The Young Marrieds (1972) watch online HD

Ed Wood Jr. is well known as the proto-indie filmmaker who made films by hook or by crook, but aspired to Hollywood success. Yet when he got his first shot at a feature, he made a bizarrely personal statement on alternate sexual lifestyles such as cross-dressing and sex-change, the semi-experimental Glen or Glenda (1953). He arguably blew his shot at a Hollywood career by this effort.

It is also known that Wood fell into the world of pulp novel writing in the early 1960's, which led to writing for skin magazines, and finally working in the production of skin movies (I am simplifying things quite a bit here.) His new film vocation followed the trajectory of increasing permissiveness in the second half of that decade, from topless features like Orgy of the Dead (1965) to frontal nudity and simulated sex movies, then finally to films with real sexual contact. Wood's Necromania (1971) exists in a "soft" or simulated sex version and also a "hard" version with a couple of minutes of "inserts" or edited-in shots of actual sexual intercourse, which were shot separately from the main feature. Yet even in this blatantly sexual film Wood had not fully entered the genre of "hardcore" and it was not believed he had participated as director to that degree.

The discovery of the lost Ed Wood-scripted and directed film The Young Marrieds (the movie is actually dated 1972 in the credits) reveals that Wood indeed finally entered into hardcore feature filmmaking—the antithesis of his desired Hollywood career---but that the issues of his first, "mainstream" feature were still very much his personal concern. Like Glen or Glenda, The Young Marrieds is preoccupied with alternative sexualities and how society views those. They both also function as a plea for tolerance by that society. The similarity can be readily proved by comparing the V/O "stripper bar" conversation early in The Young Marrieds with the trailer for Glen or Glenda. The viewer will be amazed by how Wood utilized virtually the same conversation in the same way in two films made almost 20 years apart. Further, the male protagonist in The Young Marrieds is put through an "eyes wide shut" type of sexual journey in which his confidently assumed macho heterosexuality is progressively challenged and undermined, to the final shocking confrontation which contradicts porn-genre expectations just as surely as Glen or Glenda contradicted Hollywood ones (note that I am referring here to the full-length version of The Young Marrieds which appears on the After Hours' DVD release, "Ed Wood's Dirty Movies" and not the Alpha Blue Archive version which is 8 minutes shorter.) It is my belief that Ed Wood was a bona fide film rebel and auteur who put his personal stamp strongly into his final film even though it was a low budget sex movie.

Lastly, even though I state that The Young Marrieds is a hardcore film, it actually isn't quite 'all-the-way', partly because the hardcore (or X-rated) genre wasn't fully established stylistically or even legally (i.e., obscenity-wise) at that date, and possibly because Wood was reluctant or unable to coax the proper performances for hardcore. The Young Marrieds lacks the requisite "money shot" in every sex scene, and the "lesbian" scenes are still simulated (it is known that Wood had a fascination-fear of lesbianism.) But as has been established by Ed Wood Jr. biographer Rudolph Grey, Wood went on to make fully hardcore sex in the "short subjects" for 8mm "loop" release that he wrote and directed for Swedish Erotica and other lines in 1972 and later.

Ed Wood's ongoing posthumous cult following has generated two DVD reissues of this desultory porn film. Completists will be forced to sit through an unrewarding short feature, and unless they've drunk a gallon of the Wood Kool-Aid they'll be forced to admit it's utterly worthless.

Pompous narration consisting of pseudo-psychology and shots of nature add nothing to a semi-improvised grinder, with attractive porn pin-up Annette Friedland and her husband spicing up their marriage with the then-novel "swinging".

Series of sex scenes don't fit well together, opening with a boring night club striptease. Film proper begins with hubby Ben picking up a hitchhiker, then humping her on a blanket. Crude sound recording is no fun, as narrator tells us about the psychological ramifications of what we're watching.

Back home Friedland acts the shrew, but her sensuous blow job is effective, especially since the actress is more frequently associated with soft-core assignments. Hubby works in a Bank of America office bldg., where he shows his pal Jim photos he's taken of wifey. There's a lame "kinky" scene where Friedland insists on being dominant with hubby her slave, yet she has him whip her with a belt -all adding up to nothing.

Picture climaxes with a 6-person orgy at Jim's house, staged like umpteen "swapping" scenes that were standard in porn of the early '70s. Alice plays hard to get at first but the clumsiness of the improvised dialog make this extremely tedious. Two buxom actresses are added to the mix: a bleached blonde and a busty brunette, latter a familiar porn face - perhaps Mycle Brandy. Light jazz score is uninteresting, and the junker just ends with money shots.

Without the supposed Ed Wood connection, this loser would have remained on the junk heap.

The Young Marrieds (1972)

** (out of 4)

Ben (Louis Wolf) spends most of his time at the strip club or picking up hookers for sex because his wife Ginny (Alice Friedland) just isn't exciting to him anymore. While she's a hot woman, she's quite boring in the sack but Ben brings a camera into the bedroom one day, which turns her on and soon the couple are experimenting with new items to get them in the mood.

THE YOUNG MARRIES was released in 1972 and was the final film directed by the cult favorite Edward D. Wood, Jr.. Sadly, it went missing soon after it was first shown and was lost for decades until a print turned up in a yard sale. This film is certainly a lot different than Wood's previous ventures into the genre. Both NECROMANIA and NYMPHO CYLCER just dabbled in the hardcore stuff but this here pretty much goes full into the genre. I think fans of Wood might be a little surprised to see how graphic this one is because it's certainly a full hardcore picture.

Being as its full hardcore, I must admit that I do question how much of it Wood directed or if perhaps someone else was calling more shots. I say this because there's really nothing here that looks like a Wood film. The "money shots", something missing from the other two films, are on full display here and there's a lot more movement with the camera making sure to pick up all the sexual views. Perhaps Wood just learned more about the genre since his last two pictures but either way, this thing might have just been the director doing something new.

Either way, for the most part it's a slightly entertaining hardcore picture. The performances are actually a little bit better than you'd expect and there's no question that Friedland is fun and attractive in her role. The cinematography is also better than you'd expect. The film actually started off reminding me of the director's GLEN OR GLENDA? because we get a narrator being way too dramatic as he explains various things we're seeing. Just wait until you hear what the narrator says during the first segment between the husband and the hooker.

THE YOUNG MARRIEDS was thankfully found for fans of the director to enjoy. It's certainly unlike anything else that he did throughout his career and it's more professional look makes one wonder why he didn't do more films in the genre after this one.