A Woman for All Men

Compact but talented cast headlined by sexploitation starlet Judy Brown as "the woman" brought home from one of cantankerous millionaire Keenan Wynn's frequent Las Vegas excursions, only to be mistreated by Wynn's drunken abuse and jealousy. His sons soon discover she's 'too much woman for any one man' (quote, unquote) and the web of seduction, murder and double cross is spun. But just who is the spider?

Notable in the cast are Andy Robinson and Peter Hooten playing the sons, while Alex Rocco has a small role as a police detective. There's not much prohibited content to warrant the R rating; a lot of semi-nude embraces, vaguely transparent negligees and soap opera dialogue but the film still manages to look like a 70's style loop. The trashy wallpaper, cheap sets and stage decor give an authentic render, but there's often too much talk, and too little action to sustain the interest.

Still, it's good to see Wynn in both a dominant and vulnerable characterisation, showcasing some acting talents he rarely had the opportunity to display in the latter part of his career (even if his screen time is limited).

This movie begins with a beautiful woman by the name of "Karen" (Judith Brown) marrying an older man named "Walter McCoy" (Keenan Wynn) and subsequently driving home with him to meet his adult daughter "Cynthia" (Patty Bodeen) and his two sons, "Steve" (Andrew Robinson) and "Paul" (Peter Hooten). It then becomes known that Walter is a multi-millionaire who owns a construction company and is extremely selfish and over-bearing to everyone. Karen, as it turns out, was a high-class Las Vegas prostitute who never loved Walter and has married him only because he is rich. Needless to say, both Paul and Cynthia suspect that Karen is nothing but a gold digger and they now feel threatened by her influence with Walter and the probable impact on their inheritance. Steve, on the other hand, becomes attracted to Karen and discovers that Karen is equally attracted to him. They eventually have an affair which threatens everything. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a rather standard film-noir which was greatly enhanced by the presence of Judith Brown and some decent mystery toward the end. It isn't a great movie by any means, but I didn't think it was necessarily that bad either and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Arthur Marks had a respectably consistent career as a director and producer, working on TV series like "Perry Mason", then transitioning to exploitation films in the 1970s: blackspoitation ("Friday Foster", "Detroit 9000", "J. D.'s Revenge"), sexploitation ("Togetherness", "Linda Lovelace for President"), and things like the sexploitation/proto-slasher hybrid "The Roommates". While these films were popular, none of them would hit any artistic high marks, which brings us to this film, something of an anomaly in Marks' oeuvre. I watched this on a DVD/Blue Ray set that included both "A Woman For All Men" and "The Roommates", so I could compare Marks' style. "A Woman For All Men" wins hands down in terms of being the better film. That being said, it's still not a great or even good film when held up against other "mainstream" titles of the era. Marks was not a great screenwriter, so he was wise to bring in Robert Brees to provide the story. Brees had also had a respectable career, writing (or more accurately, collaborating on) potboilers like "Magnificent Obsession" and "Autumn Leaves" before graduating up (or down, depending on your preference) to exploitation like "From Earth to the Moon", "Frogs", and "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" What we have here is a domestic soap opera with some noirish overtones, accented with some rather demur nudity by Judith Brown. Anyone who is familiar with Ms. Brown inevitably remembers her as she looked in "Women in Cages" and "The Big Doll House", with long auburn hair. For this film, she totally changed her look, getting a curly, dyed-blonde bob that would become the standard coiffure of middle-aged, gated-community housewives during the 1980s; she looks a younger Rue McClanahan. I won't bother to rehash the plot, but I do believe the movie begins to fragment once the affair between Brown and Andrew Robinson's characters is underway. The supporting characters, such as the older brother and his girlfriend and Steve's girlfriend, all but vanish from the story. There's also a lot of choppy editing and scenes that end suddenly. One complaint: we see a randomly inserted scene where Karen, Brown's character, witness the daughter masturbating. The scene cuts from Karen's face, to the daughter doing the act, then back to Karen, then a close-up of the daughter screetching at Karen that she's ruined everything. Apparently this was some sort of leftover from an incest plot point that was cut from the final print. It would have been interesting, but some slipshod editing let it go. And of course, the twist ending that you could more or less suspect: there were two characters that might have possibly wanted Karen out of the picture, so it was no big surprise to learn who it was.

Despite being a decent thriller, Marks couldn't resist marketing the movie like one of his "girly" flicks, insinuating all kinds of sexy shananigans (the movie's alternate title was "Part Time Wife") which ultimately were not there. The version I saw looked great, the only noticeable grain was on the opening montage of Karen putting on make-up under the credits. The dialogue in the first half of the film is crisp, but as I said erratic editing plagues the second half. The ending seems like something out of a TV movie of the era, most of which look like high art when stacked up against recent theatrical offerings. Given this was made by a sexploitation director/producer, all around it's rather good. Average, but good.

Keenan wynn always was a loud mouthed womanizer and andrew robinson was only unforgettable as the psycho in dirty harry ... i fail to see how judith brown qualifies as some raving beauty and she only has fried eggs for chest ornaments...dul, dull, dull

Judith Brown who plays the young hot wife and gold digger to her much older and very rich recent newlywed husband Keenan Wynn come home to a not too friendly welcome by Keenan Wynn's three (3) adult children. I find it hard to relate to these particular family dynamics as my own upbringing was much simpler.

In direct contrast to my own upbringing the McCoy family owned a huge general contracting business building large industrial plazas in and around California, they drove the most expensive vehicles, lived in a luxurious home on a large property, and they had servants taking care of any and all their household needs, but the McCoy children were lacking any semblance of love and/or affection from their matriarch father Walter (Keenan Wynn).

The new young hot looking wife Karen (Judith Brown) made no bones about why she married the much older businessman Walter McCoy it was because of his enormous wealth and nothing else. Walter liked to brag how rich, strong and virile he was and he ran his house as if everyone was expected to cow tow to him, not only the servants, but his new bride and three (3) adult children as well. If any of his family even breathed a sigh of discontent Walter would quickly tell them they knew where the front door was and they were free to leave and try and make it on their own without any of his financial support.

It doesn't take long for one of Walter's son Steve McCoy (Andrew Robinson) to be exposed to Walter's new bride Karen who starts having wandering eyes towards her much younger stepson who she begins grooming to be her next and new lover. This sets off even higher levels of mistrust and emotions between the various McCoy family members until Walter is suddenly and unexpectedly pronounced as missing and assumed to have committed suicide.

Now the family members including Walter's recent new bride Karen call in their husband/father's lawyer to commence dispersing his last will and testament which the lawyer states unequivocally that he is not prepared to do as he has specific orders from the missing Walter McCoy to follow.

I won't divulge how the family dynamics deteriorate further but suffice to say that the McCoy family show their greed, lust and anger towards one another even with their father still missing and assumed to have committed suicide, and their hussy stepmother grinning like a cheshire cat.

This is a strange family which reflects that money can't buy happiness. It is an under rated film which is why I have given it a slightly higher rating at 8 out of 10 to counter some of the lower under appreciated IMDB ratings.