Desperate Living

Desperate Living follows Peggy Gravel, a wealthy and unstable housewife who kills her husband with the help of her maid, Grizelda. The two women flee and end up in Mortville, a rundown settlement that shelters criminals who must submit to the humiliating rules imposed by its ruler, Queen Carlotta. There they encounter a former professional wrestler and her girlfriend, who take them in, before Peggy and Grizelda run afoul of the queen and her whims.

John Waters directed, wrote and produced the film, which followed Female Trouble in his filmography and was released in 1977. Mink Stole plays Peggy, while Edith Massey appears as Queen Carlotta and Liz Renay, Susan Lowe, Mary Vivian Pearce and Jean Hill round out the principal cast; 43 performers are credited in all. The film runs 91 minutes and mixes comedy with crime.

On IMDb it holds a rating of 7 out of 10 from around 6,500 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.4 out of 10 from a much smaller group of 125 voters. A critics' rating of 5.9 out of 10 from 10 reviews places professional assessments below the audience score on IMDb and roughly level with the TMDB figure.