Marga Aulbach's maiden attempt at cornering the couples film market for which she had the good sense to accept the assistance of Jack Remy. Best known for his superlative skills as a camera man, Remy has also proved himself a decent director with the likes of THE MISTRESS, GIRLS ON FIRE and LOOKING FOR MR. GOODSEX. His input on this joint effort must have been considerable as L'AMOUR turns out to be a far more fully realized project than Aulbach's subsequent solo flights HOW DO YOU LIKE IT ? and THOUGHT YOU'D NEVER ASK.
When ex-husband Vince (veteran Harry Reems) - whose business is in dire straits due to the spending habits of his new trophy wife Gloria (Angel) - fails to meet his alimony payments, Ellen Brewster (Kay Parker) decides to move back in with teenage son Mark (Tom Byron at the start of a very long-running career) in tow. Predictably, this causes friction for all involved, not least for Vince who still harbors feelings for his former spouse who is now dating his best friend, divorce attorney Jerry, sympathetically played (no mean feat, considering his profession !) by Jamie Gillis. Meanwhile, Mark falls deeply in lust with pretty diner waitress Pam (Shanna McCullough) whose efforts to elude her dad's strict supervision cause further complications.
The cute story line proves this movie's saving grace, ending with a nicely sustained round of musical beds leading to new and sometimes surprising couples straight out of French farce. Feydeau with fornication ? Remy's first rate cinematography makes the most of the female pulchritude on display with seasoned class act Parker playing mother hen to the most succulent starlets of the mid-'80s. Both Angel and Shanna went on to super-stardom, as did Ginger Lynn who disappears after her opening bit with Gillis, their chemistry which would reach boiling point in TABOO IV already evident. Watch out for an early appearance by Nikki Randall (billed as "Rachel Whitney"), who succeeded Jamie Summers in Vivid's popular BRAT series, as one of the girls picked up by Reems and Gillis on a drunken night out. The other "girl" in this scene is transsexual Ivory Essex who was better suited to the freak show mentality of Kim Christy's CORRUPT DESIRES.
Sexually, the film's no more adventurous than other female-oriented features of the period. Yet while none of the encounters are particularly graphic (and even cum shots are kept to a minimum), they are predominantly warm and friendly and seemingly performed by people who genuinely like each other, still making them fun to watch. The May/December lesbian number between Angel and Parker is particularly memorable. And good luck on trying to get that saccharine Nina Lark title song out of your head, a tearful ballad Anne Murray would have given her left boob to warble in her heyday !
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