Horst_In_Translation Review of Swinging Wives

Swinging Wives (1971)

Okay, it was funny at times, but not enough

[4/10 · 12 December 2018]

"Der neue heiße Sex-Report - Was Männer nicht für möglich halten" is a West German movie from 1971, so this one will soon have its 50th anniversary already and well.. content-wise I don't need to say too much I guess. The name of director Ernst Hofbauer says it all. If you know only a little bit about the kind of films this man made during the 1970s mostly (Schulmädchen-Report), then you know very well what to expect here only that the (female) main characters are older. Lots of relatively harmless softcore sex without close focus on (fe)male genitalia. And in-between always pseudo-informative interviews dealing with several seemingly important subjects like how important it is to be faithful in a relationship. The cast includes mostly actors that you will know from other West German softcore sex films from that time I guess, but there's also other names that you would not necessarily expect in a film like this. For example I guess Helen Vita couldn't care less really or they just offered her enough money so she'd accept this role towards the end of her career. And honestly, there is nothing more than cleavage seen from her, but well she is also at an age where this should not be a surprise as it would have turned off and not turned on most male audience members looking at what she had in mind with the innocent postman. I also want to mention Max Grießer here, a late German actor who I enjoyed for a while on "Wie bitte?" and here you see what he did earlier in his career.. Oh well, I mean Kekilli did the same and she is an amazing actress too, so why not him. Actually, his scene was really funny in my opinion as the woman opening the door, I think the one who owns the flat, says she is really thirsty and well Grießer is bringing the juice he just doesn't know it yet, but he finds out qucikly enough when there's three of them females lying naked in the room. Another story is about a daughter seducing her mother's lover out in the nature. But there is also harmless material, like a doctoor examing a female patient and she tries her best to seduce him, but without success as he is as married as he is willing to stay faithful to his wife. Good for him as the woman's husband comes home early and would have called them in the act. And yeah, at the very end there is another seemingly smart message about what men should do to please their women, not just sexually, and keep them from cheating on their husbands with electricians, caretakers, handymen, doctors etc. Oh well, it's really the worst because the film depicts women and men both in a negative way really, men being hopelessly unable to resist female temptation almost always and women being constantly (at least tempted to be) unfaithful as well. Don't accept anything you see in this film. I wish it could have been shorter. At almost 95 minutes, it is longer than almost everything else by Hofbauer I've seen. Admittedly, the comedy is decent sometimes, not because it is unintentional, but because it really does not take itself seriously, so it is not a complete failure like other Hofbauer works, but it is still only to be appreciated as a bit of a guilty pleasure and seeing it once is more than enough, maybe one time too many already. I am also a bit surprised to see writer Manfred Purzer attached to this, but yeah he clearly stepped things up afterwards working on some far more memorable German films, also with Fassbinder for example. This one here is certainly not a winner though. Watch something else instead.