jfrentzen-942-204211

This German film serves up a heavy dose of melodrama, making it difficult to digest despite the fine acting of Barbara Ruetting and Carlos Thompson. Anette Klinger (Ruetting), an intelligent, and wealthy but lonely and widowed factory owner, meets Nikolei Stein (Thompson), a gas station attendant. She falls in love with him, unaware that he is a ruthless fraudster after her money. Anette ends up destitute in the slave quarters of Cairo. Thompson portrays a heel of almost mythic proportions, focusing on swindling Anette while also double-crossing other women. Good acting support is provided by Wolfgang Preiss and Kai Fischer. This film was released (with English subtitles) in the U. S. in 1965.

The pretensions of this exploitation movie make it a bit more ludicrous than most. The makers have confused stilted, cliched dialog for insights as the film pretends to probe the psyche of a young suburban housewife (Zee Wilson) who is degraded and subjugated by her sexually hung-up husband (Ed Moore). But then the meager plot and characterizations are secondary to the major concerns here -- sex with an emphasis on perversity. Visually the movie has the gaudy look of a TV commercial, the brightness of which makes the amateurishly played sex scenes even more ludicrous. Director Alfred Viola, who showed promise in a few of his movies, and followed INTERPLAY with a slightly more ambitious "hickspoitation" drama, PREACHERMAN, which like INTERPLAY was also pitched into "adults only" movie theater venues. Harvey Flaxman, who wrote INTERPLAY, later wrote and produced the lackluster GRIZZLY (1976). All of these artists were active in movies filmed in the Southeast U. S.

The love story of a priest (Robert Forster) and a rich, pretty social worker (Lauren Hutton) succeeds as enjoyable, slick entertainment. But when the movie strives for more depth -- a critical examination of controversial Catholic issues, for instance -- it is less successful. The questions of celibacy, abortion, and other topics are treated simplistically, most often used as plot devices. A Hollywood gloss, exemplified by an unfortunate romantic theme song, covers over everything including the filmmakers' serious intentions. Director Daniel Haller directs with TV-movie level efficiency and a measure of sensitivity toward the subject matter. While Hutton's sophisticated looks and style fit her role, Forster comes across as a talented actor impersonating a priest. They are both, however, extremely attractive, they speak their well-written lines well, and they are handsomely photographed.