Lorna

Meyer is at his beginning's of film-making (esp for what was to come) when Lorna came out. An earlier commentator remarked it has a very (since it's shot in B&W) film noir quality to it. I agree but it's more like American film noir say -- for the bold rape scenes are over the top. However, if gritty fiction with this type of scenes depicted you like, this movie may be for you -- it's that '60's camp feel that really doesn't let most viewers take it too seriously, I think. An 8 was fair because anything Meyer does I am partial to because of his unique style, independent spirit and sense of creating something different in a time when people were jailed, or at least critically blasted as "pornographers". Meyer was not this though. He was always more interested in telling a coherent, fast-paced story & filming what was going on above the waist -- but spicing it up with (real) buxom women who mostly held the "power" over men (esp in later Meyer films) was his real signature style that will hold Meyer up as the best B-grade movie maker of all time. KING LEER - R.I.P. in that big bosom in the sky!

British film distributors in the 50s and 60s would often acquire a film banned by the British Board of Film Censors and then tout it round regional authorities to get it passed for exhibition locally. The most famous example was The Wild One (1953) where Columbia managed to flout the censor's ban by getting permission to open the film in Cambridge for three weeks, then Glasgow for five weeks, and at a number of other places. Even more successful were Eros Films who persuaded 181 local authorities to pass Garden of Eden (1955). The cost of arranging so many previews for councillors was far outweighed by the box office returns, with so many people eager to see a banned film.

Grand National Film Distributors thought they had a money-maker with Russ Meyer's Lorna (1964), rejected by the BBFC on 2 February 1965. Featuring Meyer's latest top-heavy discovery Lorna Maitland, the film is actually quite well made, by no means indecent and with an odd religious message. However, most councillors thought the story of a dissatisfied housewife who finds fulfilment with an escaped rapist unsuitable even for local adults, and the film was rejected nearly everywhere – until it reached Blackburn Borough Council. For whatever reason, their watch committee considered it perfectly OK for Blackburn folk to see Lorna do her stuff. And so, on 16 January 1966 at the Essoldo circuit's Royal Cinema in Ainsworth Street, Lorna was finally unveiled in public, probably the only time the Lancashire textile town had hosted a premiere. Disappointingly, the film ran only one week, and people were not coming from all over England to see Lorna perform. Undaunted, the distributors carried on touring local authorities and, in June 1966, tried to get the film passed in Southend-on-Sea. Essex County Council said nothing doing. Like Miss Maitland in the film, Grand National probably lost their shirts.

LATER SHOWINGS: After being banned in Southend-on-Sea, Lorna was later permitted a week on the Lincolnshire coast. Lindsey district council granted Lorna a local "X" and the film ran at the ABC cinema, Cleethorpes, from Sunday, 1 December 1968.

With "The Immoral Mr. Teas," Russ Meyer was one of the pioneers of sex films... He knew, however, that the region would eventually want more than just naked ladies winning easily around the countryside, and went for a strong plot that contained a well-motivated but heavy sex scene…

Lorna is a frustrated housewife… She lives in a wasted riverside shack with a deadbeat but sweet husband… He works hard all day and studies all night, leaving her unfulfilled...

One day, while the husband is at work, an escaped convict bursts in on Lorna and rapes her… She is so enraptured by the experience that she becomes infatuated with him, but when her husband unexpectedly returns from work, she doesn't know what to do…

"Lorna" was one of the first films to show nudity in the context of strong sex... While there was nothing really explicit or graphic about it, it was truly shocking for its-time… Today, however, it is quite mild and dull...

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.

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.