Intimate Games

Very watchable UK sex comedy from the seventies. And so very seventies it is too, with tight trousers, bright colours and long hair. Even the extensive motorway sequences ooze the seventies with the dated vehicles and roadside dwellings. The DVD box suggests sex and nudity and the movie supplies this throughout. Once or twice I noticed a strategically placed lamp or vase, but have no idea why because I'm fairly certain that every lovely looking lady in this is seen fully nude, in their hairy glory. The humour is not as annoying as is often with British films of this type and generally the acting is very good. the odd wince making remark or gesture excepted. a little too much pop psychology maybe but all in all a decent effort. mind you when sexual fantasies are the theme it would be pretty poor if something were not achieved without too much effort. I could have done without the crazy ending, however.

If you wonder why there are so many cameos by reputable actors,the reason is that this was the only film work available as the British film industry was in its usual state of near collapse.The main aim of these films was to get as many girls stripped off and ready for action as soon as possible.It really hasn't one iota of wit.

INTIMATES GAMES is a cheap British sexploitation film written and directed by Tudor Gates, the man whose main contribution to cinema was writing Hammer's female vampire trilogy (THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, LUST FOR A VAMPIRE, and TWINS OF EVIL). This film was produced by Guido Coen, a long-time producer who originally started out in the B-movie crime genre back in the 1950s.

The plot is a lightweight affair about a group of young and nubile university students who are tasked with exploring each other's sexual fantasies by their middle-aged teacher, played by George Baker in a role he preferred to forget about by all accounts. For the first half of the film, there's some mild storytelling as sub-plots featuring each of the students in turn are explored; the men are typically presented as weak and scared, the women carefree and open to exploring their sexual desires.

The second half of the film descends into farce with a serious of random vignettes, such as a guy imagining he's a jockey and riding an obese woman around or Ian Hendry cameoing as a snooker player who fantasises that his playmate is playing naked. And nudity is what INTIMATE GAMES is all about; most of the sexual fantasises just tend to be imagining girl-next-door types naked. There are a couple of stronger moments, like a lesbian interlude between softcore starlets Heather Deeley and Suzy Mandel, but much of the running time is concerned with smut. Baker must have wondered what he was doing here because he's the only recognisable face outside of the sexploitation genre and he sticks out like a sore thumb.

As soon as I heard that George Baker, an actor not known for comedy, embarrassed himself by starring in a low-budget sex comedy, I had to see the film for myself. It didn't disappoint.

This is one of those sex comedies that doesn't fit into the usual "jack-the-lad has sex with lots of girls" routine found in the CONFESSIONS films and the ADVENTURES OF films, along with films such as CAN YOU KEEP IT UP FOR A WEEK? or THE UPS AND DOWNS OF A HANDYMAN. Like COME PLAY WITH ME, it has a structure and a charm all of its own.

These 1970s sex comedies have a very British charm to them that makes people feel nostalgic due to the depiction of the 1970s as it never really was, but how people who lived in that period love to remember it. INTIMATE GAMES is definitely a film that will make many feel nostalgic about the "good old days".

The plot is as follows - a college professor divides his students into pairs so that each person in the pair can learn about the sexual fantasies of the other and write a thesis on the subject. The film starts off by playing out much like a series of vignettes featuring each of the many couples. It changes course about half-way through, as other characters enter the fray and we see their sexual fantasies. Many familiar faces such as IAN HENDRY, HUGH LLOYD, CLAIRE DAVENPORT and JOHNNY VYVIAN show up in the latter half of the film and their scenes are among the funniest.

George Baker seems to have a good time with the role, despite some sources suggesting he hated starring in the film. His college professor character is clearly a closet lecherous bloke and this stereotypical Benny Hill-type character is always funny to watch.

For those wanting to see plenty of nudity, you'll find quite a bit of it in INTIMATE GAMES, plus sex scenes. The sex scenes aren't particularly erotic, as is always the case with this type of film.

The ending to the film, and particularly what George Baker's character does, along with the results, has to be seen to be believed!

The film is very cheaply put together and makes ESKIMO NELL, perhaps the most competently produced British sex comedy of the 1970s, seem like a work of great art in comparison. But it is well-paced, unpretentious and funny.

Overall, this film would never win an award in a million years but for fans of 1970s British sex comedies, this is an absolute must-see.

A previous poster suggested this film may have disappeared because George Baker (a real actor) might have bought the rights and buried it from embarrassment. Sadly for him, that turns out not to be true -- it showed up in March, 2001 on Canada's "Bravo" Cable Network.

Bad in a strangely pointless way.