Moonlighting Wives — Moonlighting Wives(Blu Ray)

Moonlighting Wives is a mid-60s drama, which revolves around a prostitution ring set up by an ambitious suburban housewife. The film’s dramatics are lightly edged by moments of revealed flesh, as well as, one or two brief drives into roughie territory. It was directed by Joseph W. Sarno- one of the key figures in the development of American Sexploitation- though this is very a straight & true drama- with very slight braiding of sleaze/smut. Here from Dark Force Entertainment is a region-free Blu-Ray- taking in an HD scan of the film, featuring a few cut/thought-lost scenes. A commentary track, an on-camera interview with Joseph Sarno biographer, and a short deleted scene.

Moonlighting Wives was released in the year 1966, though was filmed two years early in the September of 64 in & around Amityville, Long Island, New York. Joseph W. Sarno was born in Brooklyn New York in the year 1921, and between the early ’60s and early 2000s, he had an impressive one hundred & twenty-four features to his name- starting off making what-would- become-known-as softcore sexploitation, later in the ’70s & 80’s stepping into the hardcore side of things.  His filmography took in titles such as Sin In The Suburbs (1964), The Naked Fog (1966), Deep Inside (1968), Slippery When Wet(1976), 21 Hump Street(1988),  and Hyperkinky (1989).
 
The film focuses on middle-class housewife Joan Rand (Tammy Latour)- she’s married to moaning about the bill’s salaryman, with one small child. To help with the bills she decides to set up a stenography(admin) service- starting off with just her & one other woman. One evening after a tiring & busy day in the offices of one of her clients- she asked to stay later for a chat with one of the male bosses. One thing leads to another, and she and her colleague land up having supper with the two men from the office- moving on to renting out a room, and she decides this is the way to make money. So fairly quickly she starts bringing in more & more housewives to please her clients.

 A big step up in business/clients in her prostitution ring comes when she links up with slick, smug, and gelled-back raven-haired golf coach Al Jordan (John Aristedes). Quickly getting her services known about in the local country club, bars, and more up-market hotels.
 
Though she remains careful- keeping up the cover of a stenography service- with her ladies purely known by numbers, and clients ring up with passwords.  Around the main set-up/ focus- we get subplots involving her lady's lives, as well as two jaded & sweaty local cops who are looking for vice in their district.
 
Actor wise Latour is largely ok as the lead- though at points she does come across a little hammy- I’d say she looks like a slightly more pinched-faced Jodie Foster.  Aristedes is passable as the sleek, sleazy, and keen-for-more-money golf coach- though he’s never really given many great or dramatic scenes. The surrounding cast isn’t anything to write home about, and I’m sure a few of the actresses come from a Sexploitation background- as some of them look rather rough/ poor, which does take away from the whole meant-to-mid-class women going into prostitution plotting of the film.
 
The script/ flow of the film is engaging enough- with the lead drama of the whole thing, and its subplots conceived well enough. Some of the scene cutting/shifts are a little jarring, and at points badly done, so one does get a little confused about who is who.  The whole thing is soundtracked with a rather repetitive light jazz- vibe & horn-led score, which often repeats the same cues again & again- and at points gets a little tiring. The film is shot in colour and is largely captured in a competent enough manner. 
 
 
On the flesh bound/ sleazed side of things- we get a few fleeting topless moments and vague simulation. There are also a few subtle kinky/ roughie moments including a few slaps and even the duo of Aristedes & Latour in their underwear with masks on in a very Eyes Wide Shut vibe. Though 
I’d say you’ll certainly be needing to approach Moonlighting Wives from a purely drama angle- as that is the film's prime & key focus.

 

This region-free Blu-ray features a new HD scan of the film. And for low-budget 60’s film stock, it doesn’t look too bad, with well-defined colouring, as well as good clarity & depth in the darker/ shadowy moments. There are a few moments of film damage- but largely it’s fairly clean. 

Moving onto the extras side of things & we get a commentary track with Joseph W. Sarno's biography Michael Bowen- and this is most interesting, though it does feel more like a discussion around the film, instead of the track done over the film- as he never really comments on the action on screen, He begins talking about Sarno’s filmmaking style-with its use of stagey well-produced dialogue in an almost artificial way- yet filming in very real-life locations. We find out this was the first film Sarno made in colour, and he goes on to discuss the reasons for this. He talks about the camera work of Jerry Kalogeratos, who studied in an Italian film school before coming to NYC in the 1950s, and how his work is a lot more professional & well-realized than a lot of cameramen working in exploitation at this time.  He discusses how Sarno is often described as the 'Bregman Times Square', and whether the comparisons between Sarno any the great Swedish director are valid.  He touches on the existence of real prostitution rings, and how the film's script could possibly have been based on a 1964 Long Island ring, which had involved local politicians. Later on, he talks about Sarno's use of location in his film, and how he would often use the same location from different angles. As well as talking about how Sarno rarely shot on NYC streets, and why this was. He talks about the ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ versions of the film to hand, and why these were done. plus much more. A most worthy track.
Next, we have an on-screen interview with Michael Bowen (21.17) here he talks about how/when he first met the director when he was in his eighties, and how he was a very friendly open guy. He moves on to give a bio of Sarno- his time severing in WWII, coming back to the States to make industrial films for business & public service films, and how he made the step into feature film creation. Again, a most worthy extra. Lastly, we get a deleted scene (4.01) which is rather misleadingly labelled as a 'nude scene'- yes, there is full frontal nudity- but largely it’s regarding a dramatic encounter between two couples.

It is certainly nice to see Sarno’s more dramatic & formal filming-making /scripting skills coming out with Moonlighting Wives. And one does ponder what he might have made/ done if he had continued down this path. With this Dark Force Entertainment release presents us with a decent scan of the film, and a small/ but worthy selection of extras.