By JIMMY McDONOUGH (FAB Press; 2023)
The Ormond family, consisting of husband Ron, wife June and son Tim, were crucial players in the category of 20th Century exploitation cinema. I find it hard to believe this large format hardcover is the first book devoted to the Ormonds, but it’s finally here, and more than delivers on its promise. THE EXOTIC ONES can safely be crowned the definitive textual resource on all things Ormond, featuring a mind-roasting plethora of illustrations that encompass posters, flyers, family photos and reproductions of newspaper and book pages (it being a book that doesn’t merely cite its sources but pictures them as well)—plus it was written by Jimmy McDonough.
McDonough is one of the top biographers on the scene, having turned out vital books on Russ Meyer, Neil Young, Al Green and, most importantly to this review, Andy Milligan. The latter volume (The Ghastly One) was notable for its unusually intimate perspective (with its admission that “Not many biographers get to wipe the ass of their subject, but I did”), and a similarly up close-and-personal angle is present in THE EXOTIC ONES, whose content is enhanced by McDonough’s personal acquaintanceship with June Ormond (which led to a 1987 FILM COMMENT article that formed the impetus for this book).
June’s not-entirely-reliable italicized recollections (in which she’s invariably the hero of every scenario) comprise a large portion of the book. McDonough also seems quite interested in the opinions of HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN’S Kier-La Janisse, who gets an eye-opening amount of ink (down to her opinion of this text, as McDonough makes sure to inform us that Janisse “read an early version of the manuscript and told me how terrible parts of it were”). Another recognizable name is that of filmmaker and Ormond obsessive Nicolas Wending Refn, who gets a “Presented By” credit and plays a direct role in the final chapter, in which he assumes the guise of “a shadowy figure in the background…controlling everything Ormond, shifting people and money around like Howard Hughes.”
Not to worry though, because McDonough’s inimitable voice remains front and center. It’s evident in the copious personal and political asides—we learn much about the author’s health and finances, neither of which are encouraging, and get several anti-Trump screeds—and abundance of McDonough-isms like “UNTAMED MISTRESS is a circus peanut of a movie and just as devoid of flavor, color or taste” and “he had just left town, a black-clad ghost on the road to nowhere.”
This “secret history of American entertainment” began in Portland, Oregon, circa 1935, when Ron Ormond first met June, a vaudeville performer since age 14. The two were married and formed a vaudeville partnership, with June serving as booker and packager, and Ron tasked with writing and staging. It was in the late 1940s that the Ormonds branched off into filmmaking, with a string of westerns starring Lash LaRue. They quickly became distributors as well as filmmakers, and in 1950 birthed Tim. The early fifties saw the Ormonds begin turning out the exploitation quickies for which they’re best known, such as MESA OF LOST WOMEN (1953) and PLEASE DON’T TOUCH ME (1959), before relocating from Hollywood to Nashville, where they made “Hicksploitation” pictures like WHITE LIGHTNIN’ ROAD (1965) and THE GIRL FROM TOBACCO ROAD (1966).
But then, in October 1967, Ron, June and Tim were involved in a near-fatal plane crash that radically changed their orientation. Following THE EXOTIC ONES (1968), a trash-fest that marked a “screaming explanation point” to their exploitation movie endeavors, the Ormonds decided to turn their filmmaking skills to more spiritual ends.
They teamed up with the Mississippi based evangelist Estus Pirkle, a complex figure for whom the author admits a grudging admiration (“Whatever one might think of the man, there is no denying Estus Pirkle devoted his life to a spiritual mission and never weakened nor flinched”). With Pirkle, the Ormonds made the outrageous evangelical screed IF FOOTMEN TIRE YOU, WHAT WILL HORSES DO? (1971), followed by THE BURNING HELL (1974) and THE BELIEVER’S HEAVEN (1977), before the Ormond-Pirkle relationship dissolved in a morass of jealousy and distrust. Yet the Ormonds kept going, releasing 39 STRIPES (1979), Ron Ormond’s last directorial credit before his 1981 demise. Tim would up directed the following Ormond productions (IT’S ABOUT) THE SECOND COMING and THE SACRED SYMBOL (both 1984), neither of which attracted much success, and followed them with miscellaneous film and video projects.
June passed in June 2006 and Tim currently resides, impoverished and cancer-ridden, in a friend’s basement. As McDonough states near the end of the book, “Which of us will be standing when this book comes out? Lord knows.” I’m glad to report that as of THE EXOTIC ONES’ August 2023 publication, Tim Ormond and Jimmy McDonough are both still upright.