 was considered the height of transgression), and then entrap the spectators in a net and rob—and on occasion kill—them. The Cavalcade is run by Divine’s “family” of perverts and miscreants (which is not to be confused with a certain reality based “family” whose newsworthy exploits occurred while this film was in production), who inevitably give way to infighting, mutilation and cannibalism. Divine, the sole survivor of the massacre, goes mad, gets raped by a giant lobster and winds up hunted down and killed by a mob of enraged townspeople.
Multiple Maniacs
The above may sound like the plot to a horror movie like those of John Waters’ idols H.G. Lewis and William Castle, yet that’s not how it plays. Waters’ delight in shocking his viewers is evident in a scene in which Divine gets defiled in a church, and dialogue like “I love you so fucking much I could shit,” yet his inherently cheerful nature shines through even in the most disgusting bits, while the ultra-histrionic performances keep the viewer at a constant remove from the mayhem. There’s also the fact that Waters never makes much effort to hide his paltry resources, with the “innards” Divine gnaws during the climactic slaughter looking like precisely what they were (a slab of discarded meat from a local butcher), and the giant lobster that figures in the film’s most famous scene isn’t much more elaborate (with crewmembers visible in a mirror manipulating the thing).
Prospective viewers will also have to contend with black and white photography that’s comprised largely of handheld wide shots that zoom in and out. The visual aesthetic is similar to that employed by Waters’ other cinematic progenitors the Kuchar brothers, although MULTIPLE MANIACS is more accessible than their counterculture-infused films.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the film is, in common with its Waters filmed fellows (which include PINK FLAMINGOS, FEMALE TROUBLE and DESPERATE LIVING (trailer below)), the refined and even sophisticated edge (note the frequent references to pioneering arthouse fare like Joe Sarno’s I, A WOMAN). This explains why MULTIPLE MANIACS, despite its crudity and gut-level shock effects, didn’t play with grindhouse audiences, and why Waters, despite his love of Hollywood melodrama, has never managed to penetrate mainstream moviemaking.
Desperate Living
See Also: LOW BUDGET HELL: MAKING UNDERGROUND MOVIES WITH JOHN WATERS,
MR KNOW-IT-ALL, THE TARNISHED WISDOM OF A FILTH ELDER
Vital Statistics
MULTIPLE MANIACS
Dreamland Studios
Director/Producer/Screenwriter/Cinematographer/Editor: John Waters
Cast: Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Cookie Mueller, Edith Massey, Susan Lowe, Rick Morrow, Howard Gruber, Paul Swift, Vince Peranio, Jim Thompson, Dee Vitalo, Ed Peranio, Bob Skidmore, Margie Skidmore, Jack Walsh, Susan Walsh, George Figgs