(Radeant Films, 1969) Dir: Raúl de Anda Jr.; Scr: Fernando Galeana; Photo: Fernando Colín; Music: Enrico Cabiati; Prod Mgr: José L. Murillo; Asst Dir: Javier Durán; Script Clerk: Damián Acosta; Film Ed: Sergio Soto; Art Dir: Raúl Cárdenas; Camera Op: Agustín Lara; Makeup: Graciela Muñoz; Dialog Rec: Consuelo J. Rendón; Re-rec: Heinrich Henkel; Union: STIC; Division Color and Mexiscope

CAST: "El amigo íntimo"--Rodolfo de Anda (Pablo), Christa Linder (Claudia), Hernán Guido (Lázaro), Jorge Mateos, Silviano Sánchez; "Un matrimonio moderno"--Enrique Rambal (Alvaro Bernal), Claudia Islas (Sofía akaVicki), Lucy Gallardo (Laura), Félix González (Jorge Fajardo), Luis Jimeno (Espinosa), Sergio Guzik (Maldonado), José Luis Caro (Medina), Marcela Davilland, Lupita Andrade, Kiki Herrera Calles (Sara), Alfredo Gutiérrez (luxury hotel desk clerk), Ismael Larumbe (García Fuentes), Wally Barrón (sleazy hotel desk clerk); "Paz y amor"--Héctor Suárez (Sigfrido Morales), Fernando Luján (Beto), Nadia Milton (Julia), Bárbara Angely (Beba), Gabriel Retes (hippie), Víctor Alcocer (don Rodolfo), José L. Murillo (hotel clerk)

NOTES: this is a multi-story sex comedy, similar to those directed in the same era by José Díaz Morales for Interfilms. Each of the episodes is about 30 minutes long and while well-made, are basically just long set-ups for quick "twist" endings.

"El amigo íntimo" (The Intimate Friend): Pablo is a doctor and the best friend of businessman Lázaro, who is married to the beautiful Claudia. Lázaro is so busy that he forgets his anniversary, so Pablo invites the couple out to dinner. Lázaro and Claudia get in an argument at the restaurant, and Lázaro leaves. Claudia and Pablo stay and get drunk on champagne. Claudia confesses that Lázaro is having an affair with his secretary, but she won't give him a divorce. Pablo and Claudia have sex in the woods (he follows a trail of her discarded clothing, until he finally catches up with her; when he does, she's nude and says, "I'm cold, cover me up").

They are both repentant the next morning, and when they face the irate Lázaro, confess. Lázaro beats up Pablo and says now Claudia cannot object to a divorce. Time passes, and the divorce is finalized. Claudia tells Pablo that it was very painful, but at least she still has him. Pablo confesses that he made love to her only to help out his long-time friend Lázaro, who needed grounds for a divorce!

"Un matrimonio moderno" (A Modern Marriage): a group of six businessmen and their wives meet on a regular basis to hold a spouse-swapping party. Alvaro's wife Sofía is the youngest and sexiest of the group, and the other husbands always enjoy her company, except for Fajardo, who's never been lucky enough to draw her as his partner. One day Alvaro asks to meet alone with the husbands: he shows them compromising photos and says they must each pay him 200,000 pesos or he'll give the pictures to the press, and their wives will be shamed in public. "What about Sofía, won't you be shaming her?" they ask. Alvaro admits that Sofía is really a high-class prostitute named Vicki whom he hired to put his blackmail plan into action. The other five men laugh: their "wives" were also prostitutes hired for the parties, so Alvaro's scheme is a failure.

"Paz y amor" (Peace and Love): office worker Sigfrido is relentless in his attempts to get secretary Julia to sleep with him. After being harassed mercilessly, Julia finally agrees, but only on her terms. They decide to go to Acapulco for the weekend to consummate their relationship. In Acapulco, Julia runs into her friend Beba, who is accompanied by Beto, a long-winded hippie. She picked him up for a quick fling. The two couples spend the day together; Beto dominates the conversation with long discourses on his philosophy on politics, economics, etc., but especially his ideas about "free love." As the day ends, Beto chooses his partner for the evening: Sigfrido!

Juegos de alcoba is a mildly entertaining piece of work, very inconsequential and forgettable. While there is much implied extra- and pre-marital sex, nothing is shown and the two scenes of implied nudity (Linder and Islas) are very tame. The cast is good but the performers don't have a lot to work with. Fernando Luján and--to a lesser extent--Héctor Suárez stand out, and the feminine ranks are well represented (at least visually) by Linder, Islas, Milton and Angely (the latter wearing an unflattering, short platinum wig).

There are a few amusing moments in the latter two episodes (the first story is bearable because of Christa Linder, but Rodolfo de Anda never was much of a comic actor). In "Paz y amor," a hippie (Gabriel Retes) gives a speech where he says "we must stop raising chickens that lay Nazi eggs [and] we must stop milking cows that give Communist milk!" This episode is pretty rough on hippies, who were (let it be said) pretty easy targets. A trivia point: in "Un matrimonio mortal," Alvaro's partner for the evening in wife-swapping is Laura, played by Lucy Gallardo, his real-life wife. She says she wants to go to a sleazy hotel and be treated roughly. On the other hand are Garcia Fuentes and the luscious Sofía, who return to the bridal suite of a fancy hotel; Garcia Fuentes brings out a movie projector that he had used to show pornografic films to Sofia on a previous occasion, but this time the movie is footage from World War II! The irate Garcia Fuentes complains to the desk clerk, who says the movie must have been left over from a Russian general who spent his honeymoon in that suite.

Back to the Christa Linder Films Page

Posted 3 May 2000 by David Wilt (dw45@umail.umd.edu)