He found something approaching mainstream success with the likes of Hairspray and Cry-Baby, but writer/director John Waters recently returned to his trashy underground roots with A Dirty Shame. He "makes a virtue of bad taste" with this likeably silly sex comedy, starring Tracey Ullman and Johnny Knoxville, which inevitably divided critics but delighted a cult audience of Waters' devotees.

Dishing The Dirt

A 16-part documentary is laden with cheeky titbits on the making of the film, but there's little in the way of behind-the-scenes footage to break up the talking heads. Even so, it's good fun with an opening voiceover that sets the tone with the ridiculous assertion that, "John Waters is to Baltimore what Ingmar Bergman is to Sweden..."

Waters explains that he pitched the film as "a cunnilingus concussion comedy", before primly adding, "It's a sex education movie in a way." Meanwhile Suzanne Shepherd (who plays Big Ethel) reveals that on first reading the script, "I really thought I was going to have a heart attack - I started to shake and cry." Surprisingly, even professional Jackass Johnny Knoxville took a lot of persuading. "I courted John for two years," recalls Waters. "We would have lunch and I showed him bear magazines." Sounds kinky, or as Knoxville puts it, "He has a... different perspective on things." Ullman was less daunted but underestimated the physical challenge of getting smacked in the head "at least 15 times a day".

Caught In The Act

In a breathless audio commentary, Waters admits that, "Johnny Knoxville is the reason this film got made." He's also full of praise for Ullman who, we're told, keeps "a bag of wigs" handy for all the crazy people who live inside her head. In fact he's full of bizarre trivia, like the fact that Selma Blair's breasts were daily dispensable and crafted by the same people behind the Chucky dolls and Gwyneth Paltrow's 'fat suit' in Shallow Hal.

A crew commentary features word from the production and costume designers and even the prop master, but it turns out to be more chaotic than edifying. On the other hand, it's quite amusing when half the crew admit "they didn't get it" when they first read the script and are none the wiser even after its release.

Finally, all we can say about one deleted scene is that it involves Johnny Knoxville, an unsuspecting snake and it should never be tried at home... It's an outrageous DVD, but no doubt Waters' fans will get their kicks out of it.

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