The Chapman Report

The eminent director George Cukor did The Chapman Report for Warner Brother. It's based on the book by Irving Wallace, which was inspired by the Kinsey report about sexual activity.

The Warner Brothers actors cast include Efrem Zimbalist as one of the interviewers who works for Mr. Chapman (Andrew Duggan), Ray Danton as a libidinous film director, and Ty Hardin as someone Glynis Johns meets on the beach. According to film lore, George Cukor was impressed enough with Hardin's good looks and physique that he ended up with a showy role in the film. Look for Chad Everett as a water delivery man in the beginning of the film.

But the women are the real stars: Jane Fonda, Glynis Johns, Clare Bloom, and Shelley Winters, all of whom are terrific.

Chapman and Paul Radford (Zimbalist) come to a town to do interviews with women for their statistics on sexual activity. That's all pretty dated. The film focuses on four women: Fonda as a widow of a bad marriage who thinks she's frigid and becomes involved with Radford; Bloom as a nymphomaniac; Winters as a cheating wife; and Johns as a woman who wonders if she's getting enough from her marriage, which seems happy enough. She's the comic relief, and she's a blast.

The best scene in the film occurs when Johns goes to Hardin's place to pose nude for her, with the idea of seducing him. Fonda, Bloom, and Johns are all gorgeous. Winters by this time was doing the more housefrau type of role. She's excellent as a desperately unhappy woman involved in an illicit affair with Danton.

This is the '60s idea of an adult film so everything is talked around, in half sentences, or shown as a fadeout. The only one who takes his clothes off is Hardin.

It's trash, but it's high-class trash and one does become involved with the characters.