It’s almost Halloween, so cue the Twilight Zone theme and let’s get weird.
For your consideration, I submit the story of an exploitation filmmaker named Ron Ormond. Ormond had a lengthy and varied career as a film producer and director, and some of his later, stranger work was shot in and around Memphis and Nashville (where Ormond died in 1981). These films featured fiery Southern preachers, like Estus Pirkle, and visions of the afterlife that look like they were shot on location inside one of David Lynch’s nightmares.
Here's a little taste of Heaven as imagined by Ormond.
And if you thought that was special, you can go straight to Hell.
Ormond, who was born Vittorio Di Naro, launched his career as a stage magician working under the name Rahn Ormond. In the 1940s, he formed a business partnership with early cowboy film star Lash LaRue to develop and produce low-budget films about high adventure in the Old West. As an exploitation film pioneer, Ormond also helmed such anti-classics as White Lightning Road, Please Don't Touch Me!, and Untamed Mistress — a tale of innocence, love, and killer gorillas.
Later in his career, Ormond wrote books about eastern mysticism, hypnotism, and psychic surgery. He also shot performances of Nashville’s hottest country-and-western stars for a music-oriented film called 40 Acre Feud.
Ormond allegedly shot commercials for a few Memphis-area businesses, including White Rose Dry Cleaners. If any of these have survived, they don't seem to have made it onto the internet.
