A Beautiful, But Shallow Harlequin Romance Story
I admit D.H. Lawrence was a highly controversial figure of his time and it was inevitable his stories would ultimately be made into flicks after the strict censorship laws of the day wore off. I would've thought that a strong erotic story of this caliber would be better suited for a more respectable film company than "Golan & Globus".It happened though and the results are good, but not spectacular or riveting in any way. There's the exception though of Lady Chatterley spying on Mellors standing naked in front of his brick gamekeeper's house and washing himself. That was major erotic potency right there.
There was also a sensuous and highly pleasing chemistry between the two, but then Shane Briant's character, a British aristocrat, Sir Clifford Chatterley, gets in the way of the scheme of things. He got downright annoying at times as well as Ivy Bolton, Clifford's caregiver, who suspected the cheating of Lady Chatterley right from the beginning.
The romance blossoms full throttle between Lady Chatterley and the gamekeeper. There's a major stab here at the discrimination of "class" and how Sir Chatterley would allow his wife to seek pleasure elsewhere, but as long as it was someone of "his bearing".
She obviously doesn't follow that rule and goes with who she truly wants, no matter what social standing they may be in. This flick played out like just another one of those cheap Harlequin romance movies with corny dialogue and over passionate love scenes, but the chemistry between Lady Chatterley and the gamekeeper, Mellors, is the major strength to this otherwise mediocre historical drama. There's beautiful scenery and a genuine feel of the era its depicted in though. Overall, a good effort even though it was dragged down by the cheap quality of the notorious Cannon Group Inc. film company. Their reputation for exploitation wasn't evident here though. They allowed things to be toned down for this film and managed to make it into a pleasing love story no matter how shallow the whole thing was. It did manage to have a classy and respectable quality to it. A good effort.
score 3/10
Camelot_2000 26 August 2020
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw6028793/35034
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