Games Girls Play (aka The Bunny Caper/aka Sex Play/1974/MPI Home Video DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: C
In the
early part of his career, Jack Arnold made genre classics like The Creature From The Black Lagoon, This Island Earth, Tarantula and The Incredible
Shrinking Man before retreating to TV work, for which much was
available. However, he did manage to get
back to movie theaters and one of his most unlikely projects was a sex comedy
called Games Girls Play (1974) about
a rich businessman’s daughter (Christina Hart) who is very sexually
active. After conquering every military
rank man she can get her hands on, it’s off to England with her father and she
has brought some friends.
This lite
comic free-for-all has much nudity, but no serious sex, yet lots of sex jokes
of the amusing kind. Ed Bishop (the
British TV classic U.F.O.) even
shows up and the film is a fun distraction, but don’t expect much of a
story. However, Arnold does what he can
with the material and it is a pleasant sit though, making the most of the
location and Britishness along with the exceptionally sexy, built
actresses. There is also a slight
subplot of culture clash, but you know sex will tear down those walls quickly.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a little flawed here and there, which
is typical of such indie/low-budget productions of the time, but this film has
a great Director of Photography in Alan Hume, B.S.C., whose comedy work goes
back to the original British Carry On…
comedy movie series. He moved on to the
classic British TV series The Avengers,
James Bond films like For Your Eyes Only
and Return Of The Jedi. He makes these women look good, including in
the nude, using slight diffusion that sets this apart from similar “nude gal”
romps of the time. This puts it above
most such fare and the filmed sitcom look.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is just fine for its age with clean enough
dialogue and lite music to match the thin storyline.
Extras include
the original theatrical trailer, TV spots and interview with Hart dubbed Naughty
Games. Another extra about the
making of the film or interview with other players would have been nice, but
that is still not bad for a simple pleasure of a simple film.
- Nicholas Sheffo
