Joe Sarno week (June 16 – 22) Joe Sarno was called the Bergman of 42nd St, but don’t let that stop you from watching his movies! He was able to shape dramatic stories that were entertaining and of-the-moment while working with tight budgets and inexperienced performers but he never lost sight of why people were buying the tickets – HOT SEX!

A lot has changed in the decade between Joe Sarno’s monochromatic sex without sex movies. Porno chic has already arrived, movies need to be in color and sexual liberation was already growing boring to some but the specter of AIDS had not yet come to haunt us.

Quite literally, Abigail Leslie (adult star Jennifer Jordan, who used the name Sarah Nicholson and who also appears in Sarno’s Misty)is indeed back in Baypoint, a small town where her carnal nature is still whispered about.

Also: Baypoint is actually Sarno’s hometown, Amityville.

Abigail left after her scandalous affair with married man Gordon (Jamie Gillis). Now that she’s here again, his wife Priscilla (Rebecca Brooke, who is also known as Mary Mendum) wants her to leave all over again and is not shy about telling everyone just how much she absolutely loathes our heroine.

So what does Abigail do? Well, like some hurricane of sexual force, she sleeps with anyone and everyone she wants to, including Chester (Eric Edwards) and her Aunt Drucilla (Jennifer Welles, who left adult after marrying a rich fan but not before Sarno directed her film Inside Jennifer Welles). By the time she’s done with her old town, everyone is having sex with everyone. Even Priscilla gets over her anger.

Oh yeah — if you’re wondering who Drucilla’s man is, that’s Sonny Landham from Predator.

I think that every movie made — even today, not movies but scenes on adult websites — that has a woman watching in the doorway and getting worked up owes a debt to Sarno. Yet he also takes it even further, creating a movie where a woman’s orgasm is the most holy sacrament in all of reality and really, isn’t it?

That said, I don’t buy Abigail falling in love with Priscilla and getting her heart broken by her. Sure, it adds a twist to the ending — that I just spoiled, apologies I swear — but the Abigail who arrives in town and instantly begins getting everyone to be more open and less worried about morality would pick herself up and get under or on top of someone immediately.

Also: Every single woman in this movie seemingly is both gorgeous and has red or strawberry blonde hair. I respect Sarno for who he chose to be in it and that he would try with all his power to not go full adult when the rest of the world was showing everything.