Sexploitation potboiler from director Russ Meyer is a fairly terrible opus concerning Lorna, the sex-starved young wife of a salt miner living in a shack on the riverfront, who contemplates leaving her milquetoast husband for her rapist, an escaped killer who caught her in the weeds just after a skinny dip. Meyer's familiar mixture of girl-peeping and deadly serious proselytizing will be tolerable to his fans, however the ugly beating of an innocent woman in the first reel sets a depressing tone for the picture. Script, direction and performances are all amateurish--there must have been better ways for male audiences of 1964 to find stimulation over this junk. Old-fashioned theme song and score, while not particularly clever, may be the movie's only plus. * from ****

After seeing Faster Pussycat a couple years ago, I was so impressed that I decided to hunt down and watch all of Russ Meyer's movies. Well, it's been quite a disappointing quest, and Lorna is just more of the same.First of all, the script is very amateurish. You can tell Mr. Meyer is still groping his way as he tries to tell an effective and engaging story. The characters are one dimensional. They're almost caricatures of themselves. The only time one of them seems real is when Luther apologizes to Lorna near the end. Also, the rape scene is totally unbelievable. Lorna tries to fight this guy off for a few minutes, and then gets turned on by having this guy force himself on her? It just doesn't happen that way. Talk to any woman and see what they say about it. Plus, this guy had been on the run, and brushing his teeth would've been the last thing on his mind. I seriously doubt anyone would want to suck face with him!Second, is unlikable characters. NOBODY in this film is likable, and most are detestable. Luther sounds like Russ Meyer's alter ego - a sexist, over-sexed, low class loser. The preacher is just annoying, and it doesn't make sense why he's even in this film. Jim, the husband, is completely useless. Lorna is an unappreciative, stupid jerk. The convict was a completely heartless, murdering, raping smack-off. Maybe Mr. Meyer was trying to convey something with their unlikableness, but I haven't figured it out yet and I don't really care at this point.Third, is Lorna Maitland. This woman has nothing going for her except HUGE hooters. I love boobs, but hers look kind of strange. You can tell Mr. Meyer was trying to turn her into the next Marilyn Monroe or Jane Mansfield, but she just didn't have what it takes. Her face was definitely not attractive. The extreme close-ups of her face were scary. And her acting skills weren't very good or believable. It's just another case of Russ Meyer's obsession with giant breasts clouding his judgement (kind of like Vixen).Last, is the ending. When Lorna dies at the end, Jim runs over to her and falls to his knees begging her to "Forgive me. Forgive me." Forgive him for what!?! He was out working in the salt mines all day, while she was at home screwing some dirtball on their one year anniversary. Lorna was a miserable bitch. I don't understand why Jim would want her to forgive him.All-in-all, this movie doesn't have anything going for it in 2012. There's not much nudity, Lorna isn't very attractive, and the story isn't very interesting. To be fair, this was made a couple years before "Faster Pussycat". I guess Russ Meyer just needed more time to hone his craft.

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!

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!