This is Waters' second full length feature, and his first with sound. Very rough. It's mostly Waters' ongoing attempt at learning how to make movies. I suppose he learned a lot from this one cuz his next was Pink Flamingos. But yeah. I believe the Manson family got caught during the filming of this movie.
It may have degraded. If it was one of his first films, it may have been recorded on cheaper film that didn't preserve well. It's black and white, isn't it?
The travelling sideshow 'Lady Divine's Cavalcade of Perversions' is actually a front for a group of psychotic kidnappers, with Lady Divine herself the most vicious and depraved of all, but her life changes after she gets raped by a 15-foot lobster.