The Opening of Misty Beethoven
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Opening of Misty Beethoven is an American hardcore pornography film released in 1975. Produced with a relatively high budget and filmed on elaborate locations in Italy and New York City with a musical score, it owes much to its fastidious director Radley Metzger (directing this film as Henry Paris). The film features footage from Le Sexe qui parle (at the cinema where Misty (Constance Money) gives a handjob to an old man).
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Plot
In an adult erotic take-off of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion (and its derivative, My Fair Lady), the film is about a sexologist who tries transforming a low-skilled prostitute into a goddess of passion. While he tries to prepare her to seduce a homosexual artist, it is he for whom she develops feelings. In this film, Henry Higgins (of Pygmalion) is replaced by Dr. Seymour Love, the sexologist, played by Jamie Gillis. Eliza Doolittle (of Pygmalion) becomes Dolores "Misty" Beethoven, who is played by Constance Money, and Colonel Pickering becomes Geraldine Rich, played by Jacqueline Beudant. During the film, Misty achieves "elevation" better than Love and Rich had hoped and then cuts them off, as in George Bernard Shaw's play. However, this film then sees Misty return, take over for Dr. Love, and run the "school". Dr. Love is present but in a very subservient position. It is clearly Misty that is in charge by this time.
Critique
In an era in which pornography was just beginning to be widely released, most movies of that time were expected to have at least minimal plots. Misty's plot was more elaborate than most; it was based directly on the Pygmalion legend and, more recently, George Bernard Shaw's play of the same name, as well as the Broadway and Hollywood success My Fair Lady. The film is also satirical, with many added comic touches and dialog designed for laughs.
The Opening of Misty Beethoven has the distinction of being the first widely-released porn movie to feature female-on-male pegging.
Trivia
- In the cinema where Misty (Constance Money) gives a handjob to an old man, the film shown is Le Sexe qui parle.
- The film was extensively analyzed in Hard Core: Power, Pleasure by Linda Williams
See also
- Andy Warhol filmography
- Erotic art
- Erotic films in the United States
- Erotic photography
- Golden Age of Porn
- List of American films of 1977
- Sex in film
- Unsimulated sex
