Female Trouble

Starring Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Danny Mills, Edith Massey, Cookie Mueller

Female Trouble is a very funny film about glamour and crime starring Divine as the one and only Dawn Davenport.

A bratty, misunderstood high-school girl, Dawn runs away from home in her nightgown and slippers after a violent outburst on Christmas morn and so begins her rollercoaster ride of a life.

The story follows Dawn as she endures an unwanted pregnancy, resulting in the vulgar birth of her ungrateful daughter, Taffy. Later in the film, Taffy is played to the hilt by Mink Stole.

To support herself, Dawn becomes a career girl, go-go dancing and stealing TVs with her girlfriends Chicklette and Concetta (Susan Walsh and Cookie Mueller). And they all get their gigantic hairdos created at the Lipstick Beauty Salon, run by Donald and Donna Dasher (David Lochary and Mary Vivian Pearce).

Dawn falls for heterosexual hairdresser Gator (Danny Mills), nephew of crotchety neighbor Ida Nelson (Edith Massey). Ida wishes Gator was queer and despises Dawn for marrying him. Meanwhile, Gator's employers, the Dashers take a special liking to Ms. Davenport , encouraging her to experiment with glamour by mainlining liquid eyeliner and committing crimes. Dawn eventually goes mad, resulting in much violence and little beauty.

"Female Trouble is my favorite of my midnight movies. And there are people who saw Female Trouble who said, 'You sold out; you tried to cross over.' It's hard to imagine, but they did say that, because after Pink Flamingos I never tried to top myself. But if I hadn't moved on, I wouldn't be working today." - John Waters

> BUY THE DVD

1974, 16 & 35 mm, color, 92 minutes

Released through New Line Cinema

Years ago, we had a little contest asking if anyone knew the lyrics to the Theme from Female Trouble. It turns out someone who worked at a high level on FT dropped me a line with some insight. He said the filmmakers didn't have enough money to produce any music, so another high-level staffer who worked on FT, formerly a record producer in LA, offered a couple old master tapes he'd been carrying around of knock off motown songs. A song was picked and remixed with Divine singing John's lyrics, resulting in the "2-bit masterpiece" we now know and love!

The lyrics have been revised slightly in 2006 to reflect a more accurate translation, provided by someone who worked on the Closed Captioning for the original home video release! Revisions are marked with a > symbol.

I got lots of problems
Female Trouble
Maybe I'm twisted
Female Trouble
They say I'm a skank
but I don't care
go ahead put me in your 'lectric chair

I got lots of problems
Female Trouble
Maybe I'm twisted
Female Trouble
Hey spare me your morals
> look everyone does
> what pleases me is homicide

I got lots of problems
Female Trouble
maybe I'm twisted
Female Trouble
Oink! Oink! Oink! Oink!
I'm berserk - I like it fine!
> As long as I'm grabbing a headline
Ah ha ha Yeah!
I got lots of problems...

Endless thanks to my anonymous source. Many thanks to all who emailed me their suggestions! Click here to download an MP3 of the song from Ollie. THANKS OLLIE!