Return to Mortville

Return to Mortville — Plot

Special feature from Criterion’s release of Desperate Living, where writer-director John Waters tours the Baltimore location that served as the site of Mortville, the twisted penal colony inhabited by fugitives, outcasts, and deviants – including hysterical housewife Peggy Gravel and her fed-up housekeeper – and presided over by the despotic Queen Carlotta.

• Release date
• June 23, 2026
• Runtime
• 14 min
• Genres
• Documentary

Return to Mortville — Cast

John Waters Self Mink Stole Self (archive footage) Susan Lowe Self (archive footage) Mary Vivian Pearce Self (archive footage) Jean Hill Self (archive footage) Edith Massey Self (archive footage) Liz Renay Self (archive footage) Vincent Peranio Self (archive footage)