THE OPENING OF MISTY BEETHOVEN
DVD region 0. Joybear Classics.

The Opening of Misty Beethoven was made in 1976 by 'Henry Paris' - in reality Radley Metzger, already a director with an impeccable reputation for his stylish, sophistictaed softcore movies shot during the Sixties and early Seventies. Metzger would only shoot a handful of hardcore films, but is rightly hailed as a genre great for his work.

Misty Beethoven has much of the style found in his softer films - it oozes class as it reworks Pygmalion into the story ofd a street hooker who is transformed by dilettante Jamie Gillis into a sexual socialite.

With excellent production values, good performances from the cast (Constance Money as Misty and Gillis both excel) and a witty script, this is every bit as good as any mainstream movie. In fact, the only thing it lacks, unfortunately, is sexual passion - it has a detachment and coldness that, admittedly, is a requirement of the story. But it's what stops me from agreeing with those critics who hail it as the greatest adult movie ever made. It's a superb work, but no matter how sophisticated a porn movie is, it still needs a degree of sexual heat. Metzger himself did better with his SM-themed masterpiece The Image, where masterful film-making and a passion you could almost taste combined to make probably the ultimate erotic film.

Tiny criticisms aside, Misty Beethoven is a classic film, and one that everyone - adult and mainstream fans alike - should own. Joybear's DVD is sadly missing the extras found on the US release.

DAVID FLINT

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