7. Lorna (1964)
Marking the end of the nudie-cutie stage of his nascent film career, Lorna is RM's first real attempt at serious film making. Lorna is married to Jim who works in the salt mines. She is very bored with him and sexually frustrated. Whilst out bathing in the nude in a river, Lorna is accosted by an escaped convict who rapes her. Funnily enough, this doesn't traumatise her - it makes her all the more keen to enjoy sex and she brings her rapist home for further sexual adventures. Jim's co-workers tease him over Lorna's beauty and infidelity. Jim comes home early and finds Lorna and her lover in flagrante delicto. To make matters worse Jim has forgotten that it is their wedding anniversary. Not as over the top as his later movies, Lorna was an auspicious start to RM's directing career (his nudie-cuties aside) and it is unmistakably RM fare. There is a lot of emphasis placed on religion and morality in Lorna - two of Meyer's favourite pet topics. The film doesn't deserve to be written off as trash by some snobby film reviewers just because it is an RM movie. The black and white film stock adds an extra grittiness to the movie. It is gratuitously violent and sexual but also sends a strong moral message to its viewers. Lorna was the archetypal RM movie whose themes would be expanded in subsequent RM productions.