43 ans, Les Nuits d'une Femme Mariée

Marc Dorcel replaced British director Kendo with fellow countryman Gazzman for this latest in the "aging" women series, and I was surprised that the resulting film has the same key characteristics as previous entries with titles from 39 ans through 42 ans. Apparently Dorcel rules his empire like Howard Hughes, carefully monitoring the editing and even structuring of films regardless of their source.

So again we have a storyline film relegated to pantomime, with all dialog either not recorded or removed. This, unlike earlier Dorcel features in his 37 year porn career, has the efficacy of creating several narration tracks with no "original" language specified, making the video more universal and ultra-easy to dub. Bad news is that it makes the action unnecessarily remote, hurting the eroticism of the exercise.

In this case the big-bust British star Rebecca More, who did a fine job in a Dick Bush-directed talkie for Dorcel "The Billionaire's Daughter", is here rendered with a bland American-accented voice and uninteresting narration that carries the bare bones of a story. The resulting sex is hot and up to Dorcel standards, but the video's status as a feature is diluted to the point where many viewers will find it mere generic sex.

As with Kendo's half dozen entries in this series, the theme is infidelity, with not just Ms. More straying but everyone doing so. By the middle of the movie she's formed a sort of coffee klatch club of fellow housewives, which in this setting takes place in some countryside that could be rural England, France, Spain or even Eastern Europe, to consider the places where Dorcel and Gazzman make their movies. Like the absence of dialog (and nationality of language), this lack of specificity as to place is yet another drawback. Why not make a video "A Summer in Normandy", or "Autumn in Prague" or "Winter in Derbyshire" and take advantage of the locations?

While the men are all Continentals, the beautiful and delightfully top-heavy femme cast are a mixture of nationalities, all of them displaying energy, maturity and a bit of exotic. Satin Bloom, becoming a favorite of mine, was in Kendo's "39 ans" as well as Gazzman features dating back to his Young Harlots series, and is a stunning beauty. Also making a good impression is Martina Gold, a relative newcomer. I was glad to see a fresh cast as both MD and Gazzman tend to feature the same actresses over & over again.

A sloppiness that I'm finding all too common in DVDs points out here an issue between post-production and principal photography. In the narration, much is made of Rebecca making love to a horseman named Pablo (film revolves around the horsey set, with Rebecca's neglectful husband a big breeder), yet he is later referred to as Juan, because the actor's name is Juan Lucho.

There are no technical credits, even though Gazzman's photography and other matters are well-done,, and the DVD has none of the menu niceties of previous releases - it's just treated as assembly-line product.