MOONLIGHTING WIVES

MOONLIGHTING WIVES

1959 must go down as the biggest year in the history of adult cinema. Three films from three equally decadent film directors ushered in the genre of softcore pornography and the big screen as we knew it was never the same again. Russ Meyer's The Immoral Mr. Teas, Ted Paramor's Not Tonight, Henry and David Friedman's Adventures of Lucky Pierre all brought naked women to the big screen. With an insatiable crowd of curious fanatics rushing to their local theatre complex to see whether these reprehensible sex pictures lived up to their scandalous reputation, sexploitation cinema found a new home in the mainstream and would never go back to being underground again. Russ Meyer's The Immoral Mr. Teas became the very first successful sex picture, earning Russ Meyer a glitzy reputation among the cinematic elite with four of his features ranking among the 1000 top-grossing films of all time. Although opinions may remain divided over whether sex pictures of the Russ Meyer calibre are worthy of critically acclaimed reviews, the cinematography and passionate drive of Russ Meyer and the other early sexploitation film directors, however, is at the very least deserving some accolade. The history of motion picture would have been a pathetic institution if sex were simply relegated to the cutting floor. Sex pictures aren't exactly poisonous. Tasty maybe, but not poisonous.

1961 was another big year for adult cinema; Joe Sarno burst onto the scene and brought with him his own brand of sex cinema. Sarno was a fresh and innovative talent who quickly became one of America's most prolific sexploitation film directors. With carnal intelligence and sharp precision, Sarno embarked down his own distinctive avenue of filming sex pictures by inserting them with blood-thumping erotica not found anywhere else. Although Russ Meyer was undoubtedly the king of sleaze and of the sexploitation genre as a whole, Joe Sarno, however, was the undisputed king of the erotic side of sexploitation with only Radley Metzger in distant pursuit. Sarno was a gutsy director who had the audacity to go where no other film director went before; delving into the intricacies of the sexual imagination, exposing erotic fantasies and creating intensely magnetic love triangles that wallowed in all things taboo. His psychological insight into the realms of erotic sexuality and understanding of sexual conflict was a much-needed refreshment when compared to the pictures of Russ Meyer and David Friedman. This, however, is not designated to level criticism at Russ Meyer and David Friedman - who were most prolific and (in)famous giants of the sexploitation film industry - but to praise Joe Sarno for providing the sex cinema enthusiast with a different kind of sex picture. Joe Sarno is a legend in his own right, and even after all these years his films still retain the power to both shock and titillate. When it comes to filming erotic taboos and sexual-empowering women, nobody comes close to Joe Sarno. Purchase Moonlighting Wives to find out why.

The premise of Moonlighting Wives follows the machinations of Mrs. Joan Rand, a mother, a wife, and a part-time stenographer who is frustrated with her and her husband's inability at putting bread on the table. After Joan decides to confront her husband about their financial predicaments and apathetic way of life, she contemplates turning her stenograph business into a prostitution ring to rake in extra money. Whilst she conceals her devious intentions behind a resilient mask of dignity and respect, she begins to acquire premises and secret locations in which she is to ply her trade. Once her intentions are set in stone and the possibility of a more lucrative lifestyle becomes harder to resist, she begins enlisting her neighbouring housewives into a world of prostitution and sexual indulgence, promising them beforehand of a more rewarding livelihood and happy frame of mind. It doesn't take long, however, for Joan's decadent ambitions to gravitate towards a brutal excessiveness that begins to lure her away from everyday living.

Her business immediately takes-off with enormous success, but in order to keep her underground trade profitable and reasonably strong, she carelessly discards all her reservations by embarking down a perilous path of recruiting younger women to satisfy the sexual greed of her increasingly wealthy clients. She even employs one of her sex workers as a sadistic warden to condition the other women into complying and conforming to the standards of what is expected of them. If any of the women are in any way caught contemplating an escape to alert the authorities about what is going on behind closed doors, Joan and the brutal warden throw away any compassion they once had by threatening the vulnerable women with whips. The women, therefore, have no option but to comply with these stringent demands, otherwise they all face the prospect of public condemnation. The sad fact of the matter is that the majority of the women working in the prostitution ring are very respectable housewives leading obedient lives in a society that still considers it immoral for women to be the breadwinner of the family. Therefore, we can only imagine what the reaction would be if the public discovered that the women earned their wages by pleasing wealthy businessmen.

Many sub-plots are inserted into Moonlighting Wives in a manner that should keep the viewers on the edge of their seats. One of them includes Joan's husband who, after becoming progressively lonely and sexually frustrated at the lengthening absences of his wife, falls into the arms of their 18-year-old babysitter (I'm not trying to include spoilers; you'll find this sub-plot mentioned on the back of the DVD cover). Another sub-plot has the local law enforcement becoming increasingly baffled at the growing number of complaints about a prostitution ring in the local area. In conjunction with mounting pressure of finding youthful girls that are eager to give their bodies over to sexual excess and indulgence, Joan Rand descends ever more into a world of emotional blackmail and wicked wife-swapping, losing touch with reality in the process and forgetting her responsibilities as a mother and wife.

Joan Rand is played by actress Tammy Latour. Her character must rank as one of the greatest characters in the history of sexploitation. At first, she creates the prostitution ring to ease the workload from her husband's shoulders and to put decent meals on the table. Then somewhere, somehow, the prostitution ring captures her with its illicit grasp and pulls her into a world of shame and debauchery where she loses touch with the real world.

Moonlighting Wives is an extremely interesting picture when you take into account the era and the social setting in which the prostitution ring is taking place. Back in the early sixties, before any aspect of the sexual revolution kicked-off, women were still encouraged to suppress their sexual desires by the male-dominated society, and any attempt to gratify their sexual desires would have almost certainly resulted in them being demonised as nymphomaniacs. In Moonlighting Wives, Joe Sarno very shrewdly criticises the bourgeois society of the early sixties without being overtly obnoxious, offensive to people with firmly established morals, or even wallowing in exploitation to get the point across. Moonlighting Wives illustrates the director's ability at focusing on character development with emotional expression being paramount, irrespective of what scandalous events are taking place.

Although Moonlighting Wives is scandalous and almost unbelievable, it is not exactly a fictional sexploitation picture. In fact, it is more of a complex drama that just so happens to be based on a true story. Apparently, there was a real prostitution ring in Nassau County, New York, in February 1964. Joe Sarno claims that he interviewed several of the thirteen women caught up in the case. The insight that he received from these frequent interviews comes across in Moonlighting Wives with clever accuracy, although Sarno admits to having created a completely different ending compared to what actually happened in reality. The finishing product is a semi-sexploitation picture that drips with unlawful shenanigans whilst portraying a realistic depiction of a prostitution ring.

Although the synopsis of this film might promise scenes of explicit sex and exploitive nudity, Moonlighting Wives is somewhat unique in that it doesn't parade any breasts or show any hanky-panky. Many Joe Sarno pictures were like this in the 1960s with many of them tragically lost - perhaps forever. However, do not let the complete lack of nudity or scenes of sex stop you from purchasing this DVD. Moonlighting Wives is a complex drama about sex without showing sex. There is enough excitement and unlawful affairs here to keep you visually aroused for a respectable 85 minutes.

Picture wise, the quality of Moonlighting Wives is not in a very good condition. There are frequent glitches and scratch marks throughout the picture with the overall texture at times appearing rather drained. However, I am not going to level criticism at Retro-Seduction Cinema for what some would regard as an inexcusable crime. Joe Sarno's pictures have been heavily neglected over the years and some of his pictures remain tragically lost. Not only have there been no unblemished prints of Moonlighting Wives found, but this picture was at one point considered lost. Looking at it from this perspective, we should be thankful that there has been a DVD release of Moonlighting Wives. We are shown in the restoration documentary how damaged and badly abused the print used for this DVD really was. It is, therefore, quite miraculous how Retro-Seduction Cinema have managed to clean and restore this picture up to the standards they have. The picture is presented in a 1:33:1 fullframe transfer. The sound (English Dolby Digital stereo) is in a much better state with only occasional hiss and distortion. This is obviously the best version of Moonlighting Wives you are going to get and it is in very good condition when keeping the print damage in mind. No official complaints here.

On the extras side of things, we are treated to some jaw-dropping features that consist of interviews, trailers, and restoration documentaries. First up we have an 11-minute interview with the director himself. He talks explicitly about his inspirations for the film - especially the prostitution ring at Nassau Country - and provides some information about the psychology of the characters. His psychological insight is always a delight to hear, because creating compelling characters has always been something Joe Sarno is good at. Next, we have a 'Moonlighting Wives Restoration' feature, which delves into problems the restoration crew had in cleaning up the film. After this, we have another feature called 'Retro-Seduction Restoration Documentary.' This 4-minute feature is about the strenuous efforts of Michael Raso and his team in cleaning up the damaged prints of previous Retro-Seduction cinema releases. These two documentaries are incredibly interesting stuff. There is also a 6-paged booklet written by Michael Bowen inside the DVD case that details the history of the film and its varied releases all over the world. Lastly, we are given four appetizing trailers of various Joe Sarno pictures (Suburban Secrets, Abigail Leslie is back in Town, Laura's Toys, and Confessions of a Young American Housewife).

Finally, any sexploitation enthusiast who wishes to grab hold of a decent sex picture that features explicit nudity and decent scenes of sex might want to overlook Moonlighting Wives. The lack of overt nudity and softcore sex did surprise me, but I still found it a very enjoyable film. Moonlighting Wives is an extremely stylish picture from a director who was exposing his more dramatic side. Although it may not be considered a full-on sexploitation feature, Moonlighting Wives is an elegant work-of-art portraying sexual illicitness and criminality in a vein not too dissimilar from an early exploitation picture. When it comes to filming forbidden goings-on behind the closed doors of 1960s suburbia, no one does it better than Joe Sarno. 9/10!

Reviewed by Pryce


 
Released by Retro-Seduction Cinema
Region 1 - NTSC
Rated 18
Extras :
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