Quando le salamandre bruciano

Bathos rules the day in this apparently sincere combination of mild sexploitation and message picture. The narrative is so insubstantial that I am loathe to reveal its few turns here--rather, I urge you to marvel at it for yourself! You may find yourself surprised to be caught up in this story of a woman-girl-man love triangle despite the turgid soap opera histrionics. I have seen two different splicey, pink-faded prints of this film, leading me to make the following plea: Restore THAT TENDER TOUCH now! I hope it's not already too late.

When a sophisticated woman named Marcia, befriends a younger, emotionally wounded woman, their relationship blossoms into a love affair. The plot premise revolves around the problems in their lesbian relationship, when the younger woman, named Terry, decides to marry a man. Once Terry is married, she has trouble adjusting to sexual intimacy with her husband.

Meanwhile, Marcia (played with a sullen earnestness by Bee Tompkins) shows up at the home of Terry and her new husband. Seems that Marcia has lost her job, and needs a place to stay, until she can recover financially. While there, Marcia tries in vain to win back Terry's love. As Marcia becomes more desperate in her attempts at reconciliation with Terry, Marcia suffers a psychological collapse, with tragic consequences.

Homophobia was rampant in society, when this film was made in 1969. And so this film has strong negative assumptions, regarding lesbianism. The attitude typically held by mainstream society, was that all a lesbian needed was a good man, to cure her of her 'abnormal' sexual desires. That Tender Touch reeks with that kind of moralistic, homophobic tone.

Thankfully, things have improved markedly for the lesbian community, since 1969. This movie could be recommended as a historical reference, so that today's lesbians can see how far we've come, in terms of social acceptance. Otherwise, this film is overly melodramatic, and a bit depressing.

Okay, so I did like this, BUT what were the casting directors thinking, casting as lovers two women who literally looked and acted like mother and daughter?! It took a lot away from the film, which could have been much better.

I'm all for a good age-gap relationship, when the two people involved seem like they are a couple, and not parent-child. That said, a good age-gap relationship can definitely have beautiful motherly qualities to it, and I appreciate that. But still, there was something off about this one. I guess that's why it ended the way it did... So, maybe it was intentionally odd, who knows?

Still, good movie for being one of the first straight-up Sapphic films ever, And the theme song is beautiful, like right out of a Douglas Sirk glossy melodrama!