Lawyer Frederick Engerman (Len Cariou) has married a beautiful girl half his age, Anne (Lesley-Ann Down), but her reluctance to have sex with him leads him to seek out an actress, Desiree Armfeldt (Elizabeth Taylor), that he had a fond affair with years ago. Desiree loved Frederick and comes up with a plan to get him to leave his wife by inviting them both out to the country for a weekend at her mother's (Hermione Gingold) estate. What she doesn't know is that Anne is friends with Charlotte (Diana Rigg), who is married to Carl-Magnus Mittleheim (Laurence Guittard), Desiree's current lover. Anne invites the Mittleheim's to the estate as well. Hijinks ensue.
This could have easily been named Men Who Aren't Shit and the Women Who Inexplicably Love Them. Neither Frederick, Carl-Magnus, nor Frederick's grown ass son, Erich (Christopher Guard) are worth the time and effort these women spend on them.
Taylor is decent in this but the real star is Riggs. She was magnetic in every scene she was in. The men are kind of interchangeable, if I'm honest. Down is a good actress but her character was extremely irritating and Anne's motivations made no sense to me. Like, you aren't fucking your husband, you don't want to fuck your husband, but you're mad some other lady fucked your husband fifteen years ago? ??? When you were 3??? Bizarre.
This is not streaming anywhere to my knowledge. I got it on disc from Netflix. It might be worth it for Sondheim fans, but you'd probably be better off finding the original with Glynis Johns in the Desiree role.
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