Arriving nearly a decade after the 1977 original, Young Lady Chatterley II trades the solemn, literary melancholy of D.H. Lawrence’s source material for a bright, breezy and unapologetic 1980s sex farce. Directed by Alan Roberts (The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood), the film captures that specific period of the 1980s when softcore movies ruled both video stores and late-night cable.
Cynthia Chatterley (Harlee McBride, who was married to Richard Beltzer) finds herself settled as the new lady of the manor, yet perpetually neglected by her traveling husband. Looking to pass the time and indulge her passions, she frequently attempts to court Thomas the gardener (Brett Baxter Clark, Nick the Dick), only to be continually interrupted by a revolving door of eccentric estate visitors. Among them is the uptight academic Arthur Bohart Jr. (Adam West), who is far more interested in lecturing on the literary history of Lady Godiva than partaking in romance. While Cynthia navigates these constant domestic interruptions, the estate’s staff and the guests find plenty of their own leisure-time distractions across the sprawling grounds. For example, the young priest who finds his way into the thighs of Sybil Danning’s character, Judith Grimmer. I love Patrick Mullen’s review on Letterboxd: “Sybil Danning acts like she doesn’t want to have sex for half the movie, and then realizes she’s Sybil Danning.”
Come for that (no pun intended) and stay for Monique Gabrielle, who plays Eunice, the maid in the woods. For some reason, she’s the only person dubbed in this and has an Irish accent. I could probably do most of the dialogue from this movie for you, as well as extol the insanity of a strip-chess scene between Adam West and McBride.
A seminal — and semenal — teen years movie.
