Secrets (1971) Poster

(1971)

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6/10
Secret Rendezvous
sol-kay29 June 2004
****SPOILERS**** Six years before she made a big splash on the screen with her famous wet t-shirt scene in the movie "The Deep" in 1977 gorgeous Jackie Bisset showed off her natural and impressive physical attributes in a little known English soap opera-like film called "Secrets". In the film Jackie played a frustrated and ignored young wife who's husband is going through a major career change from being an actor which was going nowhere for him into the new and up and coming and growing world of computer sciences in the early 1970's.

Jenny, Jackie Bisset, going to the laundromat one afternoon with her young daughter Judy, Tarka Kings, takes a walk in the park feeling very depressed over her marriage with her husband Allen,Robert Powell, who's been obsessed studying for a computer aptitude test that he's to take that same afternoon.

In the park Jenny runs into an eccentric textile millionaire Raoul, Per Oscarsson, who Jenny reminds him of his recently deceased wife. Jenny at first rebuffs his advances but she later goes along with him to his mansion where he tells her the story of his wife dying from cancer just after she gave birth to their child.

Then from just what was a friendly talk and get-together Jenny and Raoul get into a torrid and steamy sexual gymnastic affair that rises the theater temperature some 30 degrees. Meanwhile back at the testing site Allan turns on as well as him getting turned on in return by Beatrice, Shirley Knight, who was testing him on his computer skills. Beatrice happily found out that Allan has a much better aptitude in the hot and sizzling science of reproductive biology as well as the technology of DNA splicing then he had in the cold impersonal and unfeeling world of computer engineering.

Even little Judy developed some kind of relationship at the laundromat, while her mother Jenny was out in the park where she met and had an affair with Raoul, with Raymond, Martin C. Thurley. Raymond turns out to be some kind of flower freak who took Judy on his motorbike to his home. It's there where he introduced her into the wonderful world of botany by showing her his greenhouse and even gave her a large potted plant as a gift to take with her back home.

The whole story of "Secrets" takes place on just one afternoon with both Jenny and Allan as well as little Judy back home after adventures in the world of fate and predestination. It seemed that Jenny and Allan knew that each had an affair that day and that those affairs brought them back together, and as the movie ends we see Judy looking lovingly at the potted plant that Raymond gave her.

Intriguing little movie about human relationships in the early 1970's with Miss Bisset's presents in the film making "Secrets" both interesting as well as exciting to watch.
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6/10
Boring film, re-cut DVD even worse
hollywoodshack15 November 2017
Warning: Spoilers
I just wish I had the message boards back to post a comment like this. But about 7 minutes of this movie have been cut on DVD, and shame on them for advertising it has the original running time of 92 minutes. Cut is some dialogue in bed between Jenny and her lover, an eccentric millionaire, plus a scene where she talks to her husband afterwards. Added seems to be more filler footage of the husband taking a computer aptitude test, multiple choices, flashing buttons etc. and a longer version of their little girl flirting with an older boy. I believe the original running time can still be found on a lot of video tapes. Still, the excitement of the affair between the girl and the older man are handled quite well even in the shorter version. It's a shame the husband and his job interviewer (Shirley Knight) have an affair with no intimate scenes included at all.
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3/10
Dreary little soap opera
preppy-37 May 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Jenny (Jacqueline Bisset) and Allan (Robert Powell) are unhappily married. In the course of one afternoon they each have sex with other people--her with Raoul (Per Oscarsson) and him with Beatrice (Shirley Knight). Heck, even their kid Judy (Tarka Kings) has sex with a stranger (Martin C. Thurley)! It ends up with all of them keeping their sex a secret--but it saves their marriage.

The direction, acting, story, cinematography, the entire movie should have been kept a secret too! Boring, slow and utterly predictable soap opera that was barely released in 1971. It was reissued in 1977 when Bisset hit it big (sort of) with "The Deep". All the ads made it clear that she was nude in it but the reviews killed the movie again. This gets a 3 only for Bisset--she is a beautiful woman with a incredible body and she does what little she can to save this. The rest of the cast, composed of very good actors, appeared to be on drugs. This is of interest now only to see Bisset nude. Otherwise you can safely skip this. Someone told me that he saw an interview with Bisset quite a few years ago and she refused to discuss this movie. That should tell you something.
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2/10
A bunch of psycho babble nonsense.
mark.waltz26 April 2021
Warning: Spoilers
At least the location footage is pretty, particularly the parks. The film itself is boring with uninteresting characters (with the possible exception of the magnetic Jacqueline Bisset, comes from her, not the writing) that other than deleting lady seem to be morally vacant. Bissett is unhappily married to Anthony Powell, and after a rather vicious argument, she accepts a date with a textile millionaire widower (Per Oscarsson) who is actually rather creepy.

Her husband ends up cheating on her as well, and his discussion about the future of computers as far as tools of dating matchups is concerned is rather sickening. So Bissett sends her daughter off so she can go for a walk where she meets Oscarsson, go to his house, gets permission to put on his late wife's clothing and use her makeup and jewelry, while hubby is apparently fooling around as well. Who is taking care of the daughter?

At some point, I wanted to see the late wife come in like Fruma Sara from "Fiddler on the Roof" and haunt them. Shelved for years before an American release, it's one of those films that did its leading star, then very popular, no benefit. Trying too hard to be artistic, it is pretentious and phony, and certainly degrading to Bissett's character to be a mannequin like replacement for Oscarsson's wife. If it wasn't for Bissett, I'd give this the big bomb.
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2/10
Non-erotic "erotic drama" about marriage hasn't enough on its mind...
moonspinner5510 April 2024
Chatty piece from UK's Satori Films begins with housewife Jacqueline Bisset taking her young daughter to the laundry to do a load of clothes (hardly the type of scene to start off what was advertised as an erotic drama!). After sitting for awhile, Bisset goes out for a walk and is picked up in the park by a widower-businessman who thinks she looks like his late wife. Meanwhile, the daughter leaves the laundromat with a grown man who shows her his garden (and kisses her), and Bisset's husband takes an aptitude test for a computer programming job and strikes up a relationship with the moderator. Screenwriter Rosemary Davies, working from a treatment by the film's director, Philip Saville, is interested mainly in probing the questioning minds of her characters; however, her dialogue is so vacant and vague that, by the finale, nothing significant has been gained by the experiences of the day--and nothing is learned. The underwhelming "Secrets" finally made it to the US in 1978 via low-rent Lone Star Films, who managed to get on Bisset's bad side by marketing the picture as an R-rated heavy-breather. The actress's nudity is fairly brief--and the love scene nonexploitative--which surely caused some dissension among moviegoers. * from ****
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10/10
Afternoon Affairs Lead to "Secrets"
netflowers30 August 2020
Everyone in the family had an affair one afternoon. The Mother, the Father, and their Young Daughter had a flirtation. Each person they all had an affair with gave each one a present, and that evening when they came home each had a Secret, and each gave the present to another family member. The husband gave his present to his wife, the wife gave her present to her husband and the daughter gave her present to Daddy. SECRETS. I found this movie through a service that copies old VHS and hard to find films, they copy them to DVD. Mommy and Daddy had full-blown a afternoon affair.
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