Ms. 45
Ms. 45 (from Weird and Wonderful II: Fifty More Cult Films by George Hughes, available from freefall-productions.com on 02/11/20)
1981 / US / 80 minutes
“Get bent!”
Director: Abel Ferrara / Screenplay: Nicholas St. John / Director of Photography: James Lemmo / Music: Joe Delia / Production: Mary Kane for Navaron Films / Cast: Zoe Lund (Thana), Albert Sinkys (Albert), Darlene Stuto (Laurie), Helen McGara (Carol), Nike Zachmanoglou (Pamela), Peter Yellen (Burglar).
In 1979, Abel Ferrara, the “Poor Man’s Scorsese”, had unleashed his raw, brutally uncompromising debut feature The Driller Killer on the world. Incredibly cheap, endearingly amateurish and surprisingly funny, the film benefited hugely in the UK from a tabloid campaign against it (most of it’s detractors probably hadn’t even seen it as it’s nowhere near as extreme as they made out), which inadvertently built it’s reputation up to “So good they tried to ban it” levels.
1981 / US / 80 minutes
“Get bent!”
Director: Abel Ferrara / Screenplay: Nicholas St. John / Director of Photography: James Lemmo / Music: Joe Delia / Production: Mary Kane for Navaron Films / Cast: Zoe Lund (Thana), Albert Sinkys (Albert), Darlene Stuto (Laurie), Helen McGara (Carol), Nike Zachmanoglou (Pamela), Peter Yellen (Burglar).
In 1979, Abel Ferrara, the “Poor Man’s Scorsese”, had unleashed his raw, brutally uncompromising debut feature The Driller Killer on the world. Incredibly cheap, endearingly amateurish and surprisingly funny, the film benefited hugely in the UK from a tabloid campaign against it (most of it’s detractors probably hadn’t even seen it as it’s nowhere near as extreme as they made out), which inadvertently built it’s reputation up to “So good they tried to ban it” levels.
Ferrara, a genuine Italian American street character from the Bronx, took on the title role himself (under his “Stage” name of Jimmy Laine) and had made The Driller Killer to capitalise on the success of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. After a decade of making self- financed shorts (as well as one full- on porn film produced as another potential breakthrough to getting paid work), the film’s notoriety put Ferrara on the map and enabled him to get proper funding for his next project.
His second, much more professional, feature would eventually become Ms. 45. Written by Ferrara’s old schoolmate Nicolas St. John, Ms. 45 follows Thana (Zoe Lund), a mute garment worker in New York, who is raped on her way home by a masked man (“Jimmy Laine” in a brief cameo) and then raped again by a burglar in her apartment when she gets there.
Thana is able to overpower and kill the second attacker but the traumatic events trigger a dramatic change in her personality. Already sick of being talked down to by her boss and nosey landlady and just wanting to be left alone and keep her independence, she makes a decision to deal with everything herself. After taking the burglar’s gun, Thana begins disposing of his body by sawing it up in her bathroom and gradually dumping the severed limbs in other peoples’ bins.
She also starts carrying the gun, at first as self- defence but after shooting a man about to catch her with a bag of body parts, Thana becomes an avenging vigilante. She goes out every night to follow and kill pimps, gang members and any other men she sees abusing women. When she shoots a lecherous photographer who had been coming on to her and her co- workers, Thana takes her spree to the next level- no longer just killing men she feels threatened by but those who simply irritate her and finally almost any who cross her path.
Shot entirely on location on the streets of the city in it’s filthy, sky-high crime rate early ‘80’s “Big Rotten Apple” era (what happens to Thana isn’t treated as unlikely bad luck but as geographic inevitability), Ms. 45 has a look and atmosphere similar to that of Escape from New York or The Warriors but has more in common with contemporaneous revenge thrillers like The Exterminator- what makes it stand out as something much more daring though is it’s unique focus on a female protagonist who never speaks.
Zoe Lund- who was seventeen when the film was shot- had just come third in a casting competition to find the female lead for Times Square (1980). “I happened to know the guys who were doing that talent search” Ferrara recalled in 2002, “And they said “We’ve got the girl for you. We know they’re not going to use her, because she’s too whacked for these people, but she’s awesome”. So for our $60,000 movie, we had a $1 million talent search”!
Lund then aggressively pursued the part, finding out where Ferrara lived and coming round to pretty much demand it (“She already had the script worked out and analysed” he explains in a recent documentary, “She wasn’t auditioning- she was auditioning me”). She would later co- write Bad Lieutenant with Ferrara and lived a bizarre but tragically short life during which she developed a heroin addiction before her death in 1999.
Ferrara, who had brought most of his key collaborators from his early works with him for Ms. 45 (one exception was his regular cinematographer Ken Kelsch who’d asked for too much money), was on top form throughout the production and the film led to him and his crew getting a lot more work throughout the ’80’s (for Ferrara himself most of it was on Michael Mann’s TV projects Crime Story and Miami Vice).
Whilst Ms. 45 does take elements from the ubiquitous cheap vigilante and “Rape Revenge” films of it’s day, it goes far deeper into psychology and symbolism than any of them (most examples of both subgenres are actually fairly vapid exercises in either idiotic right wing gun culture celebration or voyeuristic exploitation dressed up as female empowerment).
On repeated viewings, it’s the surprising subtleties of a seemingly completely unsubtle film that really stand out. Thana’s victims are all so busy talking at her that most of them probably never even notice she doesn’t speak herself. It also becomes clear that it’s an inability to sleep that first sends her out stalking the night streets and that uninvited touch is her main trigger. All of this is brilliantly- and completely silently- communicated through Zoe Lund’s incredible performance.
Although released in Europe as Angel of Vengeance (given that we thankfully don’t share the US firearm obsession to the point of most of us knowing our calibres by heart), there remains some debate as to whether the film’s correct title is technically “Ms. 45” or “Ms .45” but I’d say the point is that it’s obviously both- it just depends on who’s writing it.
Whilst too much of a low budget curiosity to have a massive impact, Ms. 45 nevertheless influenced a lot of other filmmakers and artists. Neil Jordan’s The Brave One (2007) is pretty much an updated and respectable A- list remake in which Jodie Foster’s much more verbose victim turned avenger puts into words that she “Survived by becoming someone else”. All- girl Grunge outfit L7 wrote one of their first songs about the film and Ferrara’s own The Addiction shares a similar basic plot (just presented in a completely different way).
Finally, the performance of “Phil”, the beaky landlady’s dog is to be especially commended as a brilliant bit of work from a non- professional “Animal Actor” the production got from a local pound (also giving pets human names is always hilariously funny). And Joe Delia’s dated but effective synth jazz score is one of the most catchy and memorable you’ll ever hear.
His second, much more professional, feature would eventually become Ms. 45. Written by Ferrara’s old schoolmate Nicolas St. John, Ms. 45 follows Thana (Zoe Lund), a mute garment worker in New York, who is raped on her way home by a masked man (“Jimmy Laine” in a brief cameo) and then raped again by a burglar in her apartment when she gets there.
Thana is able to overpower and kill the second attacker but the traumatic events trigger a dramatic change in her personality. Already sick of being talked down to by her boss and nosey landlady and just wanting to be left alone and keep her independence, she makes a decision to deal with everything herself. After taking the burglar’s gun, Thana begins disposing of his body by sawing it up in her bathroom and gradually dumping the severed limbs in other peoples’ bins.
She also starts carrying the gun, at first as self- defence but after shooting a man about to catch her with a bag of body parts, Thana becomes an avenging vigilante. She goes out every night to follow and kill pimps, gang members and any other men she sees abusing women. When she shoots a lecherous photographer who had been coming on to her and her co- workers, Thana takes her spree to the next level- no longer just killing men she feels threatened by but those who simply irritate her and finally almost any who cross her path.
Shot entirely on location on the streets of the city in it’s filthy, sky-high crime rate early ‘80’s “Big Rotten Apple” era (what happens to Thana isn’t treated as unlikely bad luck but as geographic inevitability), Ms. 45 has a look and atmosphere similar to that of Escape from New York or The Warriors but has more in common with contemporaneous revenge thrillers like The Exterminator- what makes it stand out as something much more daring though is it’s unique focus on a female protagonist who never speaks.
Zoe Lund- who was seventeen when the film was shot- had just come third in a casting competition to find the female lead for Times Square (1980). “I happened to know the guys who were doing that talent search” Ferrara recalled in 2002, “And they said “We’ve got the girl for you. We know they’re not going to use her, because she’s too whacked for these people, but she’s awesome”. So for our $60,000 movie, we had a $1 million talent search”!
Lund then aggressively pursued the part, finding out where Ferrara lived and coming round to pretty much demand it (“She already had the script worked out and analysed” he explains in a recent documentary, “She wasn’t auditioning- she was auditioning me”). She would later co- write Bad Lieutenant with Ferrara and lived a bizarre but tragically short life during which she developed a heroin addiction before her death in 1999.
Ferrara, who had brought most of his key collaborators from his early works with him for Ms. 45 (one exception was his regular cinematographer Ken Kelsch who’d asked for too much money), was on top form throughout the production and the film led to him and his crew getting a lot more work throughout the ’80’s (for Ferrara himself most of it was on Michael Mann’s TV projects Crime Story and Miami Vice).
Whilst Ms. 45 does take elements from the ubiquitous cheap vigilante and “Rape Revenge” films of it’s day, it goes far deeper into psychology and symbolism than any of them (most examples of both subgenres are actually fairly vapid exercises in either idiotic right wing gun culture celebration or voyeuristic exploitation dressed up as female empowerment).
On repeated viewings, it’s the surprising subtleties of a seemingly completely unsubtle film that really stand out. Thana’s victims are all so busy talking at her that most of them probably never even notice she doesn’t speak herself. It also becomes clear that it’s an inability to sleep that first sends her out stalking the night streets and that uninvited touch is her main trigger. All of this is brilliantly- and completely silently- communicated through Zoe Lund’s incredible performance.
Although released in Europe as Angel of Vengeance (given that we thankfully don’t share the US firearm obsession to the point of most of us knowing our calibres by heart), there remains some debate as to whether the film’s correct title is technically “Ms. 45” or “Ms .45” but I’d say the point is that it’s obviously both- it just depends on who’s writing it.
Whilst too much of a low budget curiosity to have a massive impact, Ms. 45 nevertheless influenced a lot of other filmmakers and artists. Neil Jordan’s The Brave One (2007) is pretty much an updated and respectable A- list remake in which Jodie Foster’s much more verbose victim turned avenger puts into words that she “Survived by becoming someone else”. All- girl Grunge outfit L7 wrote one of their first songs about the film and Ferrara’s own The Addiction shares a similar basic plot (just presented in a completely different way).
Finally, the performance of “Phil”, the beaky landlady’s dog is to be especially commended as a brilliant bit of work from a non- professional “Animal Actor” the production got from a local pound (also giving pets human names is always hilariously funny). And Joe Delia’s dated but effective synth jazz score is one of the most catchy and memorable you’ll ever hear.
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