Shrewd, unhappy and pragmatic housewife and part-time stenographer Joan Rand (excellently played by sultry brunette Tammy Latour) starts her own suburban prostitution ring that caters to a rich clientèle. Pretty soon Joan has a booming business on her hands. Meanwhile her drunken neglected husband has an affair with his enticing 18-year-old babysitter. Writer/director Joe Sarno crafts a wickedly smart and insightful portrait of the naughty things that go on underneath the respectable veneer of staid upper-class small town America; he also maintains a steady snappy pace throughout and coaxes solid acting from a sturdy cast. Fine supporting performances by John Aristedes as smug, arrogant golf pro Al Jordan, Joe Santos (Lt. Dennis Becker on "The Rockford Files") as a weary vice detective, and the adorably slinky Jan Nash as the luscious Nancy Preston, who becomes the most prized and desired girl in Joan's stable. The ravishing Fatima does a smoking hot belly dance at a wild poolside stag party. The crisp color cinematography by Jerry Kalogeratos and Anthony Lover gives the picture an attractive polished look. Stan Free's great boppin' jazzy lounge score and the cool swingin' theme song both really hit the groovy spot. While the film's content is decidedly mild, there's still a nice racy vibe which permeates the engrossingly sordid story and thus makes this movie a good deal of entertainingly tawdry fun.

From 1934 until the late 1960s, you couldn't get away with much in American films. Sex and debauchery were only occasionally alluded to...but only in the most indirect way--all due to the strengthened Production Code. However, a small number of independent films, usually couched as 'educational', were able to slip in under this code. "Moonlighting Wives" is clearly one of these films--with a strongly sexual plot. However, due to local obscenity laws, despite being about prostitution, the film really doesn't show much in the way of skin. Yes, it was clearly exploitational but the film really isn't that spicy--especially by current standards.

"Moonlighting Wives" is based on a real life suburban prostitution ring that was exposed in 1964. Housewives all earned extra money by working part-time jobs as stenographers--or at least that was the cover. Instead, the women were part-time prostitutes--operating in a very professional manner. How close this film is to the real story, I have no idea. However, it's very, very obvious that the film was made on a shoestring budget--with mostly non-actresses and a very cheesy lounge-style soundtrack. Despite this, the film is amazingly watchable and reasonably well made for what it is. Sure, some of the acting is pretty bad--but on the whole, not that bad considering the sort of film it is. Overall, not a very good film but entertaining nevertheless! My biggest quibble? The AWFUL singing at the end of the film! It made my dogs bark!

As I mentioned, most of the folks in the film were not professionals (at least when it came to acting). However, Joe Santos plays a detective in the movie--rather similar to the role he later played on "The Rockford Files".

Oh, and lastly, the print for this film is just terrible--faded and very scratchy. When my wife saw it, she asked 'why is it raining INSIDE that house?' because the print was THAT bad!

This full-colour picture is a real epic compared to Sarno's normally budget-constrained work. Although slightly overlong, it allows a more elaborate mise-en-scene than usual, with another complex plot filled with power-playing ploys and unexpected revelations between the jaded characters. As in many of his early entries, Sarno's subtext scathingly critiques the bourgeois mores of early 60s suburbia, and more specifically satirizes the button-down, wheeler-dealer, martini-lunching business world of the "gray flannel suit" era. It's like the subterranean side of the Doris Day/Rock Hudson oeuvre. Excellent acting all around, and the colour (faded as it is in the video print) really emphasizes the seemingly staid Jan Nash's steely, betraying eyes. With only a few glimpses of nudity, it's hard to imagine how these films were sold to the grindhouses, but they certainly are valuable time-capsules for those of us inured to 'Father Knows Best' and 'Leave It to Beaver'.