Writer & director Joseph W. Sarno, a specialist in soft core melodramas, comes up with a pretty good one this time. It gives us the requisite sex and flesh while also offering a meditation on the whole idea of loneliness, and how people try to cope with it. One such lonely person is filthy rich Kendall Harvey III (Judson Todd), who is always hooking up with a new hot young thing. Scummy biker "Click" (Louis Waldon) is able to find employment working for Harvey, procuring babes for his boss' enjoyment. Trouble arises when Harvey fixates on one woman he can't have, the married Peggy Johns (Patricia McNair). But he finds a way to be with her: when her husband Roger (George Wolfe), an advertising man, loses an important account, he promises to help Roger land a big new account IF Peggy will spend 48 hours with him.
If that sounds familiar, it's because this plot device prefigures "Indecent Proposal" by over a quarter century. It may be done in a much less lavish, non-Hollywood fashion, but it's still compelling in its own right. The acting from most cast members concerned really is pretty good, especially from McNair and Todd. Waldon amuses as the "love merchant" of the title, as does Patti Paget as Harvey's loyal secretary, a budding lesbian. Also making appearances are sexploitation film favorites Peggy Steffans (a.k.a. Cleo Nova) and June Roberts. The filmmaking and photography are pretty slick for this sort of fare, and it does help that we can sympathize with some of the characters - even Harvey, to a degree.
There's a fair bit of go-go dancing / padding to add to the entertainment, as well as a good and funky jazz score by Richard Cove.
If you like low budget sleaze, but appreciate it even more if it has an actual story and a theme to it, this is definitely one to check out.
Eight out of 10.
If that sounds familiar, it's because this plot device prefigures "Indecent Proposal" by over a quarter century. It may be done in a much less lavish, non-Hollywood fashion, but it's still compelling in its own right. The acting from most cast members concerned really is pretty good, especially from McNair and Todd. Waldon amuses as the "love merchant" of the title, as does Patti Paget as Harvey's loyal secretary, a budding lesbian. Also making appearances are sexploitation film favorites Peggy Steffans (a.k.a. Cleo Nova) and June Roberts. The filmmaking and photography are pretty slick for this sort of fare, and it does help that we can sympathize with some of the characters - even Harvey, to a degree.
There's a fair bit of go-go dancing / padding to add to the entertainment, as well as a good and funky jazz score by Richard Cove.
If you like low budget sleaze, but appreciate it even more if it has an actual story and a theme to it, this is definitely one to check out.
Eight out of 10.