Customer Reviews

Confessions of a Young American Housewife

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Oh man, what a big disappointment. An obscure sexploitation classic that was only available in the grey market finally gets the authorized DVD treatment but there's a catch. It's heavily cut. Missing ten minutes of original footage that mainly consists of the envelope pushing sex scenes! Some of this was used as the deleted scenes feature. The version I own is exactly an hour and twenty-two minutes. This official DVD you guys are purchasing is only an hour and twelve minutes! To make matters worse, out of left field during the fifty-eight minute mark, a Retro-Seduction visual bug appears on the far right corner for a couple of seconds, WTF. I just don't get it.

When I saw that the original lurid exploitation cover art was not being used, I should have known better. I read that RSC digitally transferred it from the original 35 mm print and got the green light from Joe Sarno himself, I gave it a shot. Right when the opening title appears on the screen, we see a shameless plug on the bottom of the title that says 2006, Pop Cinema right next to the year 1974. I knew for sure this was going to be an alteration from corporate hell. This is truly as sad case of greed over integrity. Let's look at the disguise of this polished DVD for instance. It costs $26.99 because it's a two disc special edition which the second disc is a soundtrack that has songs from other movies and the music from COAYAH is only ten minutes worth. For special features, we get an eleven minute interview with Joe Sarno. The trailer section for other RSC DVD's is taken advantage for more shameless plugs as each trailer begins with the same RSC ad that we see before COAYAH. To top it off, the movie is not even letterboxed or anamorphic widescreen. There is a nice pictorial liner notes booklet about the making of the film.

Unfortunately, since this is the "official" release of a once lost movie, fans that are just now discovering it can only see it in this format. The grey market dealer that I bought my uncut copy from recently closed down. Even if he was still in business, he would be forced to remove this title anyway. The bottom line, I still wouldn't recommend this DVD at all. That hefty price alone is a rip-off. Matter of fact, this was the first DVD I bought from RSC and I will never purchase anything from them again. The incompetent altering of the film loses it's sexually charged impact and takes away from the original experience. I truly believe that RSC cared more about sales catered to the newer sex drama buying consumers and tailored it to be a safe enough viewing pleasure. This movie was only known to diehard sexploitation fans and RSC should have geared the presentation towards us. Quentin Tarantino even admitted at one of his film festivals that he's never seen this rare gem. The original movie uncut gets five stars and this RSC abomination gets zero!

Confessions of a Young American Housewife belongs in the same sphere as any number of mainstream films of the 70's that examined that decade's lifestyle revolutions (which began in the sixties but didn't become widespread until the Me Decade). Of course, its sexual content kept it out of the larger spotlight. Sexually, the film is softcore, although it plays like hardcore, meaning it is definitely not a bunch of tease. In any event, the movie is an intensified look at open marriages and smartly uses a soap opera style to maximize the middle class melodrama while subverting it at the same time. Director Sarno is also very adept at a form of stagey blocking in which all the actors face the camera but at staggered distances. It effectively shows each characters inner thoughts and processes as the incestuous logic of the swinger credo looms in. Which, incidentally, is a literal term here as a visiting mother (Jennifer Welles and her bombshell body playing the ultimate MILF) and her daughter grown progressively closer as a result of daughter facilitating mother's sexual re-awakening. Daughter is played by Mary Mendum aka Rebecca Brooke, who is a stunning visual presence. She seems to float ethereally as the camera explores her character's face -- a sexually open woman who is yet struggling with her staid, middle class upbringing. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in 70's cinema and/or sexual cinema. It's a gem that has been unearthed and presented in the high quality transfer it deserves.

Carole (Rebecca Brooke) is a hip young married living in New York. She enjoys an "open marriage" with her husband Eddie (David Hausman), but usually restricts her playtime to one other couple, Anna (Chris Jordan) and Pete (porno mainstay Eric Edwards). Her old-fashioned mother Jennifer (the incredible Jennifer Welles - why can't we guys all have mothers like that?) comes for a visit, and is given a crash course in swinging lifestyles; sex with a younger man, quasi-lesbian sex and near incest with her own daughter (in no way believable as there's at most a two-to-three year age difference between Welles and Brooke). In the end, Mom bakes them all a cream pie and runs off with the delivery boy. The end.

All the earmarks of a Joe Sarno film are present in this soft, verging on hardcore sex picture. Followers of this auteur will note his sparse use of a music score, very conservative camera movements and insistence on a consistent storyline. Welles generates much sympathy as the frustrated mother. Her tentative attempts at kindling a friendship with the far too young delivery boy are especially poignant. Welles was a very beautiful and underrated actress who would slip from movie screens two years later after appearing in hardcore features.

Sarno ground out countless sex films throughout his illustrious career, and the usual consumer for this type of film was overly grateful to have a film with plot, acting and direction. This reviewer has always felt a sense of malaise hanging around most sex films. The actors, even if they're game and put forth a little extra effort, all appear keenly aware that the project at hand will not further their career, further their cause or endear them to their dear old Aunt Fanny. Welles and Jordan left the field shortly afterwards, whereas actor Eric Edwards would go on to spread his personality on countless shot-on-video project more than thirty years afterwards.

If "adult films" are your cup of tea, a Sarno feature usually delivers on the premise of being as close to a "real movie" as this genre gets. Some feel that Sarno's films have a sense of psychological realism that other films in this genre lack - or you may find his stuff clinical and detached as I do.

The DVD from Retro Seduction features an on-camera interview with Sarno, deleted scenes along with a cavalcade of Sarno trailers.

The DVD was good quality and didnt have any scratches. It contains the "deleted scenes" in the extras menu. The original version that I saw years ago included those scenes in the movie. Over all I am happy with the item.

To say that this 1974 film is wretched gives the word a whole new meaning. Porn star Eric Edwards doesn't even list it in his filmography. No doubt he's ashamed. He should be. This is softcore tripe of the lowest order, reissued in 2006 as a disc, but it obviously was shot originally in super 8, saved on VHS, and then converted in someone's garage to DVD. Looking back over this, perhaps that gives the production values too much credit. Imagine a nudie sexploitation film written by two boys in high school who then shot it (mostly) in the woods and their mother's kitchen. Throw in a little incest and wife swapping just for fun. Use wooden characters. Try to determine which is worse, the acting or the dialog. Did I say that I didn't care for this film? Whatever I paid for it was too much. On the bright side, the guitar background music wasn't bad, and is included in a separate disc, as is a pretentious booklet about the production. Give this as a gift to someone you hate.