Chastity 1969

Chastity, Cher, is a young hippie runaway who drifts and hitchhikes aimlessly, reflecting on life and love. She survives by her wits, engaging in occasional scams (such as pretending to be a gas station attendant and keeping customers’ payments) and accepting offers of rides, food, and shelter from men she meets, while firmly and coldly rejecting any sexual advances that come with these offers. Sometimes she is childlike, other times she is angry or destructive for seemingly no reason. She chose the name “Chastity” from the dictionary because it meant abstinence, purity, freedom from ornamentation, simplicity.

Chastity meets a law student named Eddie, Steve Whittaker, who is kind to her, and she briefly stays with him at his house. Next she crosses the border into Mexico and ends up in a brothel run by lesbian madam Diana Midnight, Barbara London, who takes a personal interest in her after Chastity rips off an inexperienced young male customer. The two begin a brief romantic relationship. At first, Chastity seems happy with Diana, despite Chastity’s expressed hatred of being touched. But the mood shifts, and she grows restless and angry, ultimately leaving Diana and returning to Eddie, whom she renames “Andre.”

Eddie and Chastity live together for a short time and she appears to have settled into a traditional relationship. Yet when Eddie is away, Chastity begins to hear the voices of her parents speaking about the sexual abuse she endured as a child, a revelation that triggers her trauma. Crying and overwhelmed, she overturns the dining‑room table, writes “I think I love you” on Eddie’s kitchen wall, and runs away again, heading for the highway. A truck driver pulls up to offer a lift, but Chastity hesitates about getting in. The film ends without showing whether she accepts the ride.