Watch The Louisiana Hussy For Free
The Louisiana Hussy
Cajun newlyweds must deal with the jealousy of his brother, who also loved her, and the arrival of a mysterious seductress in their bayou backwater.
Release : | 1959 |
Rating : | 5.4 |
Studio : | Bon Aire Productions, |
Crew : | Makeup Artist, Cinematography, |
Cast : | Nan Peterson Peter Coe Betty Lynn Harry Lauter Tyler McVey |
Genre : | Drama Crime |
Watch Trailer
Cast List
Related Movies
Reviews
Lack of good storyline.
Good , But It Is Overrated By Some
Best movie ever!
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Nan Peterson literally rolls onto the scene after a harrowing horseback escape while sporting a sweater with an M L monogram emblazoned across her sculpted torso, which she claims stands for Minette Lanier, never mind the association with Marie Laveau. Upon her rescue and transport to town by Peter Coe as Jacques Guillot, the story begins to suck you in like Cajun quicksand. Jacques and his brother Pierre, played by Robert Richards, get their stones rolling via the coquettish Minette, yet still manage to gather a lot of moss as apparently there's a market for that stuff somehow. Minette skinny dips, dances in her bra to radio rock n' roll and initiates petting parties like a 50's anti-heroine busting out of the constraints of squareness in a seething cauldron of southern fried crawdad stew. These characters are engaging and of course get involved in inevitable spurts of violence, yet the last thing you want to see is any of them hurt or killed, based on an empathy for the players that seems rare in movies these days. There is a plot twist that is logical and unexpected which seamlessly rolls into the main story line. Full spectrum black and white low end production values only enhance the southern Gothic mise en scene. Betty Lynn of Andy Griffith fame along with character actor Harry Lauter and some lesser known figures add some spice to the cinematic gumbo which goes down quite smoothly.
Sexy and duplicitous Minette (saucily played by the fetching Nan Peterson) is found unconscious in the swamp. She's taken to the home of newlywed Pierre Guillot (a likable portrayal by Robert Richards), whom Minette tries to make the moves on. After Pierre rebuffs her advances, Minette moves in with and seduces Pierre's brother Jacques (a solid performance by Peter Coe). Director Lee Sholem offers a flavorsome evocation of the down-home rural setting with a strong sense of the region and the people who populate it. Charles Lang's compact script covers the hicksploitation bases in a pleasing manner: An enticing and conniving no-count tramp antagonist, a gnarled old backwoods hag, a rousing dramatic conclusion, some mild titillation (Minette goes skinny-dipping at one point), and several rough'n'tumble fights between the two principal conflicting siblings. Moreover, the competent acting by the sturdy cast holds this picture together, with especially sound contributions from Betty Lynn as Pierre's sweet wife Lili, Harry Lauter as dissolute rich dude Clay Lanier, Tyler McVey as the easygoing Dr. J.B. Opie, and Howard Wright as amiable old-timer Cob. The crisp black and white cinematography by Tom and Vincent Saizis makes nice occasional use of wipes. A fun diversion.
A press-release bio item, from Howco-International's release of this Bon Aire Production called "Louisiana Hussy", on Robert Richards informs the reader that Richards Has "......recently taken up cooking and is attempting Alice B. Toklas' complicated recipes."Well, her recipes, combined with crawdads, okra and hush puppies, possibly goes a long way in explaining this bayou hash-bash. Brothers Pierre (Robert Richards) and Jacques Guillot (Peter Coe) are partners in trading furs and Spanish Moss---"give ya'll a couple of bushels of moss for a bucket of that stuff Alice B. cooks with"---and Jacques is hacked off at his brother because Pierre is about to marry Lily (Betty Lynn)and Jacques thought he had the inside track on her...and he did, until Pierre gilded Lily with some Alice B. brownies. So, bad-loser Jacques refuses to attend the wedding, and is out gathering moss with his assistant Cob (Howard Wright) when Callie (Helen Forest), an old Gris-Gris woman, who can mix up a mean mess of grits, leads them to where she has found a badly beaten and unconscious young woman (Nan Peterson.) They get her to Doc Opie (Tyler McVey)just as Pierre and Lily are being escorted to their new home by friends following their wedding. Ol' Opie asks Jacques to carry the beautiful stranger into the newlywed's house where he has her put to bed. Pierre, wishing to prime his new bride with some Alice B. goodies, naturally resents this intrusion and takes an instant dislike to this girl who calls herself Minette. He steps into the bedroom and tells her she has to hit the road but she throws her arms around him and kisses him...just as brother Jacques passes the bedroom window. Jacques is irked by this turn of events.He gets more irked later when wily Minette tells him that Pierre had forced his attention on her while she was ill. Jacques moves her into his shack to protect her from Pierre who is, of course, innocent but glad to get her out of his house. Meanwhile Doc Opie brings Pierre and Lily a New Orleans newspaper showing a very beautiful woman identified as Mrs. Minette Lanier (Rosalee Calvert)who had recently committed suicide in the neighboring exclusive community of Grange Hill, a Louisiana landmark because it was three feet above sea level. Pierre and Lily hustle down to "Nawlenes" and look up Clay Lanier (Harry Lauter)who has been on a prolonged binge ever since his wife's suicide. But his talky servant, Burt (Smoki Whitfield) tells them that the real Minette had been crippled after falling off a horse, and Clay had brought Nina Duprez to his home as a companion for Minette. Nina is more interested at being Clay's companion and pulls a few tricks and incidents that convinces Minette that Clay is carryin' on with Nina, and she ups and shoots herself. Clay knows her suicide was engineered by Nina, almost kills her and tries to kill himself, but Burt interferes and, during the scuffin' scuffle, Nina manages to escape and collapses from the beating and exhaustion at the spot where Callie found her.Clay sobers up and decides he will go after Nina and finish the job. But the film wimps out after that and nobody else dies and, when last seen, Nina is boarding a Toonerville Trolley heading west.
I had to rate this movie a 7/10, because it is a highly entertaining bayou trash romp. The intermittent sex scenes are especially humorous, thanks to the director's and cast's attempts to push the censors' envelope of acceptability to the limit for '59. In fact, the characters' intertwined shadows sometimes get away with more than the characters themselves do! Then there's lots of fightin' and fussin' to keep you interested between the romantic interludes.We saw this on public TV's One Star Theatre a few years ago, and had a blast watching it. The lead "hussy" is completely unscrupulous and immoral, and she's played against nice, sweet Betty Lynn ('Thelma Lou' of Mayberry fame) to great effect. Enjoy this one for all it's worth, if you can find it!!