Louisiana Hussy (1959)

Director: Lee Sholem

Starring: Nan Peterson, Robert Richards, Peter Coe, Betty Lynn, Howard Wright, Harry Lauter, Rosalee Calvert, Moki Whitfield, Helen Forrest

More info: IMDb

Tagline: BORN TO MAKE TROUBLE!...she was the kind who moved right in!

Plot: Brothers Pierre and Jacques Guillot are partners in trading furs and Spanish Moss and Jacques is mad at his brother because Pierre is about to marry Lily and Jacques thought he had the inside track on her. Jacques refuses to attend the wedding, and is out gathering moss with his assistant Cob when Callie, an old Gris-Gris woman, leads them to where she has found a badly beaten and unconscious young woman. They take her to Doc Opie just as Pierre and Lily are being escorted to their new home by friends following their wedding. The doctor asks Jacques to carry the beautiful stranger into the newlywed's house where he has her put to bed. Pierre takes an instant dislike to this girl who calls herself Minette. He steps into the bedroom and tells her she has to go but she throws her arms around him and kisses him...just as brother Jacques passes the bedroom window. Later, 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. The doctor brings Pierre and Lily a New Orleans newspaper showing a very beautiful woman identified as Mrs. Minette Lanier who had recently committed suicide in the neighboring exclusive community of Grange Hill. They go to New Orleans and look up Clay Lanier,who has been on a prolonged binge ever since his wife's suicide. His servant, Burt, 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 carrying' on with Nina, and she commits suicide. Clay knows her suicide was engineered by Nina, almost kills her and tries to kill himself, but Burt interferes and, during the fight, 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.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? I think so.

"There's this movie made in 1959 called LOUISIANA HUSSY..."  Stop!  That's all I need to know.  I digs me some backwoods tramp flicks.  Maybe it's because I grew up in the South and I've met gals like that or maybe it's just because of the salacious nature of these films and their subjects. The first half of this slutsploitation picture is fantastic.  Minette (Duprez) is aptly named.  She's the hussy, the bad news slut, and boy is she good at what she does.  When she's introduced to the "family" it's friggin' ON.  She wastes no time in earning that home wrecker reputation.  And that Pierre succumbs to her so easily on his wedding night (WITH HIS WIFE IN THE NEXT ROOM!!!) gets major points in my book.  I have a high appreciation for talent and I really enjoy watching someone at the top of their game.  Anyway, that first 45 minutes is great.  It's fast paced, skeezy and there's lots of turmoil between the brothers and Lili and Minette (and the cool thing is Lili really likes Minette).  There's lots of testosterone and estrogen bandied about. 

Once the pieces of the puzzle start to come together and we discover Minette's (now know by her real name of Nina) dirty little secret and how she ended up where she is, the action and pacing slow down for a shit ton of exposition.  While the ride levels out for a while, Nina's prior naughtiness is downright evil.  She's one conniving tramp!  The shit hits the fan when all of the major players know the scoop and Nina splits to find her next victim.  It sure would have been nice for this to be more risque (i.e. how about some nudity) which it was at the time but if this were made a half dozen years later it would have been REALLY pushing the sleaze envelope.  The ending is bizarrely handled.  When Nina hitch hikes and an unsuspecting sap pulls over to help, the music is hokey and comical and the dialogue is silent, like it's a comedy or a light hearted romp.  WTF?  Strange.  We need more films like this.  Feel free to send me some recommendations.  I'll put them at the top of the list to watch.