Mudhoney

1965 Russ Meyer movie

Rating: 14/20

Plot: A drifter with a dark past finds some work on a farm during the Great Depression. The farm's owned by an old guy, and his niece and her husband, the latter who is an evil alcoholic who spends his time abusing his wife when he's not visiting the redneck brothel nearby. The drifter begins to fall for Helen, the niece, and her husband and an unscrupulous preacher conspire against him.

With Russ Meyers, you can expect certain things, and he doesn't really disappoint here. This isn't his story, however, so it's not quite as outrageous as the other Meyers movies I've seen. In fact, if you just look at the script and the basic plot, you really have something that would be pretty forgettable. What makes this worth watching are some truly odd performances, however. There are a quartet of beauties who all display Russ Meyer's favorite part of the female anatomy. Antoinette Cristiani is so-so as Hannah, but the sisters as the brothel, Clara Belle and Eula (Rena Horton and Lorna Maitland, neither who had any real acting career), are stunning, especially in scenes where the mute one is first seen holding a kitty and later taking a bath. Later, Lee Ballard in her only acting job, is around just to be abused. John Furlong's almost a straight man in all of this as the women and performances from the other men just overshadow him. Hal Hopper impressively hollers or snarls every single one of his lines, stopping only for some insane hee-hawing. He spends the entire movie in the same worn white suit and is probably the most disturbing kisser I have ever seen on film. Sam Hanna plays the oddly-named Injoys who hangs out at the brothel all the time in overalls with no shirt, and he nailed inbred as well as you'll ever see anybody nail it. His "Wha?" reaction to news that the new guy is prettier than him, a moonshine spit-take, and a dance scene with one of the sisters are the kinds of career-defining moments that they usual show when somebody wins a lifetime achievement award. And then there's Frank Bolger (no, not that Frank Bolger) who manages to be even louder than Hopper as a fiery preacher with shady scruples. But then there's Princess Livingston as Maggie Marl who steals the show here, dominating the screen with her weird eyes and toothless expressions. She's probably the weirdest-looking woman I'll see on film in 2014 and has laughter capable of haunting a person's dreams. And when she winks? Hold on to your asses, friends. Their performances make this the fun experience that it is. It all builds up to a really cool ending where everybody gets exactly what they deserve in an almost cartoonish way.