:
Hal Hopper,
Hal Hopper,
John Furlong,
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:
Russ Meyer,
Russ Meyer
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: Not Rated
: Russ Meyer
: Drama, Sexploitation, Vintage
: 92 min.
: English
see additional details...
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California McKinney (John Furlong) is hitchhiking to the state he was named for after serving a five-year sentence for manslaughter. He runs out of money in Spooner, MO, and finds work at a farm run by Lute Wade (Stuart Lancaster) and his niece, Hannah Brenshaw (Antoinette Christiani). All Calif wants is to do is work quietly until he can save enough money to keep on moving, but Hannah's drunken husband, Sidney (Hal Hopper), takes it upon himself to verbally and physically abuse him, as he does his own wife and any one else who crosses his path. Sidney spends most of his time drinking corn liquor at the local whorehouse and bragging about his plans to sell the farm after the sickly Uncle Lute dies. However, the goodhearted Calif and the long-suffering Hannah are falling in love, and Lute arranges his will so that Sidney can't lay claim to the estate after his death. The desperate Sidney plots with the local preacher (Franklin Bolger) to exploit the small town's gossipy nature with lies about Hannah's virtue, though his conniving is undone when he commits an insane, jealous crime and finds himself the target of a bloodthirsty vigilante group. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
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| Hey Russ don't feel bad, making this would have led me to more nudie-cuties too.
by RussMeyer
February 20, 2004 - 12:17 AM PST
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15 out of 15 members found this review helpful
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After viewing Mudhoney I get the impression that Russ Meyer was ready to do things his way. He didn't DP, shoot, edit, write this movie as he did in his later films. And working in the manner of the latter is what drew Meyer to filmmaking to begin with (a poor man's Orson Welles if I may). Meyer notoriously abhored the Studio System and yet with Mudhoney, and to a lesser degree Lorna, Meyer's true abilities, his true convictions aren't allowed to flourish. But every fillmaker has his/her grand plan for getting noticed and subsequently succeeding. Mudhoney got the attention Meyer needed. It contains characters that are afflicted with demons that in 1964, most of us weren't talking about. Mudhoney though, throws them in our face. An alcoholic man who repeatedly rapes his wife, a neighboring farm house whose mother prostitutes her lovely daughters how to whomever wants them, etc. Meyer does choose to include a town Parson who is so consumed with lost souls that he doesn't see the filth in his flock. A lot of complexity that can only be described as controlled chaos.
The characters are so sleazy and yet so real. Do they meet their fate? Is justice ever really served? That's what the viewer must decide.
Again, in his third film since leaving the world of glamor photography, it's very obvious that Meyer, more than anyone else of this era, knew how to shoot his beautiful ladies for maximum efffect.
Mudhoneyis not your typical fare. But it's great to watch this and discover where he came from and perhaps even, where he never wanted to return to again.
The disc contains 4 trailers for other Meyer movies, a photo gallery, and a text bio on Russ himself.
Do not pass this one up. A Classic.
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.95)
58 Votes
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