I must admit the directness of this film’s title got me on board immediately; there was no odd romanticization of porn clichés, but a straightforward — and after having watched it, rather accurate — description of what you’ll find.

Adultery for Fun & Profit was Richard Robinson’s first narrative feature film, and the video version opens by establishing its accolades: “Grand Prize Winner at the Amsterdam Adult Film Festival Award, 1970-1971”.

Just a few days before signing her divorce settlement, a concerned young woman named Janet told the guy she’d been seeing lately that she feared her husband would find out about their affair, since he was the kind of man who could go to great lengths to set her up to lose money on the divorce.

Retro Porn Review - Adultery for Fun & Profit

The man she was seeing, Richard (played by a seldom-used porn actor named Frank Harris), told her not to worry about it, so they skipped the stressing out and got right to the sex part. However, right at the climactic point, a smiling photographer came out of a closet (not figuratively; he was hiding there) and took a picture, sealing Janet’s unfortunate settlement fate.

It turned out Richard was the one setting her up, as he was hired by her husband to con her. Richard got 10% of whatever his clients could make by countersuing on account of adultery. In this particular case, a whopping $10,000 — 10 grand would buy you a lot of stuff in 1970. He also bragged about having successfully done the scam seven out of the eight times he’d tried it.

Seducing these ladies didn’t seem very difficult for him. He’d just try to make them feel comfortable and seal the deal by offering them what he called “the most persuasive Martini in town”, which they invariably couldn’t resist.

Two of the women, though, just happened to have the same lawyer, who quickly noticed the pattern and got a hold of Richard. Things sure seemed to be getting a little dangerous. Of course, because divorce lawyers are usually honest, caring and righteous human beings, instead of ratting him out to the current clients, the guy decided to use Richard’s services to extort some more money out of different cases.

The new partnership proved to be very effective, and Richard found himself having sex with a series of soon-to-be-divorced women for profit (and, you know, fun.) A lesson, however, was bound to be taught to Richard in a somewhat unexpected way.

The soundtrack, consisting mostly of groove-oriented psychedelic rock and jazzy atmospheres, was superb and never felt overpowering or inappropriate, as they alternated the music with the actual sex scenes’ sound much better than in most 70s films.

I’m usually a little ambivalent when it comes to very early 70s adult movies, as they tend to lack the substance, budget and style of the post-Deep Throat films, but Adultery for Fun & Profit actually held its own with some of the best of them. It seems that Amsterdam Festival got it right that time.

3 Comments

  1. Totes m’goats.

  2. جديد جدا