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.
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.