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Free Love Confidential/For Single Swingers Only

Image // Unrated // November 7, 2006
List Price: $19.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]

Review by Ian Jane | posted November 22, 2006 | E-mail the Author
The Movies:

Something Weird Video dug deep into the vaults for this double feature, pairing up two fairly obscure swinger films distributed by the one and only Harry Novak. Here's the skinny on this pair...

Free Love Confidential:

Fred and Kaye have been married for some time now and while Kaye still has it going on in the looks department, Fred is far more interested in spending time at work than with his lovely wife. She does everything she can to get his attention but nothing works and he seems about as attracted to her as he would be to a rock. Bored out of her mind, Kaye is only too happy to accept an offer from her friend Giselle, who wants to take her out of town for a weekend of fun. Fred's never approved of Kaye's relationship with Giselle, which is all the reasoning she needs to say yes!

The two girls hit the road and soon find themselves answering a classified ad in a scuzzy newspaper asking for models. They wind up at a seedy apartment where the photographer, Robin, plies them with weed and before you know it the two girls are dancing around sans clothes for his camera without a care in the world. If that weren't enough, once the shooting stops the two girls jump Robin's bones. Once things settle down the two gals figure that maybe posing nude for a complete stranger wasn't such a great idea so they ask him for the film. He obliges, but once they take the film to be developed they find out that they've been had – he gave them a blank roll and kept the photographs for himself. The girls head back to confront Robin only to wind up being blackmailed by Robin's friend Mickey, a tough talking lesbian who tells the two ladies that if they don't do what she asks of them and appease her dirty desires she'll sell the photos but if they take care of her needs and give her five hundred bucks, they can have the photos back for keeps. The girls set out to raise the dough any way they can, but even once they've ponied up the scratch there are a few more surprise in store for them.

Director Gordon Heller keeps the filth flowing at a refreshingly fast pace for the duration of this torrid and steamy soap opera. The dialogue is sharp and the girls look good from start to finish. It's not hard to figure out where it's all heading or how it's going to end but it's fun anyway, particularly if you can appreciate the trashy atmosphere that permeates ever frame of this film. The finale is great, with stoned free love types doing their thing at a nightclub but the build up is almost as good, particularly once the girls get involved with Robin and at just over an hour in length it's over before you even know it.

For Single Swingers Only:

Two girls who live (and shower) together in a commune, Gracie and Gloria, decide to investigate a newspaper ad that they find advertising an apartment that will be rented to 'single swingers only.' The reasoning is that not much happens to them in the commune these days and they could use some excitement in their lives. They head on down to check the place out, their curiosity getting the better of them, and soon wind up involved with two guys named Dave and Arty. They seem harmless enough at first but it doesn't take our two leading ladies long to find out their true nature. To complicate things even more for the pair, there's Ruth, the landlady whose unhealthy obsession with the ladies lands her in some steamy situations. Topping it all off is a nudist girl named Connie who runs around garnering plenty of attention, mainly because she does it without any clothes on. As the pair become more and more involved in the swinging that happens in the apartment, they start to drift into two different directions and before you know it, Gloria has had enough of the lifestyle and she wants out. But will Gracie come with her or is she took hooked on the cheap kicks that she can find here in abundance?

Directed by Don Davis, the man behind Swamp Girl, there's not really a whole lot of story here to drive the events. It's more or less a few steamy sex scenes linked together but a thread of a plot. Likewise, the performances aren't as inspired here nor the dialogue as sharp as we saw on the first feature. Heidi Anderson looks great as Gracie but she can't deliver anything even close to a convincing line reading here. This provides for some unusual and unintentional comedy but it isn't enough to make this one better than mediocre. There are some interesting moments here and the idea is an interesting one but the delivery lacks any punch and when the film ends, you're left wondering what the point of it was in the first place.

Video:

Both films are presented in 1.33.1 fullframe presentations that appear to be the proper aspect ratios. The first feature lands in a nice, crisp black and white presentation that shows some grain and some mild print damage but is otherwise in very nice shape with strong black levels and a surprising amount of fine detail evident throughout. For Single Swingers Only, however, doesn't look nearly as good. The film was shot and is presented in full color but the print used for this transfer has definitely seen better days. Who knows what elements are even left for this one, it's a pretty obscure movie, but there's heavy grain and print damage throughout and the colors look faded and soft.

Sound:

The Dolby Digital Mono sound mix is pretty clear considering the low budget origins of the two older exploitation films presented on this DVD. While the limitations of the technology used to capture the audio shine through and the material does show its age with some mild hiss and the odd pop here and there, you aren't going to have any problems following the dialogue and some of the swanky background music used throughout the two films adds some much needed fun to the features.

Extras:

First up, as far as the extra features are concerned, is a handful of trailers starting off with the spot for Free Love Confidential, then moving on to Diary Of A Swinger, The Games People Play, Infidelity American Style, Matinee Wives, Run, Swinger, Run!, The Singles, Strange Rampage, Suburban Wives, The Swap And How They Make It, Swedish Wife Exchange, Unholy Matrimony, and finally, The Warm, Warm Bed. Trailer junkies will have a blast going through this material and picking out familiar faces.

Also included here is a forty-minute mini-feature entitled The Wife Swappers that looks to have been made sometimes in the mid to late sixties. It's made to look like a serious documentary but the narration gives it all away pretty early on. We see some couples out dancing at a party when Joe arrives and starts putting everything in place to turn this party into a swinging session. It's interesting to see even if it's rather unremarkable though it would have been nice if SWV had included some information on where this footage came from. Is it part of a longer film? Is this the whole thing? Who are these people and who directed it? No one seems to know, or if they do, they're not telling on this disc.

Rounding out the extra features on this release is a gallery of Harry Novak promotional artwork and another gallery of promotional photographs, both set to some keen music. Animated menus and chapter stops for each of the two features can also be found on this disc.

Final Thoughts:

Sexploitation fans will want this one in their library simply because the two features on the disc have been pretty hard to come by until now. Neither are newly discovered classics but the first feature is a lot of fun and the second one is from Don Davis, which for some is reason enough to want it. Something Weird Video has done their typically strong job with this release and both features look fine. The extra features, the trailers in particular, provide some added value. Recommended.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.

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