Every Afternoon

This is one of director Joe Sarno's more tepid films. Ostensibly, it is about two sisters, orphans who both work as prostitutes at the bizarre Copenhagen brothel of their "Aunt Margareta" (Diane Dors) where, among other things, the girls all dress up in skin-tight suits as various wild animals and the clients chase them around with giant butterfly nets. The sisters are renown at the brothel/showclub as the "famous Swedish sisters". The problem is though they really look nothing alike, and their main act seems be posing as topless "executioners" who tie a third, completely naked woman up, so a male "executioner" can whip her. Why you need two "Swedish sisters" to do that is beyond me. And even in the bedroom afterwards only the older sister is very skilled at, uh, pleasing the clients. It would seem to make a lot more sense to have two genuinely talented performers/prostitutes and have them just PRETEND to be sisters, but oh, well.

The "plot" involves the two sisters both meeting men outside the brothel. The older sister meets a shipping clerk while walking in the park. He tells her he's a pilot; she tells him she's a Russian ballerina. Then the man's mean-spirited boss lures him to the brothel where both their lies blow up in their mutual faces. The younger sister meanwhile meets a rich American--entirely offscreen mind you--and then just completely disappears halfway through the movie!

Although the plot obviously isn't one of them, this movie does have a few things going for it. Diana Dors is very good. Unfortunately, her character is not very well-developed--she's too amoral and money-grubbing to be sympathetic, but she never does anything REALLY evil either. (Former glamour queen Dors was also none-too-svelte at the time, so it kind of beggars belief that she's so popular with the clients). The movie also features Swedish sex bomb (hell, Swedish sex NUKE) Christina Lindberg. Regrettably, she has only a very small role though and only one brief nude scene. Finally, (descending entirely into the realm of strange personal fetishes) this movie also features a nude belly-dancing scene. I have lived in Turkey where there is not enough nude dancing, and the US where there is not enough belly dancing--but nowhere in the world is there NEARLY enough nude belly dancing. I don't if you can really take any of this as recommendation, but it's all I got. . .

I can't for the life of me recall why I ordered this film from Netflix. Watching it brought me no clue either. Although it features a past her prime Diana Dors the film has little else to recommend it. It is stultifyingly unsexy and humorless so it has neither erotic nor camp value. The DVD even has interviews with some of the "creative" team who claim that there actually was a script. Little evidence of that in the film. If you are interested in pre-hardcore erotica with some attention to plot and great cinematography I would recommend the films of Radley Metzger. They aren't GREAT films but Metzger has a wonderful camera eye and the scripts are a lot more intelligent and sometimes even interesting.

This late-period Sarno opus jettisons the social commentary that made him unique, rendering the plot a mere soap opera. The sappy score makes it seem like one of those limp British sex comedies of the period. However, the artist's vision shines through in the imaginative cabaret scenes. Diana Dors, in my opinion, is marvellous -- (intentionally) funny and professional despite her (knowingly) over-the-top performance -- she's definitely wise to her own persona here.

I recently bought this film as it seemed an intriguing title when teamed up with Diana Dors-my mind was boggling! However, I was even more mind boggled when what seemed the spitting image of Arlene Philips from Dance X fame appeared as a topless Bellydancer an hour into the film.The credit at the end is Simara Wale but is this just a stage name for this film? If anyone can confirm or deny this I'd much appreciate it. The sound taken from the master is a little worn in places with very noticeable 'pops' and 'cracks' making this film seem a lot older than it actually is. I did enjoy the film though as this is from a bygone era when what you saw was what you got i.e. no falsies or plastic surgery etc.

Every Afternoon (1974)

** (out of 4)

Mix of melodrama and sex/nudity from director Joseph W. Sarno takes place in a Copenhagen brother being ran by Aunt Margareta (Diane Dors). Inside the walls the main story focuses on two orphan sisters who find themselves living two different lives with one quickly falling in love with a man. This film, also known as Swedish WILDCATS, isn't really something that's going to appeal to too many people. I guess fans of Sarno will want to take a look at it but I'm willing to guess that the majority of viewers are going to be fans of Christina Lindberg. Obviously she's such a sex goddess that her fans are going to watch anything she's in but sadly she has a very small part here so her fans will probably be disappointed. As for the film itself, I think it's obvious that Sarno wanted to be the Douglas Sirk of sexploitation pictures. There's no question that he has a certain talent in making these sex pictures look a lot better than they probably deserve to be but at the same time the melodrama is just so dry and boring that it's pretty hard to really care about anything that's going on. The love stories involving the sisters really aren't that interesting and even worse is that the film really doesn't have much plot anyways. The performances are pretty much above average for this type of film and that includes Dors who really makes her character a lot more entertaining than it deserved to be since it's pretty one-note. EVERY AFTERNOON really isn't going to appeal to many people but it's slightly well-made and has some nudity to help keep it moving along.