The Sister in Law

This has six or seven nude scenes and four or five straight two-minute love-making scenes without cuts or camera movement. Take away those 15 minutes and we have a simple tale of two brothers and their hostile, but ultimately loving relationship.

John Savage is quite good. This was only his second, low budget, starring role. His character is undeveloped, as is much of the plot, but he is likable.

It is director's Joseph Rueben's first film. He went on to make a number of memorable ones, including "Dreamscape," and "Sleeping with the Enemy". He gives a nice sense of realism with scenes that are naturalistic and underacted. This is nice resume reel that shows he knows the basics of movie-making. There's a certain sweetness to the movie that makes it closer to hippie movies of this era like "Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring" than the usual exploitation films with bad innuendos, one dimensional characters and quick imitation sex scenes.

It is sad that Anne Saxon who plays the sister-in-law did not make any more movies. She plays her part with charm and fun.

Watch it as an independent, low budget character study and you might enjoy it. Watch it as an sexploitation flick and you'll be disappointed.

This was a predictable, stupid movie, that bored the hell out of me. Other than some steamy scenes, this film was a yawner. Sibling rivalry that just never seemed believable. These 2 baby faced brothers were comical with acting that was , well, lets just say not good. The film had the feel of an X-rated film with a lot less nudity and just did not deliver. Throw in a gangster ,secondary plot and the film was downright silly.Lust, seduction and lousy dialogue, made for a movie that was anything but special. Save your time folks. For the gentlemen that want to see nudity and beyond, you may as well go all out and watch a true X-rated film.

Robert Strong (John Savage) returns home to Westchester after traveling across America. His brother Edward is rumored to get a divorce from his wife Joanna. Soon flirtations between Robert and Joanna turn serious. Edward has Deborah Holt openly as his mistress. Edward is pushed into delivering a package into Canada and he convinces Robert to do it with Deborah as the prize. When Robert and Deborah find the package filled with drugs, they dump it into a stream and have sex in the woods.

This is part soft core porno that is spiced up by some crazy family romantic entanglement and a drug deal gone wrong. It doesn't work as either that well. The acting is mostly bad but the directorial style is much worst. The ending is just completely out of step. It's a bad movie.

Crown International Pictures usually had a good idea as to what drive-in product would appeal to an audience, so if you've seen this pick-up, you might be wondering along with me as to what C.I.P. saw in this exercise in boredom. The movie has a pre-fame John Savage in its cast, though his performance here is nothing to sing about. (And speaking of singing, Savage also warbles a couple of terrible-sounding songs on the movie's soundtrack.) The movie does have a healthy amount of nudity and sex, but its presented in such an ordinary way that it isn't the least bit erotic. Also, the low budget apparently affected the sound recording, because some dialogue is so muffled that it's hard to make out what's being said. But the biggest problem the movie has is that it's so slow, so uneventful for the most part, chances are you'll fall asleep before the end. Insomniacs may go for this movie, others best avoid it.

If you find this rare film on video, do yourself a favor and don't read the blurb on the back of the box. For some reason they give away the entire plot - including the ending! (It is called a "Suspense/Thriller" in the fine print. Giving away the ending ruins what little "suspense" it has. Drama is a better description for it.)

While there isn't an Amazon listing for the film; (it is long out-of-print on video), original copies can often be found on ebay, at a reasonable price.

"The Sister In Law" is notable for a very youthful John Savage sporting long hair and full beard, but don't expect the title to have much of anything to do with the plot.

Savage also wrote the music for the film, and performed 3 of his own songs. Savage's voice and style of composition would be more classified as "easy-listening with vocals" than any other style of music.

The film has a very early 70's feel; (not surprising as it was made in 1974)- but one wonders if we were ever this naive? Granted, '74 was an entirely different era, but even then, one would think twice about messing with the bad guys in that situation.

The acting of the ladies in the film consists mostly of disrobing, with some false-voiced sentences thrown in.

All in all it is Savage's film - non-fans won't find much here to interest them.