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World is Full of Married Men (The)
R2 - United Kingdom - Network/Strike Force Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Paul Lewis (7th July 2009). |
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The Film
 
Often seen as riding on the coattails of Jacqueline Susann’s 1966 hit novel The Valley of the Dolls, Jackie Collins’ The World is Full of Married Men was originally published in 1968. The novel marked the beginning of Collins’ long career as a writer of popular, and highly ‘racy’, women’s literature. Directed by Robert Young, this film adaptation of Collins’ first novel was distributed in 1979, a year after the film adaptation of Collins’ novel The Stud (Quentin Masters, 1978) and the same year in which the film adaptation of Collins’ The Bitch (Gerry O’Hara, 1979) was released – both of which starred Jackie Collins’ actress sister Joan Collins. (In 1979, Collins also made her first foray into screenwriting, writing the script for Neil Leifer’s melodrama Yesterday’s Hero, which focuses on footballer Rod Turner, played by Ian McShane, and his attempts to put his alcoholic past behind him and reinvent his career.) 
The World is Full of Married Men is in essence similar to both The Stud and The Bitch, telling a story of lust in the context of disco-era high society lifestyles: advertising executive David Cooper (Anthony Franciosa) is cheating on his wife Linda (Carroll Baker) with upcoming starlet Claudia Parker (Sherrie Lee Cronn). David plans to divorce Linda so that he may marry Claudia. Eventually, Linda agrees to a divorce; but after spending six months with Claudia, David realizes that their infatuation is not permanent and he begins to miss Linda. However, in the months since her divorce from David, Linda has begun a relationship with producer Jay Grossman (Gareth Hunt). This marks the beginning of a downward spiral for David, who falls into a life of alcoholism and a sexually frustrating relationship with his dull secretary, Miss Field (Jean Gilpin). 
Like much of Collins’ other work, The World is Full of Married Men carries a cod-feminist subtext, appearing to promote self-determination and self-belief in middle-aged women, especially through presenting women enjoying an active sex life without any distress or punishment (see Crook, 2005: 239-40). However, this is hard to swallow in light of Collins’ reliance on the chauvinistic Madonna/Whore opposition in her characterisations of Linda and Claudia. As in Collins’ other work, an honest and faithful woman (in this case, Linda) is placed in opposition with a younger woman who displays a predatory sexuality (Claudia). Immediately following the shoot of an advertisement for soap, whilst David plays away with the vampish and willing Claudia, Linda is approached by the singer who has been hired to appear in the commercial, Gem Gemini (Paul Nicholas). Gem Gemini asks Linda if she ‘gets any nights off’, but Linda tries to evade Gemini’s pass by suggesting that she might ‘fix [him] up’ with her daughter. Gemini insists that she is ‘not available’, but Gemini simply asserts, ‘Available? That makes you sound like you’re a can of beans on a supermarket shelf’. 
As would be expected from an adaptation of a Jackie Collins novel, much of the action in The World is Full of Married Men takes place in roller-discos, on the sets of ad shoots and in sassy nightclubs. A by-the-numbers fantasy-cum-melodrama, the film has a certain ironic charm thanks to the disco-era fashions and the often camp, and frequently truly bitchy, dialogue (‘Oh, boy, I can tell you: you can be a crude bitch’, David tells Claudia at one point). The world of Collins’ fictions is essentially based on instinct and a regressive view of society: the world in The World is Full of Married Men is little more than a steamy jungle of nightclubs and hotels in which men and women spar and engage in sexual conquests. Collins’ work offers a glossy view of life in the fast lane, where humanity ironically stutters to a halt; but Collins’ morality tale about adultery and betrayal is mealy-mouthed, thanks to her adoption of some of the misogynistic tropes associated with the genre of melodrama (for example, the traditional Madonna/Whore dichotomy, noted above). However, thanks to the direction of Robert Young, who began his filmmaking career with the striking Hammer horror film Vampire Circus (1972), The World is Full of Married Men is a step above The Stud and The Bitch: the film is frequently good to look at, and the cast appear to be having fun with the dialogue, with Anthony Franciosa seeming to relish in the delivery of his most venomous lines and appears fully aware of the camp potential of some of his bitchiest lines (‘Fucking bitch. Phone call last night wasn’t enough, was it? Now you want to hit her over the fucking head, don’t you’). The film also contains a very good performance from Anthony Steel as a manipulative producer of sex-movies; in this role, Steel seems to draw on his experience of playing Sir Stephen, the sexually dominant and morally ambiguous ‘master’ of O (Corinne Clery), in Just Jaeckin’s Histoire d’O (The Story of O, 1975). 
The film is uncut and has a running time of 102:19 (PAL).
Video
The film is presented in its original cinema aspect ratio of 1.78:1, with anamorphic enhancement. Like The Stud and The Bitch, The World is Full of Married Men is for the most part shot in soft-focus: the film is a haze of flattering diffused light. The use of such soft-focus photography has since the 1970s been one of the major tropes of the soft-core sex melodrama, connoting ‘the glow of erotic sensuality […] a mode of signalling perfectly absorbing sex’ (Krzywinska, 2006: 32). Its use here is therefore unsurprising. 
The DVD contains a handsome presentation of the film: visually, the film exhibits almost no wear-and-tear. The image is clear, or as clear as the soft-focus photography will allow, and colours are vibrant.
Audio
Audio is presented via a two-channel mono track. This is distinctly ‘lo-fi’, with much crackling on the soundtrack. However, dialogue is always audible, as are the omnipresent disco ‘choons.
Extras
The DVD contains: - a Gallery (1:55) of promotional images; - an X-Rated Trailer (1:34). Accompanied by a dry narration which describes Collins’ novel as ‘sizzling’ and paints Sherri Lee Cronn’ character as a femme fatale who destroys the lives of Linda and David. The narration describes the film as ‘a shattering experience for any man who dares take his wife; or any wife whose husband wasn’t home last night’ and foregrounds the film’s sex content. - a U-Rated Trailer (1:10). This is essentially a slightly tamer version of the ‘X-rated trailer’, minus the onscreen nudity contained in the other trailer.
Overall
A typical high society-focused 1970s sex fantasy, The World is Full of Married Men is prime trash cinema, adapted from one of the highest-selling trashy novels of the 1960s. There is enormous camp fun to be had from this exploitative film, and the film also features some great performances from Anthony Franciosa, Carroll Baker and Anthony Steel. Whilst by no means a classic, The World is Full of Married Men is worth a watch for aficionados of exploitative late-1970s cinema. This release from Network’s new sublabel Strike Force Entertainment contains a very good transfer of the film. References Crook, David, 2005: The Long Sexual Revolution: English Women, Sex and Contraception, 1800-1975. Oxford University Press Krzywinska, Tanya, 2006: Sex and the Cinema. Manchester: Wallflower Press For more information, please visit the homepage of Network DVD or Strike Force Entertainment.
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