The Wife Swappers

1970 British film by Derek Ford

9 September 1970 (1970-09-09)

Running time

82 min^[1]CountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglishBudget£50,000^[2]^[3]Box officeover £1 million (UK)^[4]

The Wife Swappers is a 1970 British drama documentary film by British sexploitation director Derek Ford and starring James Donnelly, Larry Taylor, Valerie St. John and Denys Hawthorne.^[5] The film was produced by Stanley Long. It was released in the US as The Swappers.

Cast

James Donnelly as Paul
Larry Taylor as Leonard
Valerie St. John as Ellen
Denys Hawthorne as Cliff
Bunty Garland as Sheila
Sandra Satchwith as Carol
Fiona Fraser as Marion
Joan Hayward as Jean

Response

Box office

The film was a huge commercial success relative to its budget.^[2]

Critical response

Monthly Film Bulletin said "Dramatised documentary inquiry into wife swapping, on the lines of previous voyeuristic exposés of similar scandals. The thesis is that while the practice is as yet a minority social phenomenon largely confined to the affiuent middle classes, it is on the increase – and so cinemagoers need this salutary warning about "a game of increasing risk and diminishing returns". This warning is delivered by means of a series of cautionary stories interspersed with interviews and comments from an alleged psychiatrist on group sex. The dramatised episodes – which range from the adventures of an innocent couple duped aboard a houseboat to the sado-masochistic proclivities of "Dare Club" members – are characterised by banal scripting and stiff, amateurish acting, which makes for some presumably unplanned moments of comedy. But the fictional content is as nothing compared to the interviews, particularly one with the editor of a contact magazine, which have to be heard to be appreciated."^[6]

Variety said "This is one of those finger-wagging pix that, posing as an "in depth" revealing exposure of shocking facts, is really simply a rather clumsy attempt at titillation in which it fails singularly. Poor scripting, leaden direction and barely adequate thesping don't help."^[7]

Releases

The film was released on UK DVD in January 2007 on the Slam Dunk Media Label (the US DVD release on the Jeff films label is an unauthorized bootleg.)^{[citation needed]}

References

^ "THE WIFE SWAPPERS | British Board of Film Classification". bbfc.co.uk.
^ ^a ^b Making it Jordan, C. New Society; London Vol. 16, (Jul 2, 1970): 420.
^ "Stanley A Long". British Entertainment History Project. 24 November 1999.
^ Sheridan, Simon (16 September 2012). "Stanley Long: Film director who was described by 'The Sun' as 'The King of Sexploitation'". The Independent.
^ "The Wife Swappers". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
^ "The Wife Swappers". Monthly Film Bulletin. 37 (432): 193. 1970 – via ProQuest.
^ "The Wife Swappers". Variety. 259 (13): 22. 12 August 1970 – via ProQuest.