The Night Bird

THE NIGHT BIRD recently came out on DVD paired with the utterly absurd NIGHT OF THE SPANISH FLY from our friends at Vinegar Syndrome. I was expecting THE NIGHT BIRD to be a hedonistic disco-themed adult movie, and I certainly got that - with music even better than I could have hoped. I just wasn't expecting a portrait of no hope lives in the big city.

Briefly, Southside (Marcus Valentino) is a small time hustler with some questionable friends who finds himself desperate to escape from the cycle of conflict (conveyed by some slurs casually tossed around) and exploitation (picking up gals and coercing them into "fun") that surrounds him. He catches a glimpse of a young woman one day and she captivates him. But what he really wants to do is learn how to dance...

Little does Southside know that Maggie (Misty Winter aka Christie Ford), the woman who caught his eye, is the owner and bartender of an underground disco called The Night Bird. In addition to the drinking and dancing, The Night Bird offers a little more for its patrons. And Maggie is more than willing to give private dance lessons...

The stories of Southside and Maggie only converge at first through Lou, a friend of the former who works for the latter (and is probably an "investor" in the production wink wink). That is, until a surprising twist leads Southside to The Night Bird. He and Maggie finally meet and she teaches him how to dance...and maybe leave behind his old life.

I don't know who "Felix Daniels" is or was, but this was surprisingly compelling. There's plenty of anonymous sex, to the point where most performers aren't even billed. But the characters we get to know are interesting. Marc Valentino is sympathetic even when he's sleazy, and Misty Winter shows a charisma I didn't see from her in That Famous Porno We Dare Not Name. There is some sort of flashback/fantasy sequence involving them that I don't understand and leads nowhere, but mostly, I wanted to see what happened to them. High praise indeed.

THE NIGHT BIRD at IMDB

THE NIGHT BIRD at IAFD