Meyers complex social commentary about the Deep South is layered in a fashion that targets his audience from the first scene. The traveling salesman breaks down, and wanders through a land inhabited by beautifully developed female characters. The women are portrayed in a manner that many males may have perceived them to be, not just in the depression era Deep South, but in many areas across the country. They are beautiful, yet serve no purpose except for sex and entertaining. The southern male is portrayed as weak of character , stupid, and drunk. It is only when a northerner brings in his line of intellect, does life change for the rural people he encounters. While the northern salesman is bland with a mediocre intelligence, he appears to have the answers for the " unfortunates".....if this sounds like governmental policies and a political satire hidden in a T&A flick, then you get it. A sub plot is added about violence against women and lynching. Why I gave this movie a 9. Because it allows me to watch hot scantily clad women engaging in adulterous affairs while at the same time it assuages any feelings of guilt by decreeing that this was a film that mattered and it is important because of the social issues it brings forth....Is it an exploitation film? Or is it much more veiled by the cinematic low hanging fruit of beautiful women.to cover themes that couldn't be expressed in general cinema in that time period. I have to add this because it is a bothersome area of the film, and I can't figure out what Meyers was trying to express ; an ideal, or just shock,,,but the most beautiful actress in the film plays the role of a mute and mentally challenged nymphomaniac. Was this a statement of how men in our culture perceive women and the Jungian principle of the animus? I couldn't tell you, but it made me cringe and squirm, and evoking that response from the audience may be all that Meyer was trying to do with this submission in his repertoire.

My friend and I sat down to watch Mudhoney on TCM. The first two minutes or so (before the opening credits roll) convinced us this was going to be a unique and well-paced movie. We were totally drawn in by the interesting camera work and tight editing. This is the way to open a film! We knew we were in for a worthwhile viewing experience, not just an exploitation flick. Hal Hopper's performance transcends the B-genre. Deranged, sadistic, degrading, mocking, taunting, conniving, violent--he commands the screen. (This guy was Jay "Dennis the Menace" North's father?) Lovely, seductive ladies, never shown gratuitously. They behave in a manner consistent with the film world Myer's has created (some label "gritty," which is the least of this small community's issues).

I didn't know Meyer could actually make an excellent drama, but I was surprised by this one. After seeing Faster Pussycat, Beyond the Valium of the Dolls, and Seven(?)Minutes, I expected the same retarded writing, acting and editing, but Mudhoney is well written, acted and doesn't have that ridiculously fast editing his other movies have.I think the fact that Mudhoney was taken from a novel, with the novelist doing the screenplay, accounted for the quality of this flick.Towards the end, one scene flowed into the next with some incredible performances from the actors playing the husband and the preacher.I haven't seen Lorna yet, but I guess it's similar to this one.

I know this movie has it's fans, is considered a satire and is preferred to the slightly earlier, Lorna, but I just cannot agree. Certainly this has pretensions to seriousness with it's stance against the simple preacher and the easily manipulated lynch mob, but everything is so overblown all becomes simply crass. As for the bulk of the film preceding the melodramatic ending, tiresome might be the word. There is the crazy family where is Lorna Maitland is reduced to playing a bit part for some reason and the homestead that takes on the new hired hand. There is so much unwarranted screaming and hysteric laughter that I felt like switching off during the first twenty minutes. Sure there are some fine sequences, the rape and murder of the preacher's daughter is very powerful, but I think this loses direction and has a pat 'satirical' theme tagged on for want of something better. The characters are nothing like as rounded as in Lorna and as with the later, Faster Pussycat, Meyer is probably at his best with the themes kept nice and simple.