High Finance Woman

A female stockbroker has success by using her feminine wiles to get valuable information. She lands in hot water when she has an affair with a reporter who hides a secret.

Directed by Joe D'Amato in his American softcore period, this is a very good melodrama that relies more on romance than in eroticism, what can sound weird given the notoriety of the filmmaker as a master of horror and porn. Actually, the story of this "La Signora Di Wall Street" has everything to catch the attention of a female audience, as it is centered in the life of an independent woman who uses her sex appeal to achieve success in world of business. She is a very intelligent lady for whom men are just a game, until the day she meets the man of her life.

One could accuse the movie of suffering by a soap opera or telefilm feeling, and maybe this is true, but the story is still quite interesting. Part of the merit must be credited to scriptwriter Daniele Stroppa (here hidden under the alias Daniel Davis), who also wrote the excellent "Passion's Flower" (1990) and "A Woman's Secret" (1991), both also directed by D'Amato.

The erotic scenes are not frequent here and they are in tone with the romanticism of the plot, another point that can appeal to a female viewer. With no frontal nudity, the maximum of skin exposed here consists in the breasts of the main actress. Laura Gemser has a cameo as a prostitute, but her clothes are kept on.

As the protagonist, Tara Buckman gives a very good performance, although I don't consider her a very sexy woman (she has a big resemblance with David Bowie). The rest of the cast is ok, and the film keeps a good pacing, reserving some good surprises to its ending. The usual music by Piero Montanari is effective, with some cues adding a melancholic tone. Some themes were also used in previous productions.

This film essentially begins with an attractive woman by the name of "Brenda Baxter" (Tara Buckman) working as a stockbroker who makes a great deal of money for her investment firm because of information she receives while sleeping with wealthy businessmen. Of particular importance is an older businessman by the name of "Albert Corey" (Louis Elias) who has a number of secrets to share with her and as a result they spend a great deal of time together. Then one day, she meets a much younger man named "Alex" (Charlie Edwards) and sparks are immediately set off between them. What neither of them realize, however, is that both of them are hiding secrets from one another which, once revealed, could change their lives in a way neither of them could imagine. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film had an interesting plot which benefitted to a certain degree by a couple of surprising twists toward the end. Likewise, I also enjoyed the performance of Tara Buckman who enhanced each and every scene with her beauty and charm. Unfortunately, most of her efforts were wasted due to rather weak direction and overall low-budget production values. That being said, while I don't consider this to be a bad film necessarily, the flaws just mentioned were much too noticeable and I have rated this movie accordingly. Slightly below average.

WORST MOVIE EVER Truly deeply offensively boring, with the most outrageous and invasive background music, weak and tiresome hackneyed "plot". In a word risible.

Bought it on VCR for 49cents, you get what you pay for i guess, and I got a pretty good deal. 49 cents for a videocassette I can record over and over again...

The movie seems to be a vehicle for some astoundingly sallow sex scenes which give the movie an air of a very low budget and sexless porno.

Very much a product of the late eighties, this really has to be one of the worst movies ever made, really this is what the truly crapulent should try to be.

Yes, this movie is awful as it normal for D'Amato and its my favored across collection of some 2000 awful flicks. Its awful because I couldn't find decent copy, colors off etc. So what makes it my favored? Main chick! She is slut, cheesy, undress often and, in short, this is the way single men like any women. Reality in USA quite strange for any local as women became species not necessarily females. This movie is a dream, imagination and a story and D'Amato makes conflict after conflict to keep it running. It also realistically shows how we, men, chase anything with name female on it. Yes, sex part kinda not here--too bad. The flick not shy touch social aspect namely money which is name of the game in US.