Intimate Games (1976)

A British sexploitation flick about a class assignment where the students must explore sexual fantasies. Featuring some familiar names including Suzy Mandel, Felicity Devonshire, and Anna Bergman. Written and directed by the great Tudor Gates, the man who wrote Barbarella, Twins of Evil, The Sex Thief, Lust for a Vampire, and Danger: Diabolik.

Professor Gottlieb (George Baker) is teaching a class on human sexuality and today's lesson is on fantasies. He shows a short film to illustrate.

"This man isn't really bad tempered because the production figures aren't so good, or because his secretary has made a mistake. The bad temper is a show to cover his guilt. His guilt is because he desires his secretary. And what he cannot or thinks he cannot do in reality he can do in fantasy. These are the INTIMATE GAMES we play by the power of our own imagination."

The film shows the secretary (Monika Ringwald) wearing less and less clothing.

Professor Gotlieb gives his class an assignment to complete over the break - to document sexual fantasies of each other and people they know. He divides the class into pairs.

At the dorm room, Cathy (Felicity Devonshire), Marian (Heather Deeley) and Erica (Suzy Mandel) discuss the assignment.

Erica teases inexperienced Marian.

Erica gets completely nude as they talk.

Cathy visits her assignment partner, Benny (Edward Kalinski) who is extremely awkward.

Cathy tells her sexual fantasy - and gets carried away, ripping open her shirt.

Then, Cathy has to listen to Benny's pathetic fantasy. "I have to worry about my p-p-penis."

Benny accidentally lets it slip that Cathy is part of his fantasy. This actually gets her turned on, and they have sex.

John (Peter Blake) and Jane (Maria St. Clare) work on their assignment. She starts with a rather disturbing story about how, when she was little, she would look at her brother's toy train as it entered a tunnel and imagine it coming inside her.

John tries to record all this information, but all he can focus on is her boobs.

JOHN: I find it very difficult to work with you.

JANE: Oh, do you? Why?

JOHN: You know bloody well why. I'd like to see you concentrate if you were a bloke with them tits leaping about like a ferret in a poke in front of you.

Jane has a solution: "If you can see the real thing, it might stop your mind imagining all the time." So she takes off her jacket and jeans, wearing nothing underneath.

She tosses him her jeans. John falls back onto the chair, stunned.

Back to where she was originally sitting, Jane says, "Do you think we can get on with it now?"

Assignment partners, Nick (Chet Townsend) and Suzy (Anna Bergman) are struggling to get a fantasy on paper. All Nick wants to do is get in her pants, and the best fantasy Suzy can come up with is a thumb-sucking fetish (?). Needless to say, this all goes nowhere.

We return to Marian and Erica. The girls wonder if the professor teamed them up because he suspected they were lesbians.

Erica kisses Marian, who has never had such an encounter. She asks, "What am I supposed to do?" Erica responds - "Nothing."

Erica locks the door, then lets her towel drop.  She then leads Marian to get undressed.

Marian gets naked and lies on the bed. Erica crawls on top of her. But their love making is interrupted when Cathy returns from her night with Benny.

The next day, the assignment partners split up and interview friends and family about their fantasies. Nick talks to his mechanic friend Joe (Martin Neil) about his personal fantasies.

John gets an earful from his father (Hugh Lloyd) on his awkward sexual fantasies.

It's just a fantasy, but it seems they both see a naked woman between them.

Erica works at a bar and interviews the cleaning lady, Beryl (Joyce Blair), about her fantasies. She says, "I always wanted to be a dancer."

The cleaning imagines she's in an old-school musical number, which actually turns her on.

Suzy interviews rich stockbroker Uncle Rodney (Ian Hendry) while he plays billiards.

All this talk about sexual fantasies gets Rodney worked up, and he imagines his niece nude. One second she's in her dress, the next she's completely naked.

Rodney is suddenly sputtering his words and playing pool very erratically. Suzy doesn't understand why.

Suzy is actually wearing a dress - but not in his uncle's mind. Uncle Rodney is becoming quite sweaty and flustered.

Suzy asks, "Should I chalk your cue for you?"

Jane interviews a bored housewife (Susan Glanville).

The housewife says she copes with day-to-day depression by developing a fantasy lover in her mind.

Professor Gottlieb resumes class. But there's a problem. Reading all their projects has caused his fantasies get the better of him, and he starts picturing his female students naked.

Marian asks the professor, "Can you tell us what kind of sexual fantasies you have?" Gottlieb stutters, "Fantasies? Why should I have f-f-fantasies?" and pictures Marian and Erica completely naked.

He then imagines that Cathy is nude.

Then he imagines Jane is naked.

And behind Jane is Suzy.

Gottliebcan take it no longer and lunges at Marian. He rips off her shirt. The rest of the class rushes to her aid.

The professor has just about pulled down her pants when he's finally stopped. Gottlieb's words echo as the film ends, "We all know what the overcreation of sexual fantasies is called. It's called madness."

VZ6 SCORECARD

Good unclean fun.  Tudor Gates hasn't surpassed Barbarella, Twins of Evil and some of his other great works, but this is a damn fine example of sexploitation nonetheless. The German Schoolgirl Report films were very popular in Europe around this time, and this follows the same pattern of utilizing many characters in separate vignettes all for a supposed educational purpose. The tons of full frontal nudity and ribald energy makes this a fun watch.  There are some tangents that are boring and pointless, but they are thankfully short and few.

Anna Bergman's scene at the pool table is fantasic.  As you might have guessed, she is the daughter of Ingmar Bergman.  The fact that her autobiography is called "Not Daddy's Girl" tells me he didn't approve of her onscreen nudity.

Maria St. Clare provides an exceptional FFN scene when she randomly takes all her clothes off with her study partner.  This is her only movie role and first IMDb credit; she was a bit part in a few TV shows after this.  I thought she did quite well and is clearly uninhibited, so it's a shame she didn't do more.

Suzy Mandel was a staple in these British sexploitation capers, with dozens and dozens of these type of films to her credit.  Here she provides quite a nice FFN scene and lesbian encounter.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 7/10