Mondo Trasho (1970)

Synopsis: John Waters's first feature unfolds like a comedic, surrealist nightmare. A young blonde Baltimore woman (Mary Vivian Pearce) takes a bus to a park where she has rendezvous with a foot fetishist... John Waters's first feature unfolds like a comedic, surrealist nightmare. A young blonde Baltimore woman (Mary Vivian Pearce) takes a bus to a park where she has rendezvous with a foot fetishist who repeatedly licks her feet. She is then run over by a large transvestite (Divine) in a Cadillac convertible and taken to a doctor--and the quack replaces her feet with those of a chicken. The blonde then witnesses the appearance of the Virgin Mary in a Laundromat, and the transvestite has an unfortunate encounter with a pen full of pigs. MONDO TRASHO, though made for $2,500, is obviously the work of a filmmaker whose imagination knows no limits. Unanimously cited as Waters's most underdeveloped feature, the film still features the obvious seeds of the works he would go on to produce. Shot on location in Baltimore without synchronized sound, MONDO TRASHO features only a few moments of spoken dialogue. A stellar selection of trashy 1950s and '60s rock & roll tunes (used without proper clearance) provides the rest of the audio track. [More]

Starring: Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, David Lochary

Starring: Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, David Lochary

Director: John Waters

Director: John Waters

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