Suburban swappers get an interesting examination in this very typical Joe Sarno flick from one of his most creative periods. It was created and distributed as porn, and as such stands out for quality in that genre.
I wish Joe had gotten a mainstream assignment, as his take on PEYTON PLACE or the like would have been fascinating. Sexy young heroine Karen is matter-of-fact about sex, with plenty of "neglected housewives" dialog in place of the expected action (and bed time).
Karen's husband is Louis Waldon, porn staple who in fact co-starred with Viva in the first XXX fiction feature, Warhol's BLUE MOVIE. The main cast is quite familiar from other '60s Sarnos, except for Crystal Snow as Penny, who organizes swapping parties. Crystal is a ringer whose day job was probably working as a stripper, even though she looks like a porn equivalent to Joan Baez (!).
With a spare musical score, mainly trademark percussion (plus water torture by the monotonous pinging from a faucet), plot unfolds very slowly, teasing the viewer. Karen finally goes topless for the fans -worth waiting for (the actress Sheila Britt steals Joe's later movie, MARCY). Essentially, Sarno stages the actual sex action just below the bottom of the frame, a clever way of avoiding censorship.
Mrs. Sarno, with cute Loiuse Brooks hairdo, is way classier looking than the rest of the cast, and is fun doing a tasteful striptease to seduce her friend Mona's husband Les (George Wolfe).
SPOILERS ALERT:
Melodrama intrudes when teens figure out the swapping routines of their elders, leading to sleazy subplots involving blackmail and rape. Monica Davis reveals the biggest breasts in the movie, paired off in a sex scene with young Jay. The older generation's swapping activities are unmasked when Jay randomly picks his own mom during one of their party match-up games.
At this point Sarno heads for the gutter with an ultra-sleazy sequence of Crystal as Penny ordering all the men to gang-bang Kathy (Sarno's go-to best actress Joanna Mills), taking incriminating photos in order to prevent her from squealing on all of them. Crystal's poor acting ruins this climactic scene.
Tacked-on happy ending has Mona (Patricia McNair) and hubby Les packing their bags to leave this sordid community and start a new life.
Clearly Sarno knows his way around soap, and presaged the nonsense of a "Desperate Housewives" 40 years ahead of time. A major studio giving him seasoned thesps might have resulted in a fully-realized, quality film. Instead we have these merely guilty pleasures, heads and shoulders better than their underachieving contemporaneous porn counterparts.
I wish Joe had gotten a mainstream assignment, as his take on PEYTON PLACE or the like would have been fascinating. Sexy young heroine Karen is matter-of-fact about sex, with plenty of "neglected housewives" dialog in place of the expected action (and bed time).
Karen's husband is Louis Waldon, porn staple who in fact co-starred with Viva in the first XXX fiction feature, Warhol's BLUE MOVIE. The main cast is quite familiar from other '60s Sarnos, except for Crystal Snow as Penny, who organizes swapping parties. Crystal is a ringer whose day job was probably working as a stripper, even though she looks like a porn equivalent to Joan Baez (!).
With a spare musical score, mainly trademark percussion (plus water torture by the monotonous pinging from a faucet), plot unfolds very slowly, teasing the viewer. Karen finally goes topless for the fans -worth waiting for (the actress Sheila Britt steals Joe's later movie, MARCY). Essentially, Sarno stages the actual sex action just below the bottom of the frame, a clever way of avoiding censorship.
Mrs. Sarno, with cute Loiuse Brooks hairdo, is way classier looking than the rest of the cast, and is fun doing a tasteful striptease to seduce her friend Mona's husband Les (George Wolfe).
SPOILERS ALERT:
Melodrama intrudes when teens figure out the swapping routines of their elders, leading to sleazy subplots involving blackmail and rape. Monica Davis reveals the biggest breasts in the movie, paired off in a sex scene with young Jay. The older generation's swapping activities are unmasked when Jay randomly picks his own mom during one of their party match-up games.
At this point Sarno heads for the gutter with an ultra-sleazy sequence of Crystal as Penny ordering all the men to gang-bang Kathy (Sarno's go-to best actress Joanna Mills), taking incriminating photos in order to prevent her from squealing on all of them. Crystal's poor acting ruins this climactic scene.
Tacked-on happy ending has Mona (Patricia McNair) and hubby Les packing their bags to leave this sordid community and start a new life.
Clearly Sarno knows his way around soap, and presaged the nonsense of a "Desperate Housewives" 40 years ahead of time. A major studio giving him seasoned thesps might have resulted in a fully-realized, quality film. Instead we have these merely guilty pleasures, heads and shoulders better than their underachieving contemporaneous porn counterparts.