Group Marriage (1973)

Director:

Stephanie Rothman

Writers:

Paul Rapp (writer)
Stephanie Rothman (writer)

Release Date:

March 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

There Are Marriages...And Then There Are Marriages

Plot Keywords:

Female Rear Nudity | Breasts | Gay Marriage | Erotica | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Aimée Eccles	...	Chris
Ron Gans	...	Interviewer
Claudia Jennings	...	Elaine
Milt Kamen
Jayne Kennedy
Jeff Pomerantz
Pepe Serna	...	Ramon
Zack Taylor	...	Phil
Victoria Vetri	...	Jan

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R

Pretty decent 70's flick

A parole officer is picked up by a bickering couple after his car breaks down. In strange turn of events he ends up sleeping with the girl, but feels bad after the guy catches them, so to make up for it, he introduces him to his own girlfriend (former Playmate of the Year Victoria Vetri), who has "a great personality". The strange foursome move in together and add a hunky lifeguard and a sexy female attorney (Claudia Jennings, ANOTHER Playmate of the Year) to the arrangement. Eventually they decide to formalize their "group marriage", but they encounter a lot of problems along the way--conflicts at work, nosy attention from the press and the legal authorities, bigotry and right-wing vigilantism, and even "infidelity" (Vetri's character does not want to remain "faithful" to the group).

Although this movie is definitely a product of the early 1970's, it is also a good satirical spoof of the whole institution of marriage. It was no doubt inspired by bigger-budgeted "Bob, Carol, Ted, and Alice", but it is both more racy AND more honest than that more mainstream film. It's surprisingly progressive even by today's standards--there is a gay male couple next door who also ultimately marry (even if some might find them to be offensive stereotypes). The director Stephanie Rothman has been strangely ignored by the feminist types who lavish praise on practically every other female director. True, she mostly worked in Roger Corman type exploitation films, including sex comedies like this one and "Working Girls", horror movies like the great sexy vampire flick "The Velvet Vampire", and superior women-in-prison fare like "Terminal Island" and "Sweet Sugar". Still, she is a lot more of credible feminist, not to mention a far, FAR more skilled director than the late Doris Wishman (who gets a truly inexplicable amount of feminist attention today).

It's, of course, not surprising that Victoria Vetri and Claudia Jennings are very appealing both in and out of their 70's duds, but they are also probably THE two best actresses to have ever emerged from Playboy. Vetri had appeared in Hammer flicks in England as well as real movies like "Rosemary's Baby", while Jennings would become the undisputed queen of the 70's drive-in before her tragic death in 1979. By coincidence, I saw this movie back-to-back with the godawful Canadian film "Autumn Born", which featured another ill-fated Playmate of the Year, Dorothy Stratten. Clearly, it makes a big difference whether the sexy women in your movie can actually ACT as well as undress (not to mention, whether the movie itself is worth a damn). This movie really does Playboy Playmates proud, whereas "Autumn Born" and about a thousand other movies really don't.

All and all, this is a pretty decent 70's flick. See it if you get a chance.