User reviews

Joseph L. Anderson's "Spring Night, Summer Night" is another sixties exploitation movie to be rediscovered and restored by Nicolas Winding Refn but this one really is something of a lost classic. Anderson filmed it almost entirely with non-professionals and shot it on location in Canaan, Ohio. It's a study of a close-knit Redneck family and of what happens when the oldest son gets his half-sister pregnant and it reeks of authenticity, helped considerably by the stunning black and white cinematgraphy of Brian Blauser, David Prince and Art Stifel.

There isn't a great deal in the way of plot and the performances have a ropey, if real-life, feel to them but it's clearly the work of someone who knew his movies and whose influences were as much European as American but who went on to make only one other film before disappearing. Unmissable if you can track it down.

This is really no more than a modest little film, made by young enthusiasts, about a poor farming family in rural Ohio with the added ingredient of an unorthodox love story. It is, however, a stunningly beautiful and engaging film with another tale to tell. Back in the 60s the film was mistreated and ignored, finally being re-edited as a sexploitation movie for the drive-ins, retitled, Miss Jessica is Pregnant. With the help of Nicolas Winding Refn the original has now been reassembled with a 4K restoration and amazingly has absorbed a couple of the sexploitation movie inserts to aid clarity of story. Watched today this is most impressive with arty photography combined with naturalistic acting. Indeed apart from John Crawford nobody here had done anything in film before or likely to do much after. With only the ambient sounds of birds or bluegrass music spilling out of the bar for a soundtrack and those wondrous misty landscape views as a background, the close-up and most convincing antics of the various participants sustains the viewer as the slight but dramatic and personal tale unfolds. Poetic.

Here's a film richly deserving of wider exposure. Can't someone pick it up for distribution? It's been described as "the missing link between THE LAST PICTURE SHOW and SHADOWS", which isn't quite on the mark. I think a better pair comparison could be made between the early semi-documentary films of Willard Van Dyke and Pare Lorentz and SHADOWS, due to the casting of unknowns and non-actors in all roles.

Seen nationally in 2005 as part of the Rural Route Film Festival (under the title SPRING NIGHT, SUMMER NIGHT), this film manages to focus on the taboo topic of incest without being sensational in the slightest, and that's only one of its amazing facets. A stark, black and white drama set (and filmed) entirely in southeastern Ohio, amidst the farms, gas stations, bars and simple homes of the area, it's filled with beautiful and memorable photography. This is not a "verité"-type outing of the "DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY" variety at all, but an extremely nuanced, melancholy tale of two lovers who may or may not be brother and sister (depending on which story they believe from which parent) with stunning set pieces on foggy hills, in musty barns, dimly-lit dinner tables, on dusty roads. Intensely moving and superbly acted, it feels nearly perfect and is a total anomaly for late-1960s independent cinema, so often considered an urban-based art form.

For a film revolving around incest, Spring Night, Summer Night is surprisingly restrained, captivating, and ultimately beautiful. The characters, writing, and production are all far better than I expected, and really remarkable for a film made in the late 1960s.

The filmmakers were quite brave for taking on this subject matter. This film could easily have turned to trash in less adept hands. Yet they somehow managed to tell this story in away that feels authentic and is almost entirely non-sensational. The entire film feels like a documentary really. The dialog and acting come across as real in a way that few films ever successfully pull off, especially older films. The film never explains anything to you, and the characters rarely can explain themselves, and yet you still walk away feeling like you know all of the characters and even the town itself.

The cinematography is also wonderful. Often intimate, it makes you feel like part of the scene. This isn't common in films of the era and it's done really well here. The bar scenes are the highlight for me. There are also some excellent creative shots that are beautiful yet not overly showy.

The audio design also stands out. There is no background music and audio is often jumbled. A family dinner for example is appropriately noisy, with family members talking over each other combined with the sounds of the meal itself. Sometimes part of a conversation will be drowned out by a passing car. Again, this all makes you feel like part of the scene instead of passively viewing it.

Overall, this is just a remarkable film: sometimes beautiful, other times thought provoking, and always captivating. It's like nothing I've seen from the era and I highly recommend it, even if the plot description turns you off.

I believe this is a beautifully filmed movie, with the actors who are said to be inexperienced giving perfect performances.

I was involved in the production and on the set most of the time, and there are a few comments that are misleading or incorrect in reviews and other comments.

At one place it states that the bar scenes were filled in Columbus Ohio. In fact at least one of the bar was shot in in Athens Ohio, with the bar closed to walk ins. I seem to recall the bar scene was shot late at night long after regular closing hourrs. Some regular patrons, and other people were acting as extras given a few dollars, to drink and dance in a perfectly normal and unrehearsed way while the actors performed their scenes.

At least one scene done is a test was shot in Columbus Ohio, with the actors on a city bus without the bus driver or the best patrons being told in advance that the scene was going to be shot. The actors in the cameraman just paid their fair and got on the bus. I'm not sure if this scene was used in the movie or not.

One place states the movie was shot in Caanan 0hio, but only part of the movie was shot there. Some of it was shot in Athens Ohio and much of it was shot in the woods and farm country surrounding Athens. Part was shot on a farm that was in the highest point in Miegs County ( near Athens County) overlooking the Ohio-West Virginia border. Locations were carrfully scouted to be perfect, and were not all centrally located. One town not far from Athens Ohio, a town that had fallen on hard times when the coal mines were exhausted, and this matched the town in the story of the film. Well the film was being shot there, an incorrect room is circulated among the townspeople that the film was about a rich woman who like to go into these Appalachian towns and pick up Appalachian men because they were the most fun. When a couple of people ask me if this was in fact the story, I told him I could not discuss it, although I knew that was not the story.

Athens Ohio itself was a University Town so it's not entirely suitable as a location for some parts of the film.

One of the reviews tells that the daughter of a film distributor named Joseph Brenner found that the word pregnant had never been used in a film title before, so she suggested the title be used as Miss Jessica is Pregnant. A somewhat chopped up version of the film with gratuitious nudity added was released on this title. However this title along with many others was suggested by the crew while they were shooting the film and trying to come up with a title. I think some considered a possible serious title. So the title was not entirely the idea of distributor Brenner's daughter, although she may have advocated for it. Someone on the set suggested the title Appalachian Apple would leave the film open for a sequel to be called She was Rotten to the Core. I do not recall the title Spring Night, Summer Morning being discussed on the set, but in some ways it is a perfect title evoking the mood and artistic progression of the film. The film was made on a staggeringly low budget with some equipment such as dollies and lighting reflectors manufactured by hand from available parts rather than being rented along with the cameras etc. Everyone in the cast and crew was dedicated and worked hard. The work was much harder then it would have been in the studio film with money to burn and every imaginable accessory. I think the results are astonishing astonishingly good. Naturalism is perfectly achieved without a hint anywhere of amateurism or any sign of I have restricted the budget. 0ne thing in in the description of the film I read on Internet movie database is totally misleading, and I wish it could be changed. The two characters do not have a "fling" in any sense. They are not partying for being mischievous or having fun. They are drawn to each other as by a compulsion which they resist with all the power that is in them, in which they do not even acknowledge to anyone. There's no sensations in the film on the surface. Done entirely with restraint, at times wasn't apparently slow pace like the best films of Bergman well the audience knows heavy things are happening under the surface. As a result, when confrontations or other passions break out, these moments carry a far heavier impact. At the same time without slowing the story, there's a picture of rural farm life, life in the depressed towns of Appalachia, moments of humor, and wonderful black and white imagery of the area. There's no shot in the film I think which is not carefully composed.

Distribution problems occurred for the film, and arrangements were made with Joseph Brenner Distributors for a cut up version with added nudity to be distributed as, I think, part of a double feature largely in drive-ins in the South, an unfortunate fate for such a fine work. I later met someone the exploitation film industry who told me Joseph Brenner had a reputation for bad bookkeeping, and this man guessed that the film would have made more money for Joseph Brenner associates then he would have reported to the production company.

Everything about SPRING NIGHT SUMMER NIGHT is remarkable. From the making of the movie to its unlikely odyssey through the grindhouse circuit and final rediscovery and restoration to what the filmmakers intended. It all began in 1967 with the completion of a personal project for director J. L. (Joseph) Anderson. Anderson, an instructor of film studies at Ohio University had already made 3 short films informally known as the "Bluegrass Trilogy" because of their soundtracks, in the early 1960s. Those films, FOOTBALL AS IT IS PLAYED TODAY (1961), HOW SWIVED (1962), and CHEERS (1963), are all included as part of this Flicker Alley Blu-Ray/DVD combo release.

Anderson then wanted to make a feature length movie based on the principles of Italian neo-realism cinema substituting small town Americans for post-WW II Italians. The people would be the citizens of Shawnee, Ohio (renamed Canaan for the film), a once thriving mining town that had fallen on hard times following the closing of the mines. The focus would be on one fictional Appalachian family with their dashed hopes that had either seen better days or held out the prospect of a life that was going nowhere.

The focus is on two half-siblings, Jessie and Carl, who have a one night tryst that results in Jessie becoming pregnant and Carl running away before coming back to face up to his responsibilities. As it turns out, things are not what they seem and the pair leave together with the hope of a brighter future. However the real stars of SPRING NIGHT SUMMER NIGHT are not the young people nor their parents (played by professional actors) but the local townsfolk and the surrounding locations that were used in the movie.

Shot over a period of 2 years, SPRING NIGHT SUMMER NIGHT was entered into a couple of arthouse festivals as a work of independent cinema. Sadly it was not well received in Europe and then was bumped at the last minute from the 6th New York Film Festival which would have given it credible exposure. In a desperate attempt to recover costs and pay his non-professional crew, Anderson sold the movie to exploitation king Joseph Brenner who re-edited the film, added a couple of X rated sex scenes, then released it to drive-ins as MISS JESSICA IS PREGNANT. After the initial run, it disappeared until 2008 when it was discovered in a basement at the University of Iowa.

The restoration of the original footage was a labor of love that took 7 years. Fortunately director Anderson was still alive and got to see the restoration in 2015. In an interview at that time, he talked about the making of the movie and its convoluted history. That interview along with several other bonus features are included in this Blu-Ray/DVD release. They include short films on the restoration, scenes and outtakes from the original movie and MISS JESSICA IS PREGNANT, as well as the aforementioned "Bluegrass Trilogy". The movie and all the other materials look great and have clean, crisp sound. All in all this is a fascinating look at an important and almost forgotten look at American independent cinema from the 1960s. Once again Flicker Alley has come through by providing film students and lovers of cinema with a remarkable release...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.