John Waters has an interesting filmography, and his films seem to have a little bit of everything in them. Sometimes explicit, sometimes thought provoking, sometimes sweet, and always amusing his films are unique and bizarre and completely and utterly watchable. While he may have tamed a bit since his early years, 2004's A Dirty Shame proves that he's still not afraid to push the movie going public's buttons and that he's still more than capable of making funny and strangely intelligent films with plenty of shock appeal.

To coincide with the DVD release of A Dirty Shame, New Line is making available a boxed set that reissues their earlier John Waters releases as well as the exclusive mail in bonus disc and the 2005 film. Here's how they play out and what to expect…

Pink Flamingos: (1972)

Probably Waters' most notorious film, this one stars Divine as herself, hiding out under the pseudonym of Babs Johnson with her egg obsessed mother Edie (Edith Massey), her son Crackers (Danny Mills), and her friend Cotton (Mary Vivian Pearce). Divine has been dubbed the filthiest person alive, an title she wears with pride as she and her 'family' live their life in a trailer in a remote part of Maryland.

When Connie (Mink Stole) and Raymond (David Lochary) Marble hear of Divine's title they set out to prove that they are in fact far filthier than she could ever hope to be. They send a woman named Cookie (Cookie Mueller) to infiltrate the Divine camp by sleeping with Crackers (and his chicken in a scene that has to be seen to be believed… unless you're a member of PETA) who returns to them with information on where Divine is hiding out. They send her a boxed turd for her birthday, and the war is on.

When Divine holds a birthday bash with her filthy friends, the Marbles call in the cops who disrupt a man singing Surfing Bird with his sphincter and end up a cannibal dinner. Divine decides to get revenge on the Marbles and she and Crackers not only lick everything in the Marbles' house but Divine gives her son oral lovin' on their couch (in a scene that leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination). Will the Marbles top Divine in the dirtiest people alive department with their baby ring and their masturbatory man servant or will Divine keep her crown with the help of her screwball family of filth mongers?

The harshest of Waters' work for New Line, Pink Flamingos doesn't so much push the envelope as it does shred the damn thing. Waters' camera captures everything his characters do and just when you expect it to cut, it lingers and lingers and lingers. While the film is at least partially an exercise in 'gross for the sake of gross' there's also a wicked sense of humor behind it all and even, in an extremely twisted sense, some sort of odd family dynamic.

Shot on weekends for next to nothing, Waters' film is a little rough on a technical level – there are a few bad cuts and edits and some of the props and costumes were obviously made on the cheap – but that doesn't hurt the film in the least. More a psychotic character study than anything else, the film lets Divine strut her stuff and she does so with such bravado and unabashed enthusiasm, particularly during the last scene in the film (quite possibly the most notorious moment of Waters' notorious career), that you can't help but want her to come out on top of it all.

Those familiar with Waters' work will notice not only the cast of regulars he used throughout his early days but also an obligatory Manson reference or two thrown in as well. Waters also handled the narrative duties on the film. Pink Flamingos is a self proclaimed 'exercise in bad taste' but what an exercise it is.

Female Trouble: (1974)

Made two years after Pink Flamingos, Waters once again cast transvestite superstar Divine in the lead role, this time in the role of Dawn Davenport. When we first meet Ms. Davenport she's a bratty schoolgirl who drops out of school after snapping when she finds out that her parents didn't buy her the cha-cha heels she wanted for Christmas. She hits the road and ends up being sexually assaulted by an older man, and nine months later she gives birth to her daughter, Taffy (Mink Stole).

Dawn winds up marrying a hair stylist whose mother, Ida (Edith Massey) thinks is gay, named Gator (Michael Potter) who works at the Lipstick Salon. This exclusive beauty parlor is run by Donald (David Lochary who died of a drug overdose shortly after the film was completed) and Donna (Mary Vivian Pearce) Dasher, who soon become enamored with Dawn's criminal lifestyle and who become excited when they witness the more 'white trash' and 'criminal' aspects of her life unfolding. They soon start taking pictures of her and convince her that they'll make her a star, encouraging her wild behavior to shine in front of their camera lens. Soon though, it all goes too far and the cops get wise to Dawn's antics as she descends further and further into insanity.

More Charles Manson references, an obvious anti-social slant, and another fantastic performance from Divine make Female Trouble work exceptionally well. While Pink Flamingos was pretty hard to top for shock value (though this one has it's moments…Divine and the fish…ewwwww), Female Trouble has a better vibe in that it's paced better, the humor is funnier and much sharper, and the movie just flows better. Waters wit is fully developed and the satire is poignant, timely, and just cruel enough to work. His cinematography has improved in the two years since the earlier film and the editing is better as well.

Performances are just as good if not slightly more polished than they were in Pink Flamingos and Divine is absolutely perfect in the last half of the film, strutting her stuff for the camera and the crowd gathered to see her night club act before it all hits the fan for her. Lochary and Pearce are perfectly devious in their roles, and Edith Massey is…. well… Edith Massey is Edith Massey and that's all you can really expect from her.

Desperate Living: (1977)

The last of the really nasty films that Waters would make, Desperate Living is the first film in the set not to feature Divine in the lead. The absence of Divine doesn't hurt the film though, as Waters once again fills the film with filthy fun.

Mink Stole plays Peggy Gravel, a woman who has more or less lost her mind and thinks everyone is out to kill her. After an episode where she thinks that her son's baseball coming through the window is an attempt on her life, she and her enormous maid Grizelda (Jean Hill) kill her husband and make a run for it. While out in the middle of the woods they're pulled over by a perverted police officer (played by Turkey Joe) who puts on their underwear and kisses them before allowing them to escape to Mortville, a remote town full of escaped cons, miscreants and losers of all kinds.

When they get to Mortville, they rent a room from Mole McHenry (Susan Lowe) and her lesbian lover, Muffy St. Jacques (Liz Renay) who eventually find a winning lottery ticket in Grizelda's purse that they plan to cash in at the first available opportunity to head to Baltimore. Sadly, for the losers of Mortville, their evil ruler, Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey), keeps them pretty oppressed. Her younger daughter, Princess Coo-Coo (Mary Vivian Pearce) is a kind soul, however, and when Carlotta disowns her, she takes the wicked Peggy Gravel in under her wing. Will Muffy and Mole be able to use their lottery winnings? Will the real princess be able to marry her nudist garbage-man lover? Will Peggy and Grizelda make it out alive?

While this one becomes a little redundant towards the end, Waters still manages to pack some serious shock value into the film, most of which comes from the absolutely horrifying love scene between Stole and Hill, and the sex change operation/corrective surgery that Lower undergoes. Aside from that, there's some necrophelia, some violence towards children, and plenty of footage of Edith Massey getting it on with her soldiers and guards within the confines of her castle. If that doesn't get to you, I don't know what will.

Polyester: (1981)

Polyester marks a change in director for Waters in that everything started to look better with this film. The early movies were almost like a perverted Basil Wolverton meets Robert Crumb comic book come to life but from here on out, his movies were, well… prettier. Not glossed up like most Hollywood product is, his character still had interesting flaws and they were hardly beauty queens, but things were a little more polished than they had been in the past even if Divine, formerly the 'filthiest person alive,' was back in the lead role.

Divine plays Francine Fishpaw, a bored suburban housewife living away her life in the lovely city of Baltimore, Maryland. She's an upstanding citizen and a good Christian woman who happens to be married to Elmer Fishpaw, a porn theater owner with no regard for social mores. To make matters worse, her son, Dexter Fishpaw (Ken King) is a pervert in her own right who has a serious foot fetish and a glue sniffing problem. That's not all poor Francine has to deal with though, her daughter, Lu-lu (Mary Garlington) gets pregnant when she has sex with a local criminal.

Yes, despite Francine's best efforts, her life is hell and society is talking. Beaten down by the world, Francine turns to the bottle and her temper becomes increasingly short with those around her until one day she meets a handsome man named Todd Tomorrow (Tab Hunter) who changes her life for good.

Filmed in 'Odorama' (yes, the DVD includes a scratch n sniff card so you can play along at home), Waters openly admits that this one was very much influenced by the films of Douglas Sirk, director of such fifties fare as There's Always Tomorrow and Magnificent Obsession. The humor became a little more cerebral and while there's still plenty of offensive content (and, dare I say it, brilliant humor) contained in its brisk eighty-six minutes, there's nothing on the level of the singing asshole in Pink Flamingos or the penis removal scene in Desperate Living.

Divine and Tab Hunter have such an usual on screen chemistry together that their performances are a lot of fun to watch and the assorted cast of supporting characters, as usual, lend a wonderful air of insanity to the proceedings. Waters is still dealing with the lower class element of society and the unique problems, trials and tribulations that they deal with but some of the 'middle finger in the air' is gone, replaced more with a sense of sarcasm that suits the movie perfectly. There's also true sense of charm and warmth to the film that wasn't as prevalent in his earlier films that make things a little easier to digest within the context of the story.

Hairspray: (1988)

After a seven year break, John Waters returned to directing films and made what would be his first shot at 'the mainstream' and his last film for New Line for a decade. It would also be a historic moment in his career as it would make the first time one of his films would be shown with a PG rating.

Set in the early 1960s, Ricki Lake plays Tracey Turnblad, a slightly overweight teenage girl who dreams of nothing but appearing on The Corny Collins show, a sort of local version of American Bandstand, where she'd love to dance on television for all the world to see. Her best friend, Peggy, comes from a racist family who don't like blacks, but which leads to some trouble for Tracy and Peggy when her mother finds her dancing with a few of the local black boys.

Eventually Tracy gets a shot at trying out for the show but she's up against Amber Van Tussle who is just as good on her feet and not as thick in the waist. When Tracy finds out that she can make a difference by protesting the segregation that The Corny Collins Show enforces, things get complicated.

Divine is back in this one with a dual role, and it'd be the last time she'd work with Waters as later that year she died in her sleep. The film introduced Ricki Lake to the world, and say what you will about her talk show or some of her later appearances, she's great in the lead and puts a whole lot of infectious charisma into her role. While the shock value of Waters' early movies is almost completely gone from this family friendly film, his wit and knowing winks to the audience are still there and the humor remains clever and amusing.

Considerably more polished than anything that Waters had done up to this point, Hairspray remains his most successful film and while some of us started to miss his earlier work at this point in his career, there's no denying that this is a well made film with a big heart and a true sense of fun with some fantastic performances from Divine and Lake. Watch for Sonny Bono and Debbie Harry in supporting roles, along with Mink Stole and even Ric Ocasek.

Pecker: (1998)

After making Cry-Baby and Serial Mom, Waters returned to New Line in 1998 for another shot at a more accessible film for a larger audience.

Edward Furlong (of Terminator 2 fame) plays an aspiring photographer named Pecker who works at a sandwich shop to pay the bills. Pecker takes pictures of his strange family that propel him to stardom almost overnight after Pecker convinces his boss to let him put some of the pictures on display in the shop.

Pecker's girlfriend, Shelly (Christina Ricci) works at a local laundry, while his mother toils away at a thrift store. His grandmother sells sandwiches from the family home and talks to a statue of the Virgin Mary and his best friend is a compulsive shoplifter. His younger sister's sweet tooth is out of control and his older sister works at a gay strip bar. His father, of all people, is obsessed with female pubic hair and spends far too much time dwelling on the lesbian bar across the road. Everyone in Pecker's life, including Pecker himself, is a little… odd.

When a big time New York art dealer discovers his photography, however, he soon becomes the talk of the town when he's whisked away to Manhattan and thrown head first into the chi-chi NYC art scene. None of this comes without a cost, however, as Pecker's success takes away those things he holds dear in the form of his friends and his family.

While this one has its moments, Pecker is far from Waters' best works and to be honest, long parts of it are quite boring. The characters are interesting and their interaction shows the wit and the charm you'd expect from his work but something just doesn't click and I think a lot of that has to do with Furlong in the lead role. He lacks the charisma and the honesty to carry the film and despite a good supporting cast, a decent premise, some interesting location shooting and some good cinematography, the film is a bit of a misfire.

A Dirty Shame: (2004)

Touted as a sort of return to form for Waters, A Dirty Shame returns the director to the dirty humor and odd family dynamic we're used to in his work.

Something strange is happening in a small suburb outside of Baltimore. Along the tree lined and serene Harford Road, the citizens are changing. It all begins in the Stickle household, where Vaughn (Chris Isaak) decides he'd like a little intimate time with his wife, Sylvia (Tracey Ullman) before they head off to work at the store that Sylvia's mother, Marge (Mink Stole) runs. Sylvia declines the offer, she has no interest in sex and is puzzled not only by her husband's behavior but also by that of her daughter, Caprice (Selma Blair), better known to the locals as topless dancer Ursula Udders.

On the way to work, Sylvia has an accident and is hit on the head. A tow truck driver named Ray-Ray Perkins (Johnny Knoxville) rushes to her side and it's here we find out that Sylvia has, through the bump on her head, experienced a sort of sexual reawakening. And so have many, many others in the area – most of which somehow seem to stem back to Ray-Ray. As Sylvia's libido races out of control, her husband tries to sort it all out in his head while her mother launches a protest against the seemingly endless string of perversions creeping into the neighborhood.

Everything in A Dirty Shame is completely over the top. From Selma Blair's ridiculous prosthetic knockers to Chris Isaak's local yocal performance to Sylvia's lust-driven acts of wanton carnality to the various people who make up the community – horny neighbors, rough and tumble 'bears' and Ray-Ray's depraved disciples who have joined him in the quest to find a sexual activity that has never been done before. It's a completely ridiculous film, and it's also pretty darned funny.

Isaak and Ullman are perfectly cast as the Vaughns and when Ullman really lets loose during her character's raunchier scenes (the hokey pokey, anyone?) you really get a sense for what a great comedic actress she is. Isaak is completely believable as her not so bright husband, while Selma Blair does a decent job as the frustrated daughter. Mink Stole, as Marge, representing the repressed and dare I say it conservative side of society that Waters is obviously making a few digs at, does a fine job as well.

The film's biggest weakness is that by the time the climax occurs (pardon the pun), we've seen it all. The film blows its wad a little too early on and the finale doesn't pack the punch you'd expect it to. Regardless, there's enough wanton debauchery packed into the last twenty minutes of the film to keep the laughs coming, and the performances are also quite good which makes the NC-17 cut of A Dirty Shame very much worth watching, especially if you're a fan of Waters' early films.

Video:

Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and Desperate Living where all shot fast and cheap on 16mm film stock and under extremely low budget conditions. As such, the elements were never in the greatest shape and that is reflected on the DVDs. The transfers themselves for these three early films are quite good, there aren't any problems with edge enhancement or mpeg compression and the colors come through quite nicely, but there are some flaws inherent in the source material that obviously cannot be eliminated, nor should they be. Though all three films were shot fullframe, these director approved transfers do present Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble are matted at roughly 1.85.1 and enhanced for anamorphic sets, Desperate Living is presented fullframe. Basically, the matting obscures the boom mics and some of the dead space at the top and bottom of the frame while retaining all of the important information present in the picture.

From Polyester on up, things start looking better. Each of the later films are all presented in 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen, which are their original aspect ratios. While Polyester still shows some mild wear and tear in a few spots as well as some moderate film grain, it looks pretty good and all the later era films from Hairspray on up look very clean, and very crisp with the most recent film, A Dirty Shame, looking damn near perfect save from some mild shimmering and edge enhancement.

In short, the earlier movies look like the low budget 16mm productions that they are. They've always looked this way, and we love them for it – you can't realistically expect anything else and these transfers make the movies look as good as they ever have on home video, if not better. As Waters' filmmaking get better on a technical level, the appearance of his films also got better and the later era works look great.