Russ Meyer's Lorna

Lorna (1964)

*** (out of 4)

Another Russ Meyer weirdo, which starts off rather slow but ends with a real bang. The big breasted Lorna isn't sexually satisfied by her dork husband so she has an affair with an escaped con. Going through this Meyer films it's rather amazing to see how much craft is actually involved in them. As I said earlier, I was expecting the poor trash that the likes of Something Weird releases but that's certainly not the case. Meyer delivers a pretty good, if simple story, mixed with some very good cinematography as well as a great music score. The first part of the film drags a bit but there's always Lorna's big breasts to keep us entertained. The film kicks into high gear during the final thirty minutes and is a real hoot.

Lorna is an early Russ Meyer film, but features many themes that are common in his later films - sex and violence obviously, but we also have religion, morality and a surrealist element. The film is slightly similar to Russ Meyer's 1965 film Mudhoney in terms of style and plot, and the fact that both films star the buxom Lorna Maitland as well as the sleazy Hal Hopper. Russ Meyer would become famous for completely over the top sex films such as Supervixens and Up. This film is not as over the top as the aforementioned titles; but it's still firmly in Russ Meyer's style and there's plenty for sleaze fans to enjoy. As the title suggests; the film focuses on Lorna, the buxom and beautiful wife of Jim. Lorna is bored because Jim, despite being a nice guy, is not exciting enough for her. He goes to work one day and Lorna happens across an escaped convict, who proceeds to rape her. Excited by this man, Lorna takes him home and falls in love with him. Things come to a head when Jim returns home from work early...

It's easy to pass a film like this off as 'trash' and it's certainly not an 'a-class' film; but there's actually a lot more going on here than meets the eye and Lorna has an advantage over later Meyer films in that it actually seems to want to make some points about love and infidelity. Aside from a bit of substance, Meyer has also given the film a good style; the clean black and white picture looks great and the film has a 'pulp fiction' feel to it throughout. The cast is very good too. Of course, the titillating Lorna Maitland is the main standout and she performs well. The film also features Hal Hopper who would also work with Russ Meyer on the later Mudhoney. It's a real shame that they weren't able to make more films together because Hal Hopper really fits Meyer's style and both of his performances for Meyer were excellent. The film flows well throughout and is constantly entertaining, which is definitely a good thing. It all boils down to a good and fitting ending and on the whole, I certainly would not hesitate to recommend Lorna to my fellow Russ Meyer fans!

After spending the first few years of his career on traditional 'nudie cuties', director Russ Meyer made his first foray into 'real' film- making with 1964's Lorna, written by and starring James Griffith. Though his colourful visuals and sense of humour were evident in the likes of The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959) and Eve and the Handyman (1961), these films were still very much confined to being nothing more than a peep show. With Lorna, Meyer resorted to black-and-white photography, but whether this was for budgetary reasons or stylistic choice, I don't know. But the decision to shoot this way gives the film more gravitas, and the attention is moved away from the big-breasts and onto the story and script, giving birth to the auteur that is now so revered.

Beginning with the rape of a girl named Ruthie (Althea Currier), the two men responsible, Luther (Hal Hopper) and Jonah (Doc Scortt), travel to work and pick up Jim (James Rucker) on the way. Jim is married to the beautiful Lorna (Lorna Maitland), who is sexually unsatisfied by the nice-guy Jim. Luther proceeds to tease Jim about Lorna at work, while an escaped convict (Mark Bradley) forces himself onto Lorna. Lorna is extremely turned on, and invites the convict back to the house where she feeds and washes him. Clearly, it's not the most complex of plots, but we are in familiar Meyer territory with square-jawed men, put-upon women, and a funky jazz score.

One of the most familiar traits of a Meyer film is the narrator. Commonly, the role of the narrator in his films was to play the traditional man, one that obeyed the values and traditions of the 1950's American. The idea of sexual repression was clearly something that amused Meyer, and in Lorna, he employs James Griffith to play 'the Man of God', who is littered throughout the film addressing the audience directly to camera and questioning their moral fibre. He introduces the film, and this leads to one of the best moments in the films. He stands in the middle of a wide desert road, allowing the camera to glide past him and forward into the unknown as the jazz score kicks in. It's a lovely little touch, and a clear indication that this isn't simple another nudie-cutie.

This is far from his best work, with Lorna being relatively subdued in comparison to his more wilder visions such as Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) and especially Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), and Lorna's pandering to the violent convict may seem rather chauvinistic in comparison to the majority of Meyer's output, where the female was quite often the dominant sex. But this was only the beginning of a now widely- celebrated career, so Meyer was still very much honing his craft. His sense of humour is unmistakable however, and one of the standout scenes has the despicable Luther writing and performing a song about Lorna's adultery to Jonah. It's played out so naturally that the two start to really laugh, making the scene really quite wonderful. It's this kind of playfulness that make Meyer's output such as joy to watch.

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Lorna signalled an important change of direction for director Russ Meyer. While it remained within the overall bracket that could be termed sexploitation it was quite a significant departure from the nudie cuties which had hitherto constituted his filmography. Unlike those, Lorna was shot in black and white but upgraded to 35mm. Even more significantly it also was his first feature to have synchronised sound, which allowed him to better engage the viewer and allowed him to tell an actual story with proper, interesting characters. With these ingredients it was the first of his films that truly showcased what he was all about and gave far more of an indication of his overall sensibilities, beyond his obvious love of large breasts.

Like most Meyer films this one is as much a showcase for his lead actress as it is anything else. In this instance it is the buxom Lorna Maitland who takes centre stage. She plays a young woman who is bored with married life in a rural area. Her pathetic husband cannot satisfy her sexually and spends all his time working in a salt mine while taking verbal abuse from his two slovenly co-workers; one of which is a mean-spirited misogynist who we first see forcing his way into the home of a young woman only to then violently knock her about. While Lorna's husband is away on one of these details, she is raped by an escaped convict whose attack excites her, leading her to invite him home for an afternoon of further lust. Of course, this is not set to end well.

I guess it should be said from the outset that the idea of Lorna being so receptive to being raped is a pretty outrageous and offensive one. It's certainly at best 'of its time'. Although I reckon if you see a few Meyer movies you begin to realise that his cinematic universe operates by its own hyper-real rules and content that would be somewhat dubious in other hands seems quite normal is his world of strong women and dumb men constantly at war with each other. Lorna was the first of his four black and white 'roughies' which culminated with his classic Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965). Like a few of his films it takes the form of a melodrama, although unlike most it has little in the way of his soon-to-be typical distinctive comedy, in fact it's possibly the least humorous film he ever made. This may well be because it was written by James Griffith – who plays the part of a hell and brimstone preacher who appears periodically to commentate on the sins of the players – who also wrote the screenplay for the later Motorpsycho! (1965) which was another Meyer film with a decidedly darker tone.

It is, however, as visually accomplished as films by Meyer would go on to become known for. Having said that, at this stage in his career he was more restrained in his visual approach and had not developed the manic fast editing style that would typify his later, more over-the-top efforts. This one is more indebted to noir than his others and the presentation is consequently a little more downbeat. Almost all of the lighter moments involve Lorna Maitland in a state of undress; the best of these is a scene where she takes a dip in a river. It's shot beautifully and is one of the most iconic moments of 60's cinematic erotica. Historically, the film itself was prosecuted for obscenity in some American states but cashed in big-time on the drive-in circuit and even played some art-houses. It's not surprising that it had this varying effect, as Lorna is simultaneously a pioneering and daring sexploitation classic which was certainly pushing the envelope at the time for what was permissible, yet at the same time it's very well made and certainly has artistic merit and ambition beyond its voluptuous leading ladies most prominent assets.

Exploitative tale of rape, betrayal, and murder set in sordid shacks of the modern South. Incredibly endowed Lorna (Maitland) is wedded to straight-laced CPA-wannabe, but in the legal sense only. She meets up with an escaped convict (Hooper) who rapes her and makes her like it, but she eventually trots back to her man and receives some harsh treatment at the hands of misused garden tools. It all sounds pretty extreme, and it is, and carried off with unique style but sometimes hasty direction. Some lovely shots, brutal violence, and sexy Lorna add up to a cheezy, trashy feast.

Not quite as good as the similar "Mudhoney", but much better than most of Meyer's 70s product.