The Divorcee

After catching her husband Hank in bed in another woman, Betty Brant gets a divorce. This sets her on a path on unconfined sex with a lot of guys (and one girl). Ultimately, she realizes how empty this makes he feel, but only after we have watched her go through some very enthusiastic sex sessions with every man she meets. This could have been a depressing procession of repetitive scenes if not for the vivacious, voluptuous Marsha Jordan. She was unknown to me, but she was a superstar in the world of softcore movies of the late 60's. Attractive, well-endowed, and with a number of extravagant blonde hair-dos, she makes Betty a memorable lead. Also, she doesn't believe in bras.

Marsha Jordan has a field day in the title role, sleeping around and drinking herself into a stupor at every opportunity. There's enough plot and dialog here, in softcore sexploitation land, for a dozen porn films of today's nearly all-sex standard, and plenty of unintentional laughs.

Chief oddity is Marsha's allegiance to her Orphan Annie doll: she hugs it, talks to it and it turns out to be her only loyal companion. It's even there watching silently (no fantasy here) during most sex scenes. And filmmaker Stephen Apostolof uses a camera gimmick of rhythmically zooming in and out during the simulated sex, very hokey.

Most of the guys are old and ugly, while Jordan and her fellow ex-stewardess friends wear elaborate blonde wigs throughout. When a budding beau, a p.r. man for a health food organization, turns out to be lying to her (he's married) Marsha suddenly turns dom and forces him to bark like a dog before throwing him out.

Listed as a 1969 release, print titled "Frustration" has a 1966 copyright displayed on screen, which is more consistent with the absence of full nudity as well as the girls dancing topless with moves more mid-'60s in style.

Current Adult superstar Brandi Love looks surprisingly similar to Jordan, both facially and in figure, and it would be fun to see her play the softcore star in a period tribute feature.