Russ Meyer's first dramatic feature is very much in the tradition of horny Southern melodramas, eg God's Little Acre, the works of Tennessee Williams, The Long Hot Summer. The horny woman here is the title character, the buxom Lorna whose husband can't satisfy her. Then one day she's raped by a guy and enjoys it and wants the guy to hang around. The husband is teased about her wife being unfaithful, not knowing they're actually accurate. He returns home - lots of people wind up dead.
It's directed with energy and verve and looks good - even though its black and white, Meyer was skilled with the camera. The players really commit. I liked the locations, the preacher as Greek chorus, and the salt mine for those Sodom and Gomorrah parallels.
But it's not very pleasant. There's no sense of humour. I did not enjoy the rapes. To pad out the running time there's a rape at the beginning - some female character who drops out of the story. It takes a long time to get to Lorna.
Lorna Maitland is buxom, but quite a sweet, sad figure - she's not one of the man eaters Meyer would become famous for.
A few trims that this would be respectible-ish - there is some nudity but not a lot. This was interesting to watch rather than enjoyable and you can see why, when people talk about Meyer, no one really talks about this film much, except to mention it in the context of his career.
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