The Men's Club

Well, at least it's different. This was apparently one of those "art house" type of films, as I cannot imagine anyone thinking it would be a commercial success. I didn't find it terribly bad, but certainly not very good, either. Direction, acting, photography were all OK. The script was what it was, and I can't think of any way to do it differently. One note for the ladies: there do exist a lot of guys who are faithful to their wives. Who want to be, and are. These might not be the best-looking ones, though. You make your choices, and you take your chances. Interesting, the conception of what goes on in high-dollar whorehouses. Having never been to one (in any price range) I've always wondered.

This might be worth watching if you've nothing better to do (or watch)

A group of men in Berkley form a men's club. Former baseball star Cavanaugh (Roy Scheider) is a hound dog cheating on his wife Sarah. He brings his family-man friend Berkley professor Phillip (David Dukes) into the group. Kramer (Richard Jordan) is a psychotherapist. Solly Berliner (Harvey Keitel) is a real estate broker cheating on his wife. Harold Canterbury (Frank Langella) is a senior partner in his law firm and his wife left him after finding herself. Paul (Craig Wasson) is a manager at an auto parts company. Terry (Treat Williams) is a single doctor. Kramer's wife Nancy (Stockard Channing) comes home to find the group trashing the place. She kicks the men out and they decide to go to a high class gentlemen's club. The club is run by Jo with her puppet. She introduces Harold to Teensy (Jennifer Jason Leigh).

The first half of the movie is a touchy feely inner-self of the Neanderthal man. Many of the men are various shades of the cave man. Then they go to the brothel and things get even weirder. It's insane and not in a good way. Unless you're itching to see Langella in crazy makeup.

It's not that the ideas in this movie are so dumb, it's just that they are so unambiguously presented. You actually notice the drama getting more subtle and complex when the brothel madam starts talking through a doll. It's too bad, because Roy Scheider really tries to make something of his part. He must have been holding his breath between takes because he has the expression of a man performing a field autopsy. Paul Schrader should re-write this lurid chewathon for Jimmy Smits. There's an actor who can spin gold out of lint.

This movie is a bizarre mess. Long before Frank Langella wanders into camera range in women's make-up with a cigar, the blathering causes you to lose interest. Bewildering. Mind-numbing. Avoid this movie like the plague unless you are planning a triple feature with Showgirls and Battlefield Earth.

(1986) The Men's Club DRAMA

Adapted from the novel by Leonard Michaels also credited for adapting his own screenplay. The title "The Men's Club" is reference to former baseball player, Cavanaugh (Roy Scheider) and the friends he hangs around with, who are middle age, some are either married or have relationships with other women, holding with them their misogynistic views. Besides Cavanaugh, it also includes. Phillip (David Dukes), Kramer (Richard Jordan), Harold Canterbury (Frank Langella), Paul (Craig Wasson), Terry (Treat Williams) and finally, Solly Berliner (Harvey Keitel), when one of the group's wives breaks up with one of them- tired of her husband's infidelity. Cavanaugh rents out a brothel to vent out their frustrations.

Movie is outdated, but perhaps made during the time when both misogyny and sexism was a problem, when women were not paid as much as men.