Product Details

• Actors: John Phillip Law, Dyan Cannon, Robert Ryan, Jackie Cooper, David Hemmings
• Directors: Jack Haley Jr.
• Writers: Jacqueline Susann, Samuel A. Taylor
• Producers: Irving Mansfield, M.J. Frankovich
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: January 18, 2000
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302874629
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #248,719 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Even Campier Than "Valley"!, June 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Love Machine [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you liked the campy melodrama of Jacqueline Susann's "Valley of the Dolls", you'll LOVE its follow up "The Love Machine"! Starring a young Dyan Cannon as the intellectually unparalleled (stares at telephone and asks it - "Are you a recording?") wife of an elderly TV network head honcho, the movie chornicles the bedhopping of TV network golden boy Robin Stone. With a slew of non-stereotyped supporting characters (i.e. a flaming gay fashion designer, a featherbrained fashion model, and a crude Jewish comic), "The Love Machine", like "Valley", tries to be a hard hitting drama, but ends up being a campy, psychadelic time capsule of early 70's fashion, music, and decor. Long out of print, this fab flick has finally been rereleased for a whole new audience to enjoy.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cheesybut sleazy!, October 19, 2001

By 

VD (vdbooks) "VD" (Somewhere in New England) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Love Machine [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Jackie Susann didn't like the way Hollywood handled her Valley of the Dolls (she hated the upbeat ending they gave it), so she took control of The Love Machine. It's got the action and camp you want and expect from a JS story--and it lacks the sugar and spice you don't want from a Hollywood piece--but it's missing something viewers quite often take for granted: production values. Its cheesiness shows. Heck, that may even make it a better flick.

Anyway, who wouldn't want to see Dyan Cannon having a cat fight with a couple of queens? Or the robotic but handsome John Phillip Law belt an Amazon (as in tall) hooker unconscious? This and all the while poking fun at the television industry.

The movie didn't leverage the "you're a Don Juan because you're really gay" theme that the book did, and the movie suffered from it. All in all, it's a pretty fun movie while you're enjoying a tall cocktail.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mildly engaging sleaze-o-rama, July 18, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Love Machine [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is NOT in the same campy league of "Valley of theDolls", .... That film was hilarious, full of bad acting, great dialogue, and lots of funny, over-the-top set pieces. "Valley" has a cult following among "bad film" fans, and deservedly so. This one is engaging for its sleazy script about a good looking reporter who scratches and claws his way to the top of network television and his circle of beautiful, lusty women, gay wannabe lovers, cutthroat executives, etc. The whole thing could have been a large budget handsome film drama but, instead, looks like it was filmed on videotape. The actor who plays the lead is very bland and almost feminine in appearance-hardly the irresistable sexual dynamo required by the script. There is lots of bad acting here but Dyan Cannon and, believe it or not, comedian Shecky Greene give good performances. Everyone else is from the "I began my career as a beautiful model and now I am trying acting" school. I enjoyed the film as a mindless diversion but am unlikely to watch it again and again as I have with "Valley of the Dolls". It is too bad that no one has ever made a good film based on a Jacqueline Susann novel because her books ARE page turners and she does know show business, having been an actress before turning to writing. I find that her novels are engaging, well plotted, and do have something to say about those whose values are corrupted by the love of fame, power, and fortune. They are also vastly entertaining-a quality that this film never achieves. A much lesser film - in terms of entertainment value- than its sleazier, campier, outrageous sister "Valley of the dolls" but worth a view-with plenty of popcorn.