Fans of Roberta Findlay's work, either her solo porn and horror efforts or '60s tandem porn films with hubby Michael, should be surprised by the technically proficient, rather moving melodrama THE CLAMDIGGER'S DAUGHTER. It is unfortunate that she didn't continue in this mode.
Unfortunately, the Something Weird DVD-R revival runs 20 minutes short, with scenes missing and every soft sex scene cut to ribbons. Print quality (what there is of it) is OK, so this must have been a case of a surviving print having gone through the "Cinema Paradiso" mutilation by anonymous projectionists over the years.
I found Chris Jordan quite moving as the hapless heroine Prudence Jasper, stuck in a small New England seaport taking care of her drunken, disgruntled daddy Clem Jasper. The story unfolds in the manner of a Silent Era melodrama, with one expecting Lon Chaney Senior to pop up at any moment, but Ms. Findlay makes sure there are soft X (rendered R in the SWV bowdlerized version) sex scenes from time to time.
The atmospheric locations, replete with Gothic waves crashing on the shore and even the interiors often having beautiful landscapes showing outside the windows, are a big plus, as well as well-composed shots by d.p. Steve Colwell.
Eric Edwards (Jordan's real-life husband) is suitably dashing as Prudence's boy friend Jason Hammond, who wants to flee the constraints of this small town life with her, but is scheduled to wed socialite Abigail (Kim Pope in another moving performance) instead. His dad Capt. Hammond is not the expected heinous villain, but in fact misunderstood by irrationally vengeful Clem.
The star-crossed duo flee briefly to NYC where Prudence's step-mom Hilda runs a brothel, and she almost is forced into the life of a sex slave. When they return home the melodrama comes full circle with an effective twist ending that again would be more likely in a circa 1920 movie.
Findlay's direction of her actors is commendable, and an eye-opener considering the broad or even non-acting in most of her other films. I saw this film, in its full-length version, in the late '70s at a Cleveland drive-in and was struck by its serious tone, quite a contrast to the comedies, action movies and horror films that were typical triple features at ozoners in those days. Around the same time I caught Chuck Vincent's Mrs. Barrington and Joe Sarno's Confessions of a Young American Housewife at drive-ins too, and these three soap operas (all with overlapping casts) should be seen as a group, representing a brief but fascinating diversion from the usual hardcore assignments for these same actors and directors in the mid-'70s. It should be noted that all 3 films had the same cinematographer, Steve Colwell, who also shot a very romantic hardcore film (overlapping cast, too) SUMMER OF LAURA, in this time frame -his work is in need of re-examination.
Soundtrack makes good use of classical themes (Beethoven, Bruckner, Debussy, Franck, Tchaikovsky and Bach all receive an unusual credit on-screen) plus sea shanties, as well as "Love Potion #9" played during a striptease scene at a local bar.
