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ABIGAIL LESLIE IS BACK IN TOWN
Directed, Written, and Edited by Joe Sarno
Director of Photography - Bil GodseyAbigail - Sarah Nicolson
Priscilla - Rebecca Brooke
Chester - Eric Edwards
Alice Anne - Chris Jordan
Bo - Sonny Landham
ABIGAIL LESLIE IS BACK IN TOWN is not only the best Joe Sarno movie that I've seen, but I'd go so far as to say it's the single best movie ei Cinema has released on any of their labels. This melodrama capturing small town sexuality is all about liberation in the face of whispered hypocrisy. It's about releasing repression and being true to who you are. It's about being comfortable in your own skin and admitting who you are.
Abigail and Priscilla were once close. In their teenage years they would spend their weekend doing what most small town kids do, getting drunk and laid, and the movie is pretty frank about all the character's sexual pasts. Abigail mentions that she lost her virginity at age 12 and liked it then and much as she does now. At one point Abigail refers to the now prim and proper Priscilla as "hot a bitch as you or me." The malice in Abigail's voice make it sound as if she's out for revenge.
In their early adulthood, Abigail and Priscilla had a falling out. Both women became married, but Abigail never lost her sexual appetite. One evening, Priscilla finds Abigail screwing Pricilla's husband. Abigail's husband divorces her, her parents leave town, and Priscilla is left trying t save her marriage. The irony is that when Priscilla, all drunken smiles and laughter, followed the moans through Abigail's house, she obviously expects to walk in Abigail with someone other than Priscilla's own husband.
When Abigail returns to town a few years later, she has vengeance in her eyes and old scores on her mind. Believing Priscilla ignited the spark that led to her divorce, Abigail immediately goes about bedding her former friends and their husbands. When she starts in on Priscilla's husband again, it appears that the two are headed for a confrontation. Again, that's how events appear on the surface.
For the sake of discussion, I'm about to do something I try never to do: Reveal a key plot spoiler because it puts the film's events into a context; this is key to understanding the movie. Besides, not to be insulting, but I'm guessing the average ABIGAIL LESLIE viewer isn't watching this movie for the plot.
Abigail and Priscilla were in love with one another, and to this day they still harbor intense unspoken and unresolved feelings.
Abigial is quick to point out the differences between love and lust. As she says, she can do it 4 or 5 times a day as long as there was a different partner each time. To Abigail, sex is more than just a recreation-- it's a release. As a young woman, it was a release from the young girl of her childhood. As a teenager, it was a release from the confines of small town life. As an adult, Abigail realizes that sex can release her friends from the pedestrian lifestyles they've adopted. Abigail believes her friends sold themselves out because that's what expected of them, and by doing so they've made their lives miserable.
The night Priscilla found her husband and Abigail in bed together, it was the closest Abigail could get to Priscilla. Priscilla didn't see the desperation of the act, nor could she admit the betrayal she felt. Priscilla never spoke to Abigail again, at least not until she sees her marriage falling apart again. Before, Abigail bedded Priscilla's husband to be close to Priscilla. Now Abigail does it to lure Priscilla out from the walls she's built around her suburban existence.
Feminist film critics could argue the merits of ABIGAIL LESLIE IS BACK IN TOWN endlessly. On one hand it paints women as either subservient or whore-like, and on the other it speaks volumes about sexual liberation. In a role-reversal, men are often portrayed as meat. PREDATOR'S Sonny Langdon portrays Bo, an older woman's boy-toy who is loaned out to housewives in need of "some strange." Former 70's hardcore actor Eric Edwards is Chester, Abigail's new neighbor whom she pounces on when she sees the potential for an incestual relationship between Chester and his spinster sister, Alice Anne.
Abigail's sexual appetite can be seen as a form of empowerment, one that she's attempting to share with her old friends. Abigail is the sort of free spirit who isn't burden with any sort of moral code to restrain her actions.She knows what feels good and she knows how to get it. You could argue that she's a sexual predator, but I think that's a limited of view of what Abigail is trying to do - share her enjoyment with those she cares for. Predators think only of themselves.
With Priscilla, there are emotions that go along with Abigail's lust. Before, Priscilla never gave Abigail the chance to defend the adulterous affair, which is where Abigail's initial resentment stems from. Abigail never had the chance to confess her love, Priscilla closed her out. This time Abigail's going to make Priscilla come to her. Abigail's actions might be misguided, but sex is all she knows.
Despite the massive amount of sex and full frontal nudity found in ABIGAIL LESLIE, this is not a pornographic release. Joe Sarno has crafted an adult melodrama that deal with adult sexual issues and their moral implications without resorting to hardcore pornography. While sex is the selling point, it isn't Sarno's only point. Sarno concentrates on the themes that embody what the sexual revolution was all about, from repression to liberation, and in fact that's exactly why Abigail Leslie is back in town, she's starting her own revolution to free her friends.
The Retro Seduction Cinema dvd transfer is gorgeous, far better than most grindhouse transfers that I've seen. The disc also contains a Joe Sarno commentary as well as interviews with Sarno and his wife/producer Peggy. The only other feature is a Sarno trailer vault. The usually praiseworthy ei Cinema presentation isn't up to par with this issue, but in an odd way I'm glad. ABIGAIL LESLIE IS BACK IN TOWN is too good a movie to be overshadowed by supplemental features. As I said in the opening, ABIGAIL LESLIE is the best movie ei has ever released.