Three-Cornered Bed (1969) Poster

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Regrettably forgotten footnote of the early sexploitation era
lazarillo24 March 2013
This movie is currently only available in German (although an English dub no doubt did at one point exist), so the plot probably eludes me to some extent, but here goes: Two young German lotharios who spend all their time picking up loose women, spy two young lovelies, "Eva" and "Yvonne"(Marie Liljedahl and Karin Schubert), sunbathing topless on a roof through their telescope. They try to court the girls (which apparently involves running their car off the road, chasing them into the woods, and practically trying to rape them). These guys are just irresistibly sexy though (judging from their European-style briefs and the way all women seem to react to them), so one of them quickly seduces "Yvonne". But "Eva" is a little more resistant, distracted as she is by the mutual infidelities of her parents, who are both involved with much younger lovers. Obviously, there are plenty of romantic/sexual shenanigans going on here, but where they got the English title, "Three-Cornered Bed" is beyond me. . .

This does feature three legends of the late 60's/70's international "softcore/nudie" film. The most famous, albeit least interesting, is Karin Schubert, who appeared in any number of softcore exploitation films of this era, always as a second banana to the likes of Edwige Fenech or Laura Gemser. In the 80's (when she was considerably less attractive), she became a hardcore porn star and made waves by allegedly refusing to work with black actors (although she did work with an AIDS-ravaged John Holmes and lived to tell the tale).

Typically, Schubert is second banana here to Swedish actress Marie Liljedahl, who only made a small number of films (most notably Joe Sarno's "Inga" and Jesus Franco's "Eugenie"), but was always VERY memorable. Liljedahl was kind of the Platonic ideal of the very cute and sexy "girl next door". Sure, probably very few lucky people have ever had a girl like her living next door to them, but she is just the perfect ideal of the post-adolescent girl every male fantasizes about. She actually had a very similar look to her fellow country-woman, Christine Lindberg (except with more normal-size breasts), and she has perhaps been overshadowed today somewhat by the fervent cult surrounding Lindberg. But really both Swedish actresses were unbelievably sexy and appealing in their own ways.

The third legend here is German director Hubert Frank, who would go on to do various German sexploitation fare like the superior "sex-report" film "Unfaithful Wives", the 70's classic "Melody in Love", several films with late-70's German sex starlet Olivia Pascal, and even an early 80's film called "Patrizia" with a young Ann (the original "La Femme Nikita") Parillaud. Frank is often overshadowed by other directors who worked in German sex films of the era, like Jesus Franco, Erwin Dietrich, and Ernst Hofbauer/Walter Boos (co-creators of the German "sex-reports"), but his career is ripe for reappraisal. Unlike Jesus Franco, for instance, he has never made a truly BAD movie. This movie is pretty innocent compared to Frank's later films, more 60's "nudie" than 70's "softcore" (the most memorable scene is when Liljedahl and Schubert go on an, apparently clothing-entirely-optional, sailing trip with Liljedahl's father and his voluptuous young mistress). It's actually not unlike a lot of late 60's films from other European countries, with the groovy music, the pretty "birds", and free-living young males modeled on Michael Caine in "Alfie" (although despite their sexy wardrobe, these two guys put together don't have a small fraction of the charisma of Michael Caine). It's not a masterpiece, but it also shouldn't be relegated to a nearly forgotten footnote of the early sexploitation era as it is now.
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