This odd, seldom-seen movie was probably not understood in its day, being a little too close for comfort. Now, more than thirty years later, it can be appreciated for the biting commentary it contains. In 1971, feminism (the bad, overwrought version of it) had recently begun to rear its head and here is a story that plays out the consequences for people who let ideas and strident manifestos go to their heads. Richard Benjamin, in what may be his best screen performance, is an imperfect young husband. He likes to look at women and he even has a tendency toward voyeurism. We know from the start that he's not the dangerous type of peeping tom: when he is almost caught spying on bikini-clad girls on the beach, he runs in terror and seems unlikely to attempt such a thing again. He's married to a model-pretty, if bland, woman (Joanna Shimkus), but he still likes to window shop. Benjamin's marriage is unexciting, the romance has almost completely gone and the couple are stuck in dull routines. Drama flares up when his wife's sister gets wind of the voyeuristic behaviors (we are never told how she, or the wife know about the beach incident). After the wife abruptly leaves him one day, Benjamin is visited by his sister-in-law (Elizabeth Ashley as a unique kind of screen villainess). This woman is a castrating, manipulative, calculating monster. She offers herself to him sexually (but only in an indirect, teasing way) while accusing him of being perverted and in need of psychiatric attention. The scenes between these two actors are the best in the film, with Benjamin using his slightly smirking quality to add dimension to his confused, yet sympathetic character. He's truly brilliant here, and the film would not succeed at all without him. As horrid as her character is, Ashley gives a tremendously effective performance too, one a viewer won't soon forget. She out-acts Shimkus by a mile, but it's what she's doing in the film that make it interesting: this is a woman who has allowed ideas of female empowerment and man-blaming to distort her entire world view. She convinces her sister that she has an unhappy marriage, that it's her (perverted) husband's fault, and that she must get away from him. Ashley's own husband, played with dogged servitude by Adam West, is the example of how the man should be: subdued, and fully controlled by the woman.
After an empty, anonymous sexual encounter and several failed attempts to win back his wife from the clutches of his sister-in-law, Benjamin eventually takes control of the situation in an unexpected way. While not a brilliant work on the whole, there is enough clever writing to make this a fascinating film to analyze for social commentary. The two main performances (Benjamin and Ashley) make it worth seeking out as a forgotten remnant of the early 70s.
After an empty, anonymous sexual encounter and several failed attempts to win back his wife from the clutches of his sister-in-law, Benjamin eventually takes control of the situation in an unexpected way. While not a brilliant work on the whole, there is enough clever writing to make this a fascinating film to analyze for social commentary. The two main performances (Benjamin and Ashley) make it worth seeking out as a forgotten remnant of the early 70s.