The Louisiana Hussy (1959) User Reviews

The carnal crimes of a backwater babe

[melvelvit-1 · 5/10 · 31 October 2007]

Down in Cajun country, two brothers, Jacques and Pierre Guillot, are in love with the same woman and tensions boil over when the girl, Lily, decides to marry Pierre but on the day of the wedding, Jacques finds a badly beaten woman in the bayou and brings her home. The girl, Minette, immediately makes a play for Pierre but it's Jacques who falls hard and the brothers come to blows. The newlyweds do a little digging and discover the girl recently seduced a wealthy landowner which drove his wife to suicide but her past catches up to the unscrupulous tart as she's chased through the swamps with a gun and run out of town once more. The brothers make up as Minette puts the make on a passing motorist.

This type of trashy titillation rarely pretends to be anything other than what it is: low-budget grind-house and Drive-In exploitation fare. The familiar plot line echoes the Beverly Michaels cult film WICKED WOMAN (1953) and predates Russ Meyer by a few years in its depiction of a brazen backwoods tramp. Nan Peterson makes a voluptuous Minette and plays the nymphomaniac with relish from the opening sequence of her fleeing on horseback with bullets whizzing past her head to the closing shot where she's lustily digging her nails into the back of the Good Samaritan who's stopped to help her. The story only spans a few days but this voracious vixen seduces nearly every man she meets within minutes. Nan plays her bedroom scenes in a white bra (two years before Janet Leigh in PSYCHO) as the shadows on the wall make coitus very clear.

Stories like this have been known to have loftier intentions and deeper meaning lurking beneath the sex and sin. The premise of a man stumbling upon an unconscious girl and bringing her home to his family -only to have her rip their world apart- is a universal one and can be seen in such diverse films as Luis Bunuel's Mexican SUSANA (1950), Finland's THE WITCH (1952), and Italy's Gothic LURE OF THE SILA (1949) with Silvana Mangano. THE LOUISIANA HUSSY is enjoyable nonsense with only one thing on its mind and doesn't outstay its welcome. Betty Lynn ("Lily") would go on to play good girl "Thelma Lou" on Andy Griffith's "Mayberry R.F.D." and the country doctor who uncovers Minette's secret is named "Opie". Go figure.

Southern fried drive-in pot boiler of the sort they don't make any more isn't high art but okay for what it is

[dbborroughs · 5/10 · 8 July 2009]

Racy tale on the bayou as a rich hussy escapes from her husband and ends up coming between a newly married fisherman, his wife and his partner, his brother. Its lots of exposed flesh as the woman tries to play every side against each other for her own amusement and profit. Things get even more complicated as the husband shows up. This is a real southern fried pot boiler of the sort that they don't make any more.

Okay tale of love and lust in the swamp is an amusing example of the sort of film that undoubtedly played in the drive in across the south in the late 1950's and early 1960's. I liked it for what it was, but I don't think I need see it again.

there must be something else on

[ksf-2 · 4/10 · 21 June 2023]

Jacques and pierre have always been competitive brothers. When jacques is out gathering moss (fish, furs, and moss!), he finds a girl passed out, and brings her to pierre's house so she can recuperate. Of course, she's nothing but trouble. And...it's pierre's wedding day. You'll recognize pierre's new wife lily. Betty lynn was "thelma lou" on andy griffith. There is some really terrible acting in this one. The sound and picture quality are so substandard... this looks like a film from 1930! And the story runs like a john waters film, without the fun, silly charm. Skip this one. I expected it to be parodied on mystery science theater, but no such luck. Directed by lee sholem...he had directed a couple "ma and pa kettle" films, as well as a couple of tarzans. This one just turned out bad.

Unbelievably Bad But Fun

[earlytalkie · 22 May 2013]

This film, which has an intriguing story and good location photography, is one of the most inept productions I've ever seen. Nan Peterson makes Cleo Moore look like a great actress in the name role. She struts around in tight clothes chasing everything in pants. The male actors, whose names I forget, win the prize for possibly the worst acting ever in a sound film. The laughable fight scenes are choreographed so poorly it makes one long for the old Republic serials. The only decent acting job in this potboiler comes from Betty Lynn, known mostly today from her role as Barney's girl friend in The Andy Griffith Show. According to Wikipedia, this screen classic was released in April, 1959 which I find puzzling. One scene has our lovely heroine doing a sleazy twist, a dance which, I believe, was not popular in 1959. In the last sequence, the lovely Miss Peterson is seen seducing a passerby driving a 1961 model Cadillac. Perhaps this screen gem was re-issued in 1961 with a few new scenes inserted. Several love scenes are interpolated which are quite steamy for 1959 (61?). If you ever enjoyed the Cleo Moore-Hugo Haas epics from the same era, you will enjoy this. I began watching this streaming on You Tube, from the "Alpha Special Edition" and couldn't turn it off. My friend and I were howling with laughter during the first five minutes. "She's a bad woman-a nymphomaniac!"

Nina is just plain BAD!

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 1 April 2012]

This is a low-budget trashy film. While it's not at all salacious by today's standards, back in 1959 it was quite the exploitation film. It's the story about a she-devil named Nina. Nina is interested in two things--men and destroying marriages. And she has a track record of slutty advances on men--men who just can't help themselves! The first time you see her and her vampish ways is when she is found near death and she tells folks her name is Minette. She's taken in by a nice lady (Betty Lynn--Thelma Lou from "The Andy Griffith Show") who doesn't realize that her kindness would be repaid by betrayal. Fortunately, the husband is able to stop before it's too late--but no one believes him when he tells folks she's bad. And, her slutty ways result in her husband and his brother (and business partner) having a HUGE fight. Later, however, the husband and wife investigate and find that 'Minette' had been up to no good in another nearby town--and her slutty ways led to a woman's suicide! In many ways, this is like a white trash version of "Peyton Place"--and with lower production values. This isn't necessarily a terrible thing, as the film IS entertaining....though you might feel a bit guilty about enjoying such a nasty little film. If you do watch, look for the super-lame cat fight scene--it's funny because it's so bad. Also look for the nude swimming scene--very tame when seen today but awfully shocking back then.

Entertaining trash....so if that's what you like, then this film is well worth your time.

Fast Movin' Trash

[omerie · 7/10 · 25 May 2001]

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!!

Swamp Creature from the Back Saloon

[blankenshipdk · 7/10 · 27 July 2016]

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.

Nifty Southern-fried drive-in potboiler

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 5 September 2014]

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.

Tokin' up on Alice B's recipes.

[horn-5 · 21 December 2006]

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.