A Dirty Shame

A Dirty Shame is a 2004 satirical sex comedy movie. John Waters directed and wrote it. Tracey Ullman plays Sylvia. Selma Blair plays Caprice/Ursula. Patty Hearst plays Paige.

A Dirty Shame was released with an NC-17 rating by the MPAA. New Line Cinema was the distributor. It received mixed reviews.

Plot

The people of Harford Road (Maryland Route #147) are divided into two camps: puritanical people who hate anything even remotely sexual. There are also the perverts, a group of sexual addicts whose sexual fetishes have been brought to the fore.

A held back Sylvia Stickles finds herself as a puritan. One day, she leaves her promiscuous daughter Caprice locked up over the garage and under house arrest. Sylvia is smacked on the head by a passing car. She meets Ray-Ray Perkins, a local mechanic.

Through a series of bizarre head knockings, everyone in the Harford Area of Baltimore becomes a sex addict. Ray-Ray shoots semen from his head. He becomes the messiah of "Let's Go Sexin'".

Cast

• Tracey Ullman as Sylvia Stickles
• Johnny Knoxville as Ray-Ray Perkins
• Selma Blair as Caprice Stickles/"Ursula Udders"
• Chris Isaak as Vaughn Stickles
• Suzanne Shepherd as Big Ethel
• Mink Stole as Marge The Neuter
• Patricia Hearst as Paige
• Jackie Hoffman as Dora
• Wes Johnson as Fat Fuck Frank
• Paul DeBoy as Wendell Doggett
• Gaelan Alexander Connell as Horny kid
• Channing Wilroy as Male motorist
• Rosemary Knower as Female motorist
• Alan J. Wendl as Officer Alvin
• James Ransone as Dingy Dave
• David A. Dunham as Mama Bear
• Dave Moretti as Papa Bear
• Jeffrey Auerbach as Baby Bear
• Jewel Orem as Officer Loose Linda
• Jonas Grey as Warren the mailman
• David DeBoy as Dr. Arlington
• Doug Roberts as Driving neuter husband
• Mary Vivian Pearce as Nonjudgmental ex-sex addict
• Jean Hill as Woman at fire escape
• Ty Ford as the taxi cab driver
• Bob Adams as Bus passenger
• George Figgs (uncredited) as Neuter
• Ricki Lake (cameo) as herself
• David Hasselhoff (cameo) as himself

Production

John Waters decided to make the movie when he found several sexual slang terms over the internet.

According to Waters, when he asked MPAA what he would have needed to cut from the movie before he could have it rated R, they said "after a while, we just stopped taking notes." It was simply released into theaters with an NC-17 rating.

It was shot entirely on location in Baltimore on the Harford Road.

Reception

A Dirty Shame got mixed reviews from critics. Some liked or loved its unashamed vulgarity. Others, though, went against it for the same reason. On the Rotten Tomatoes, the approval rating is 53%, based on the reviews of 117 critics. On the Metacritic, the review for the movie is 56 out of 100, which means "mixed or average".