Thursday, March 12, 2020

THE SEXUALIST (1973) **


Jeffrey Montclair (Dale T. Fuller) is a struggling director trying to complete his latest skin flick, based on the astrological signs of the Zodiac.  Pressured by his sleazy financier, “The Godfather” (Jon Oppenheim), Jeffrey puts out a casting call to find nubile performers to make his passion project a reality.  Meanwhile, his leading lady Monica (Jennifer Welles) takes a shine to a sexy young ingenue, Inga (Barbara Benner).  When Inga winds up taking Monica’s coveted role, she sets out to get revenge.

The Sexualist is pretty much a mess.  The film-within-a-film scenes are kind of fun.  I especially liked the opening sequence about masturbation and how it relates to the specific Zodiac signs.  If the movie was nothing more than a series of astrologically themed sex scenes, it might’ve worked.

However, the behind-the-scenes drama involving the exasperated director, temperamental actresses, and actors who have trouble getting it up are a lot less successful.  The comedy shit is painfully unfunny too (like the scene with the guy in a gorilla suit), and the constant narration, which does a crummy job tying everything together, is often intrusive.  The sex scenes fluctuate from hardcore to softcore (most of the masturbation scenes include full penetration), which also gets a bit frustrating.  

The Sexualist is of interest mainly to see sex goddess Jennifer Welles as the diva leading lady who makes the director’s life a living Hell.  She looks great naked, but unfortunately, this is far from the best material she’s been given.  The subplot with Welles and Benner is OK, I guess.  It’s just that it feels like it came out of a completely different movie.

That’s basically the problem.  The Sexualist is all over the place.  There are three narratives going on, and none of them mesh.  If only it picked a storyline and stuck with it.  As it is, only the Zodiac sequences really work, and whenever the film cuts away from those scenes, it’s always a bad sign.    

AKA:  The Sexualist:  A Voyage to the World of Forbidden Love.

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