From Joseph W. Sarno, director of such fleshy exploitation masterpieces as Deep Throat II starring Linda Lovelace and The Seduction Of Inga starring Marie Liljedahl comes this 1972 sleazy melodrama, Swedish Wildcats, also known as Every Afternoon. Loosely based on the novel A Man With A Maid, the film remains one of Sarno's 'rougher' efforts, but it's handled with the same sense of style that his softer films demonstrate as well.

The basic premise revolves around a Madame named Aunt Marghareta (curvy English sex-pot Diana Dors) runs a high-class brothel out of Copenhagen. Her clientele is a little classier, or at least more affluent, than your standard run of the mill whorehouse, and it pampers its customers by offering up a scenario for many of their naughtiest fetishes and kinks. Every night, when the customers come in, Marghareta auctions off her bevy of beautiful babes to the highest bidder – sometimes they're painted up in tiger like body paint, other times they're donning some fine bondage gear – they spice things up a lot and play on a lot of different themes.

Aunt Marghareta's two young nieces, who work in her employ at the house of sin, are a pair of sisters named Susanna (Cia Lowgren) and Karin (Solveig Andersson of Thriller/They Call Her One Eye). Because of the allure that the two sisters offer, they are in far higher demand than most of the other performers in the brothel. Even the odd female client lusts after the two lovely ladies, though this pair have loftier aspirations than a life of satisfying paying customers with their bodies, they want to find true love and lead a better life for themselves.

When Susanna meets Peter (Peder Kindberg), a handsome and nice young man, she keeps her profession a secret from him, thinking that it will tarnish his view of her and she doesn't want that at all, because she's already starting to fall for him. Will Susanna tell Peter the truth and run off with him, or will she return to the daily drudge of servicing customers who could care less about how she feels, only about how good she is in bed?

Despite the fact that EI have opted to put Christina Lindberg's name displayed prominently on the cover of the DVD, the star of Thriller only appears in the film for a couple of minutes in a very small role as Helga, one of the other women who work in the brothel. There is an inferred lesbian encounter between her and Diana Dors, but it doesn't happen on screen and those hoping to see as much of Ms. Lindberg as they have in some of her other films or in her spread in Adam will be a little disappointed.

That's not to say that the film doesn't deliver in the 'naked ladies' department though! There are plenty of racy scenes in the film, a few of which even bust out the whips and the chains. There are some pretty strong scenes contained in the film, though nothing that pushes it into the realm of hardcore – this is just T&A with a few little twists, that's all. Sarno does a nice job of filming these scenes though; giving us enough information with the picture that we know exactly what is going on but never going too far with the rough stuff. Diana Dors goes a great job with her slightly tongue in cheek performance, giving her role enough of a matronly demeanor that you can tell she cares for her employees, but not quite as much as she cares for the dollars that her patrons bring to her (a line or two of her dialogue back this up!).

Lowgren and Andersson as the two sisters are pretty good as well, and they certainly look the parts they're supposed to play. Their characters both generate a little sympathy and it isn't too much of a stretch to care for the girls and their unfortunate plights, even if it's kind of goofy given that this is just an exploitation film. By the time the last third of the film is playing out, you want Peter and Susanna to get together once and for all – Sarno makes sure of this more by what he shows you than by what he tells you, as the camera captures the two young lovers enjoying each other's company in the park, then contrasts it with some of the more degrading experiences that Susanna is subjected to in her day to day life as a lady of the evening.

Video:

EI/Retro-Seduction Cinema have given Swedish Wildcats an all new 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer that looks surprisingly good given the film's low budget origins from over thirty years ago. This may not be apparent at first, as the film looks a little bit rough during the opening scene and credits, but once you get about five minutes into this one, the print damage gets lessened and the colors look a little bit nicer. There's still the odd tiny scratch here and there and a few specks now and again even once you get past the first few minutes but for the most part, EI have provided us with a very nice looking picture. Skin tones, which do play an important part in the film, look pretty natural without coming out as too pink or too orange, and the blacks, while they could be just a little bit deeper, remain pretty solid and quite stable from start to finish. The reds are well defined and don't bleed into the other colors in the film, and while there is some mild edge enhancement present in the film, there's nary a smidgen of mpeg compression to be found. I've got to give credit where credit is due – EI has done a pretty nice job on bringing Swedish Wildcats to DVD, at least as far as the visuals are concerned.