User Reviews

I saw MISTY over 30 years ago at a Cleveland drive-in showing, and it has haunted me ever since (its quality so contrasting with the typical junk shown at those since-extinct venues). Seeing it on DVD recently I was still mightily impressed at filmmaker Joe Sarno's command of his medium -it's my favorite among his 100-plus works.

Rebecca Brooke toplines as Melissa Smith (nicknamed Misty), who enters waif-like out of the storm to a local inn, destined to change the lives of all the folks she encounters in the small nearby town (shot atmospherically on Long Island).

Fable-like tone is set in the early reels with effective sound effects of the storm outside (vaguely reminiscent of John Huston's KEY LARGO), as barfly Fred J. Lincoln recites the tragic "Ballad of Melissa Gray", about a vengeful moon goddess. Format resembles a Eugene O'Neill play (with sex added) or at least a live TV broadcast from the '50s of "Playhouse 90".

SPOILERS ALERT:

Misty is searching for her mother, who abandoned her to a foundling home 22 years ago, so it isn't surprising when a late in the film revelation establishes her parentage. Chief among the people she'll affect is an unconventional trio who've formed a menage a trois for the past six years: artist Andrea (Jennifer Jordan, billed as Sarah Nicholson), her lesbian lover Elaine (Jennifer Welles) and the man they share, George (Eric Edwards).

Taken by Misty's beauty, George suggests that she model for Andrea, setting in motion inevitable rifts in the previous status quo.

Meanwhile, a key subplot involves Gretchen (Chris Jordan), her husband and her aunt - a homely church lady who is constantly preaching the gospel to anyone who will listen. Sarno, in effective softcore mix & match sex scenes (this after all was made as an Adult Film back in 1975, though strictly soft X, not XXX) injects his favorite theme of incest as well as effective contrast of Nature vs. Intelligence using these three characters as template.

The inn's owners, including an uncredited Roger Caine (seduced by Misty) and his wife Essie (Julia Sorel, also from ABIGAIL LESLIE), also figure prominently in the narrative, along with its only resident guest, Edgar, for which Jamie Gillis provides a wholly different, sympathetic characterization compared to his usually nasty persona of the mid-'70s.

Other key players keep the pot boiling, including previous superstar (of XXX) Helen Madigan as Ellen (an adulterous married woman everyone gossips about), who gives Gillis a carefully framed softcore blow job. The unusual casting of an unknown middle-aged actress as Aunt Elvira pays off with her unusual topless sex scenes -not the typical porn star casting by a long shot.

Gothic ending with Jennifer Jordan alone at the rocky seaside as the Ballad is sexily voiced over as a lament: terrific.

Besides the wonderful ABIGAIL LESLIE (yes, that's the correct spelling, shown in the trailer if not the Sarno print used for video issue) that shares 7 cast members with MISTY, I recommend highly several films made in the same period with many similarities: Roberta Findlay's THE CLAMDIGGER'S DAUGHTER (Edwards and Chris Jordan get the leads), Chuck Vincent's MRS. BARRINGTON (very similar cast but with Kim Pope toplined) and the hardcore SUMMER OF LAURA (Edwards and Madigan, shot on Fire Island).

Sarno isn't interesting enough for me to study him. He's a sort of American Jess Franco, someone who seemingly just wants to make movies. Then if you added sex, in its peculiar soft core versions, you could make movies.

Some soft and hard core porn from this era really is interesting. This one is not as worthy as some I have commented on. But it does show that Sarno was plugged into the cinematic theories of the times. At least so far as story. The cinematic vision here is incompetent, even though he clearly had some notions (beach, wind, boats) about what might be done.

The story concerns a small town, and a mysterious young woman who — abandoned at birth — is looking for her mother. The town is populated by young adults who frequently engage in threesomes, thus earning the bread and butter. I have to say that though there are no genitals or pubic hair, this has it all over today's porn, simply because the bodies are normal ones.

But all that's uninteresting. Where the adventure comes in is in the layers. There is a ballad about a sprite who comes from the sea. It is repeated throughout by the town's balladeer, as a sort of fateful premonition. This merges with a song of similar lyrics sung relentlessly whenever our girl, Misty, is not being coy. The song is sung by a woman folksinger, a term we used to use in those days.

Then there is a visiting artist, with two women assistants, one an artist and the other a writer. They noodle with each other of course in artsy ways, and "discover" Misty as their subject for representing their versions of the local legend. See where this is going?

Finally, you'll find that there is a religious nut in town, someone who spouts religion and piety. Midfourties I'll guess. Turns out that she is repressed. Yes, folks, we have sex scenes with her as well. And of course she turns out to be the mother, and the thing ends with daughter directing (but not involved in) her pleasure.

All in all, it took some diagramming to get this straight, and I suppose some of these notions came from Gary Graver, pornmaker who was hanging out with Orson Welles.

I saw this together with the Joan Crawford, Walter Hustom "Rain." This was by far the better film, and where the other left a dirty task, this one seemed to weave a refreshing cosmology of urge.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.