The Legend of Lady Blue

This adult movie from 1979 makes a common mistake among "good" porno films, the mistake of getting you interested in the story. You sit there nodding your head; "aha" "hmm-mm" "So the young lovers are separated by Vietnam, how positively horrifying!'. Then, BANG, endless orgies follow and 40 minutes later you are left wondering: Who is that man? That man, of course, is the leading man that you probably remember from the movie, whose plight managed to bring such tears to your eyes, before all sweaty flesh-feasts.

The lead is studying to become a doctor, a sexscene follows and suddenly he is a taxidriver. You get the feeling that the director turned the camera around from the real movie to film a hairy crotch instead. Although we are talking about XXX here, story and sex can function together, a difficult balance that this movie doesn't really fix.

A blueprint for the so-called couples films released even today, but a good deal more accomplished than most, this epic walk down the rocky road of romance swept up most of the AFAA (Adult Film Association of America) Awards the year it was released. Credited director "A. Fabritzi" was revealed by late adult film critic Jim Holliday in his essential 1986 tome ONLY THE BEST as really being former Hollywood character actor Jesse Pearson, already deceased by the time the book was in print and best remembered for playing the pivotal Conrad Birdie character in George Sidney's popular 1963 adaptation of hit Broadway show BYE BYE BIRDIE.

While 1978 was a banner year for the US adult industry (seeing the release of such instant classics like CANDY STRIPERS, EASY and V – THE HOT ONE to name but a few) and performers bloomed into near-legitimate superstars, it seems remarkable in hindsight that Pearson selected two unknowns for the fairly demanding lead roles in his opus. Maureen Spring was part of the orgy action in Paul Levis' INTIMATE ILLUSIONS aka BOILING POINT and had a small role as the sex android with henpecked husband Jack Wright in Sam Weston's SEX WORLD. John Smith, a genuinely handsome bloke and a decent thespian, apparently never made another movie. Both turn in sensitive, subtle performances as star-crossed small town lovers Iris and Casey respectively. On the cusp of the Vietnam era, she harbors dreams of Hollywood stardom while he plans to enlist in the Marine Corps. On his last day before shipping off, Casey tenderly takes his girl's virginity in a truly beautiful outdoor love scene to the strains of Johnny Pearson's timeless (and presumably public domain, considering the number of porn flicks this tune has turned up in) "Sleepy Shores".

As they try to keep in touch through letters, life happens, stomping all over their youthful innocence. Casey takes up residence in a Vietnam brothel for a long, spellbinding sequence with Phaedra Grant (the lady with the banana from Bob Chinn's original CANDY STRIPERS) servicing the men in uniform. Both Casey and his hometown buddy (Billy Dee, billed as "Obi Wahn" !) only have eyes for a sad local girl (one time performer Faye Young) who had her vocal chords irreparably damaged on the field of, er, honor. Meanwhile, Iris has fallen at the mercy of predatory lesbian Tinsel Town agent Gloria Leonard (former editor of HIGH SOCIETY magazine and star of many a Golden Age classic, including Radley Metzger's THE OPENING OF MISTY BEETHOVEN) who seduces the naive young hopeful with a master's touch in one of the most erotic Sapphic encounters ever. Through all this, the once devoted couple loses track of one another until their accidental meeting a few years down the line on Hollywood Boulevard as Casey, now a taxi driver, picks up a classy-looking streetwalker who turns out to be his childhood sweetheart. Can true love survive ?

Like most Golden Age adult films (i.e. those made roughly between 1972 and 1986), this looks and feels very much like a "real film", a feat that never ceases to amaze those weaned on present day porn. The story has a beginning, a middle and an end and actually manages to keep viewer attention throughout. Lighting and cinematography are every bit as professional as anything pouring out of mainstream studios at the time. Dialogue is plausible, intelligent and effectively delivered by people who can act as well as do the deed in front of the camera. Apart from those already mentioned, some attention must be paid to the reliable John Leslie (now one of the more interesting directors in the field) as Casey's mischievous army buddy Buzz. If you've only ever heard of porn's Golden Age and want to check out some of the adult classics of yesteryear, I can think of far worse places to start.

When I read the review of the great critic Nodriesrespect on this website, I was expecting a great masterpiece in the style of "Roommates", "Getting Personal", "Blonde Ambition" or "Matinee Idol" but, without wanting to belittle it at all, I cannot consider it to be on par with those latter mentioned. Without a doubt, the cinematographic quality has nothing to envy of many mainstream works of level, but "The Legend of Lady Blue" has, in my opinion, a great defect in form. It presents what seems to begin as a rural drama about a couple of lovers who decide to flee from their respective toxic families to take different paths in their lives, and to continue being "engaged" from a distance to meet again at some point and culminate their romance. The drama and morbidity that this situation could have given us is sadly dissipated due to an erratic script that does without the main couple to divert attention to parallel moments that do not contribute anything to the leitmotiv of this piece, not even in the sexual context. The sexual numbers of the main couple are deliberately cut out, making the script stagger between ridiculous characters and boring or unfinished sex sessions. Not even at the end, when we finally get to enjoy Maureen Spring explicitly exercising (I allow myself to remember that this is a pornographic film) the oldest profession in the world, are we shown anything at all beyond softcore and a lot of bullshits by the co-starring cast in the form of clients. Nor does John Leslie's role make any sense here, if we stick strictly to the story. Nevertheless, it is a film that I still consider remarkable, if only for the splendid exercise of direction and sensational staging.