The late Joe Sarno has earned a growing fanbase, having made such high quality adult films. ANYTHING FOR MONEY is a perfect starting point for newcomers to his oeuvre.
It has the Sarno trademarks -heavy, erotic-tinged melodrama with scheming and unsavory characters, presented in a matter-of-fact fashion. His secret is his scriptwriting ability and effortless command of the film medium.
Sarno regular Joanna Mills (billed here as Johanna) toplines as a young wife who's moved in with her hubby (solid Sarno leading man Justin Todd) to live with her Aunt Edna until they can get their own place. Convoluted plot has Mills concocting plots that get everybody in trouble, until she inevitably meets her own comeuppance in an audience-pleasing finale.
Sarno uses very long takes, with mostly bright lighting, which give the film the feel at times of a quality TV drama (think Playhouse 90) from the Live era of the '50s. One centerpiece sequence I clocked at a full 6 minutes-long-shot, only interrupted for a second by an intercut of Mrs. Sarno (Peggy Stephans) as Edna's boarder & employee who gives Mills and her latest boy toy (Tony King) a hard time.
His skill is hiring such a talented stock company, rivaling at budget prices those of Bergman and Fassbinder, who can handle reams of dialog flawlessly. There is plenty of nudity here (topless) for the fans, but it is the corrosive interpersonal relationships that keep one riveted o the screen. The script is far-fetched at times (Mills having $600 to spare at one point to hire some cocktail hostesses for private use) but it works.
Once again, Sarno has employed the talented avant garde jazz pianist Burton Greene (who had LPs on the esp-disk label at this time) for his soundtrack, mainly devoted to the trademark Sarno percussion for suspense and sustained eroticism motif. Acting is impressive, especially by Patti Paget as Aunt Edna, whose character has to go through many hoops to keep the pot boiling. Michael Lawrence, the pervert of Doris Wishman films, is far far out this time, especially when dancing around with the lovely girls stoned out of his mind at a party. I guess he counts as comic relief. Similarly, the noisy, antiquated vibrator machine is one Sarnoism I could do without.
The late Bob Clark made a fortune for 20th Century Fox with Porky's and here, 15 years earlier, is a private club named Porky's Place featuring the even more private Rumpus Rooms in back.
