My Brother’s Wife features yet another amazing instrumental theme during the opening credits sequence. Say what you will about Doris Wishman’s technical shortcomings, but her ability to secure legitimately terrific music for her films time and again is simply amazing. Once again, the theme plays over black and white images from the movie. Some would call this repetitive. For me, it’s that kind of serial adherence to form that I respect from my filmmakers.
The film begins with a brawl between brothers in a billiards hall. Flashbacks reveal how the trouble all started. It seems the mildly handsome Frankie (Sam Stewart, getting typecast as a nogoodnik in yet another Wishman movie) came to stay with his tubby, bald brother Bob (Bob Oran) and his sexy young wife Mary (June Roberts). You know it’s just a matter of time before Frankie and Mary are going to be knocking the boots. Naturally, Frankie breaks her heart, which leads to tragedy.
This time out, Wishman uses voiceovers in a rather respectable manner. When Frankie and Mary first meet, we hear their thoughts on the soundtrack as they sexually size up one another. The dialogue isn’t bad either and sometimes takes on a noir-ish quality (which is fitting considering all the double-crosses in the third act).
The usual Wishman touches abound. Extraneous shots of feet? Check. Gratuitous shots of strewn undies? Got it. Obviously out-of-synch dialogue? You bet. Long scenes of women gazing at their reflection in the mirror? Yup. A completely random dance sequence? It’s here.
It’s those distinctly Doris hallmarks that prevents My Brother’s Wife from being just another run-of-the-mill adult drama. If you noticed, I called it an “adult drama” and not a roughie. I hesitate to use that term because it’s strangely… normal for a Doris Wishman movie?!? Yes, there are scenes where Frankie tries to force himself on women (including Darlene Bennett from A Taste of Flesh), but they are quite restrained… again, for a Doris Wishman movie.
Yes, this is a surprisingly straightforward entry in the Wishman filmography. Despite the fact that it is lacking a certain sleaziness that we’ve come to expect from Wishman, it is nevertheless a competent (mostly) drama, and remains effortlessly watchable. If anything, it was proof Doris could make a “real” movie if she tried. I mean some of the camera angles she managed to pull off in such a cramped apartment are rather inspired (the POV shot of a stool where Bennett’s ass comes rushing towards the camera is a doozy) and the lesbian lovemaking sequence is positively poetic.
No comments:
Post a Comment