Commuter Husbands

1973 British film by Derek Ford

1972 (1972)

Running time

85 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglish

Commuter Husbands is a British 1972 comedy film directed by sexploitation director Derek Ford, starring Gabrielle Drake, Robin Bailey, and Claire Gordon.^[1] It is a semi-sequel to Ford's 1971 film Suburban Wives.

Plot

The Story Teller enters the Penthouse Club in London, which she declares is the "front line" in the battle of the sexes, proving "that man is the most dangerous animal of them all – excepting woman". She introduces six stories about wayward husbands.

Cast

Gabrielle Drake as The Story Teller
Robin Bailey as Dennis
Heather Chasen as wife
Robin Culver as John Appleby
Brenda Peters as Lola
Claire Gordon as Carla Berlin
Jane Cardew as secretary
Dick Haydon as Arthur Benbow
Dervis Ward as Arnold
Dorothea Phillips as wife
Mike Britton as Peter Harris
Nicola Austin as dream girl
Timothy Parkes as Raymond Hardacre
Yokki Rhodes as Trudi
George Selway as Charlesworth

Soundtrack

"Man Is A Hunter", performed by Samantha Jones.

Production

The film exists also in a version with hardcore inserts, but there is no suggestion that any of the credited cast performed hardcore.^[2]

Critical reception

Monthly Film Bulletin said "An almost caricaturally British sexploiter whose infrequent and generally cold consummations are supplemented by some indulgent fantasy inserts involving ladies less coy in their abandonment than the majority of the film's characters. From the setting of London's Penthouse Club, here claimed as "the foremost casualty station in the battle of the sexes", Gabrielle Drake delivers the commentary's anthropological generalisations in tones of genteel condescension, though neither the setting, the hunting metaphors nor the refinement have much relevance to the rather wistful lusts subsequently displayed. Although the film overworks its fairly flimsy material, milking the potential comedy of its awkward situations for several laughs too many, it at least has the merit of not expecting us to take seriously the philandering of its one-dimensional characters."^[3]

References

^ "Commuter Husbands". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
^ Sheridan,Simon (2011). Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema. Titan Books Ltd
^ "Commuter Husbands". Monthly Film Bulletin. 40 (468): 74. 1973 – via ProQuest.