B-Movie Enema carries on with the first of another 500 reviews!

This week, we’re returning to the early days of our friend, our grandpa, the man we miss, and the guy who we have covered nearly all of his filmography – Norman J. Warren. Some time ago, I watched the 1968 Warren film, his debut as a feature filmmaker, Her Private Hell. This week, we’re looking at his second film, the other 1968 film on his filmography, Loving Feeling. As a fan of this man’s work, will I get that loving feeling from this movie?

We’re about to find out, but there are a couple of bits from behind the scenes I want to talk about. The star of this film is Georgina Ward… More accurately, The Honourable Georgina Ward. Ward was the daughter of George Ward. Who the fuck is that? Well, he was the 1st Viscount Ward of Witley. Yeah, she’s the daughter of a British Cabinet Minister. She’s also the cousin once removed of Rachel Ward. In 1958, she was among the final debutantes to be presented at Court to Queen Elizabeth II before Queen Beth stopped doing that stuff. Ward was a liberal and nearly became the Labour Party candidate in the early 70s for the parliamentary constituency of Worcester.

But guess what?

She had to step down because some saucy pictures of her became public. I’m guessing her Conservative opponent, Peter Walker, had something to do with that. Where did the saucy stuff come from? Well, it came from her acting career. It was from 1971’s Clinic Exclusive, a British erotic film. Gasp! A politician in a sex scandal? Gasp! A lady politician with a sex drive? Gasp, you say!

I mean, Ward was a 30-year-old actress and of good stock, having been raised in a well-to-do political family. She’s pretty. Shit… Her maternal grandfather was Boy Capel, the muse of Coco Chanel! Anyway, Clinic Exclusive was not her only sexploitation film. Yup… Loving Feeling is also a sexploitation film.

While absolutely this film was designed to be a sexy drama for couples to attend on a mature night out, co-writer and producer Bachoo Sen, who also produced Her Private Hell, got into a bit of a tiff with the British censors over the rating of this film. It hampered the release of this film across the United Kingdom. Sen was angered by the censors for requiring many cuts and edits to the sex scenes of the film to even get an X certificate from them. He tried to bypass that by going to the authorities in London and simply getting the X from them, but they also required edits to be made. However, the film eventually did get released and was a commercial success, but there’s a bummer element to this success.

Banchoo Sen was a crook. He withheld payments from many of the people who worked on Her Private Hell and Loving Feeling. In a following legal case, his rights to the films were taken away. However, Sen later moved to the United States and took the film negatives of both films with him. That ultimately led to Norman J. Warren and anyone else who had a stake in the films in the UK from getting any royalties.

But let’s find out if The Honourable Georgina Ward can help us get back that Loving Feeling!

After a sort of James Bond-like credit sequence as we watch the silhouettes of two people making love to each other, we are introduced to Radio DJ Stevee Day. Stevee is kind of your average morning radio personality. Kind of too chipper for me to want to pay any attention to at the buttcrack of dawn and a little smarmy. He asks to be patched through on the phone with Carol. Carol is someone who likes to sleep naked, and I appreciate that.

I kind of get the impression that Carol and I are quite similar, despite our genitals saying we’re not. Stevee asks if she’s surprised to hear from him. If it’s like 6:30 in the morning, then, yeah, I suspect she would be. Also, shut the fuck up, Stevee, she’s trying to sleep in the nude, you monster. He asks Carol why she didn’t stay the night with him last night. She tells him that he gets up so early every morning that she didn’t want to.

See? People like being in bed early in the morning. We don’t like being woken up by your chipper, English radio personality ass.

We also get a look at another woman who is listening to Stevee’s morning show with her lover in bed, Suzanne. Suzanne’s last name is also Day. She’s Stevee’s wife… or was… or soon will be his ex. They are separated. Stevee began sleeping with Carol, a secretary for a businessman. After finding out, Suzanne took their mutual friend, Scott, as a lover. That’s who she’s in bed with.

But perhaps not all has been rectified by the spouses taking new lovers in their separation. Stevee would like Carol to spend the night, but maybe not every night. Suzanne seems to not be able to quit listening to her estranged, radio personality husband every morning. She has a bit of a longing look on her face as she hears his voice. That’s only compounded by Stevee’s call to Carol going longer than the song he was playing and hearing him call someone “Baby” on a hot mic.

She even pulls away from Scott as he tries to kiss her good morning.

Because relationships are hard (god, don’t I know), it’s not just the marriage of Stevee and Suzanne that’s strained and in trouble, but their current lovers are conflicted too. Carol’s roommate, Jane, thinks she needs to do away with Stevee. Carol consistently gives Stevee chances to be more committed to her. Plus, they work together at the radio station. It’s a whole thing. Scott is tired of Suzanne seemingly clinging to Stevee. She hears his voice on the radio while they’re in bed together, and she doesn’t want to reciprocate affection. She tells Scott that he doesn’t understand what she’s dealing with, but he wants her to understand that he wants a future with him.

While the other early Warren film I previously covered, Her Private Hell, was also a drama and fairly serious in terms of story, this movie has a much more adult feel to it. This isn’t about a young woman finding love in a city far away from home; this is about a relationship dissolving despite the two involved wanting it to, and the complications that come with new relationships. It’s not even just the lovers the spouses have taken on as their relationship fails; it’s people who are pursuing those lovers, too. More on that in a bit.

Suzanne is hot and cold with Scott, someone who wants to be with her, and likely better for her than the philandering Stevee. Stevee is kind of emotionally wobbling. He doesn’t seem to be quite over Suzanne, but he clearly likes to spread his love around. He leads Carol on. In fact, after going home around lunchtime, expecting to find Suzanne, he just goes to pick up Carol at her work. He’s curt with her, telling her to hurry up and get a move on, while her boss seems disappointed in her for leaving for lunch with Stevee.

When they get back to his flat, there’s no real romance here. He goes to the bathroom to freshen up and undress while she’s forced to just undress and wait for him in the living room with drinks. Despite her black undies and the always alluring man’s dress shirt covering, it’s not a sexy scenario. He throws himself at her after begging her to help him… It’s kind of pathetic, and I really understand why Carol’s friend wants her to get a move on and find someone other than Stevee.

As I said, relationships are hard, but breakups can be harder. This can especially be true when there were real feelings in that relationship. Before picking Carol up for some pretty unsexy sex with a sexy girl, he left a note for Suzanne to tell her to not believe everything she reads. This sends Suzanne into a memory hole of better times with Stevee.

She remembers a time when they spent the summer together while both were acting in a play. When the summer came to an end, the struggling couple figured something would soon come along. Well, something did. That’s when Stevee Day became a popular radio DJ.

This flashback also shows that Scott was always seeking affection from Suzanne. He never understood her attraction to Stevee and made one last attempt at winning her heart. But she asks Scott for them to stay as the three of them are, mutual friends.

Along with Scott questioning Suzanne’s happiness, we start to see cracks start to form in their relationship. He becomes a very popular DJ with lots of young fans of the female persuasion. Stevee buys a car. He then wants to get a flat in the city. Before, they were broke, now they have money, but Stevee spends too much. The flat also makes it so that Suzanne is often alone at the house outside the city. It was how she discovered that Stevee was sleeping with Carol. She ran to Scott, and she was the one who initiated their romance.

This was a pretty good sequence explaining how Stevee and Suzanne got into the situation they got in with their relationship. It tells an entire story with little dialogue. It’s a nice vignette giving us the backstory needed to show a relationship at its peak and how everything can change.

In the present, Scott and Suzanne are at dinner when Stevee and Carol show up. Things are pretty tense right away. Carol calls Scott old. Suzanne says Carol will someday grow up. One key thing we learn is that Suzanne and Stevee’s house has been sold, which indicates that their relationship is nearing being really over. That night, Carol is pissed that Stevee allowed Suzanne to call her immature. Now that relationship seems to be on the rocks. Stevee rebounds quickly by spending the rest of the evening with Carol’s roommate, Jane.

Once Jane gets naked and tries to get at Stevee’s ding dong while he lies in bed, he gets up and hurries off, telling her to wait while he goes and does a thing. He returns to his house, where Suzanne is, and asks why he can’t live without her. It appears they may be on the way to getting back together, but he has a trippy dream about being torn between Suzanne and Carol.

Suzanne and Stevee talk about better days and how they would like to return to those good things they had. Stevee says the house is sold as if that’s some reason why they can’t go back to when things were good. Stevee is mad that Suzanne has this thing with Scott. Suzanne says that maybe he should give up Carol, but then that only leads to more of him being pissed off and ultimately leaving.

Later, Stevee is stopped by a woman asking for his autograph. He doesn’t just give his autograph, but also how she can reach him. He goes straight from there to meeting up with Carol to have a little makeout session on the beach. He says whenever he’s with her, things are so simple and uncomplicated. She tells him that sometimes she gets very fond of him, and the two of them frolic along the sea.

Later, after contemplating taking part in a payola scheme, Stevee meets back up with that woman who asked for his autograph and has a sexy day of fun with her. Complicating everything further, Carol’s boss, Mr. Peterson, asks if she would like a more important position with more money and more responsibility. Specifically, he would like to have someone to get on with when he travels. After some pretty serious sexual harassment, Carol agrees that maybe they could get along much better.

This causes Carol to be late getting home while Stevee waits for her. If Carol isn’t going to come home to meet him for whatever sexual escapade he has in mind, Jane wonders if she could satisfy that position. He has her get him a pencil and get undressed. He autographs the small of her back and tells her to get lost because she only wants to collect men like autographs. Ya know… Stevee is kind of a mess of a guy, isn’t he?

Later, Suzanne tells Stevee that they need to clear out their house. The new buyers are going to be moving in within the next week. The two start going through their old stuff and kind of get close again. They end up spending three nights together in a row. Stevee even says that he is willing to move on from Carol to see if they have a chance to get back together.

Okay, so as we get into the final act of this movie, Carol is getting hired for some publicity shots with Stevee for the radio station itself. Stevee is meeting with Suzanne’s friend, Helen, about selling all the furniture from their house. Helen tells Stevee that he doesn’t seem to be taking into account what Suzanne has gone through with all this separation business. Stevee tries to tell Helen that no one knows what it’s like to be a DJ. He gets chased by all sorts of birds who think he’s some sort of god.

Okay… Dude. You’re a radio guy. Yeah, I know this is the swinging 60s and shit but… You kind of have a face for radio. Also… YOU ARE A RADIO GUY. How do these girls know what you look like, and why are so many ready to drop their panties for you? Plus, we’ve heard your show. You’re a dork. Look, even Helen has a look of someone who just had to hear you, a guy who is a dorky dork who looks like a dork, that you should get some sympathy for all these bitches smacking you across the face with pussy constantly.

Helen even tries to catch Stevee in his bullshit, too. She says she always found him attractive and she’s wanted him from the moment she first met him. At first, he says she never trusted him. But then he just falls for the trap anyway and tries kissing her. She immediately pushes him back and says no one should be able to trust him because he’s just some horndog. She knows that he has a girlfriend waiting for him when he leaves, too. Sure enough, he goes to visit the woman he gave the autograph to for another fling.

Back at the nearly empty house, Scott confronts Suzanne about her inability to leave Stevee for good. She says that he’s the only man who just holds her. In fact, she’s not too sure she would mind if he had the odd fling from time to time. Scott says that this jerkass Stevee is just a child. He uses women. He emotionally uses her and will continue to do so again and again. He is never going to love her back the way she thinks he does. After asking Suzanne to not let herself get hurt again, Scott leaves. He basically says that he should say that he’ll never see her again, but since she often runs back to him whenever Stevee hurts her, he knows that’s not the case.

The autograph girl gets pissed at Stevee for constantly breaking dates and making her wait by the phone for him. He is always with Carol, and when he’s not with her, he’s with his wife. This girl knows a lot about Carol, Scott, Suzanne… Yet again, Stevee makes it about him, about how hard things have been for him. It’s a crazy life being a DJ, you know.

Speaking of the crazy life being a DJ and all… Stevee has complicated his life both personally and professionally. He’s got more women than he can juggle at once. One of those women, of course, is his wife. Another, of course, is Carol, who is now intertwined in his professional life as a promotional model to be seen with Stevee at professional engagements. Complicating this even further, Stevee’s secretary arranges for a car to pick him and Carol up at his flat for a party he is due to be at for the radio station.

Suzanne, once again alone, now in a mostly empty house that she shared with Stevee, decides to go to Stevee’s flat. Naturally, this is where a mostly undressed Carol needs to get dressed and ready for this party. Suzanne and Carol misunderstand the situation. Carol thinks she’s getting to keep Stevee. Suzanne believes Stevee still wants to fool around with Carol. Suzanne tells him she knew he was never going to grow up and get rid of Carol. She leaves, telling Stevee that they can never work out.

Stevee goes to Carol and asks what he’s going to do. She says that he ain’t gonna do anything with her. His wife leaves him, and what does he do? Like a little boy, he runs to her. She’s done with him, too. He threatens to have her fired from the station, but she says he won’t be able to do that. If there’s one thing he gives a damn about, it’s his job. He gets adulation from being a DJ. He’s going to take her to the party and behave himself as they are expected to. Carol now has the power in this dynamic because if he makes trouble, she can make things much worse for him. That’s when Carol tells him she’s leaving him to go to New York with Mr. Peterson. He says that he was planning on leaving her, but she doesn’t give a shit.

Carol gets all the attention at the party. It leads to a lot of uncomfortable questions directed at Stevee about being married. He ultimately leaves, passing Mr. Peterson on the way out, basically giving Carol over to him. He returns to the house, where he finds Suzanne and Scott preparing to leave. Suzanne says nothing to Stevee, only returning her wedding ring. Stevee goes inside the house and looks around one last time at the life he once had with Suzanne before leaving and returning to the radio station.

I would say that this isn’t a particularly good movie. Norman J. Warren would take time off after this movie. This is partly due to being unable to get residuals from this film, and partly due to needing to raise money to make another film. It would be eight years before he made his next film, Satan’s Slave. At that point, these types of sexploitation movies about relationships and complicated feelings among consenting adults were out of style. Warren transitioned to the weirder horror films that would certainly attract my attention much more than these earlier sex films.

That said, Loving Feeling is still interesting. The first thing I thought about when I saw this title was the Everly Brothers song, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” and, yeah, this is almost like an adaptation of that song. That song, like this movie, is about the end of a once-great love that eroded over the years. Ultimately, the main piece of importance in this story is how love is a serious thing that requires both sides to have the same level of maturity. Sure, you can have sexy fun times while also being mature. Swingers can prove that to be the case.

But that’s not what Stevee and Suzanne are. Suzanne was always the more serious of the two. Stevee was always chasing notoriety. He was an actor, but failed at that. Instead, he discovered fame and attention as a radio personality. All those fun times he had as an actor when he and Suzanne were younger and just starting out were one thing, but when he got that attention from women as a DJ, he never grew up. He just relived that stuff he had before with Suzanne with any other woman who made him feel that young again or gave him any kind of attention.

What’s interesting is that Stevee Day is an incredibly well-defined character with all those faults of his. The movie kind of shines when you are studying that character and his constant need to be held by a woman, only to realize that he’s just a child on an emotional level. Sadly, the movie fails to tell the other side of the story – Suzanne.

Suzanne is underdeveloped. She’s just waiting for this emotionally stunted child to choose her when she would be better off with the more mature Scott, who is far better at attending to her. Yes, there is an element that maybe she’s holding onto a little bit of her own youth and unable to let go of something that made her happy once, but it doesn’t do enough to explain that. She just talks about how Stevee was the only man she ever knew who would just hold her, and she can’t quit him. I’m sorry, but that’s not enough. I understand Carol far better because she, too, is kind of immature and taken by this famous DJ giving her attention.

There is something here in Warren’s script for Loving Feeling. It does have that wonderful sequence showing us how Stevee and Suzanne first got together, how they decided to marry, and then ultimately what led to their breakup. The last scene with Stevee now looking around a house that he once shared with the person he wronged, and always should have been true to, only for it now to be haunted by his past. These are good beats in an otherwise underwhelming movie from a director I quite like.

Thankfully, as we’ve learned over the years here at B-Movie Enema, Warren’s best stuff was yet to come.

Speaking of yet to come, guess what next month is? Yup! It’s October. I say it every year, but October is the month in which B-Movie Enema started (in 2014). Every October, I celebrate something horror or spooky related. There is always a Halloween day review, too. This year, I decided to go a different route. It’s been a bit since I really sank my teeth into some Blaxploitation. So, to mix October and Black Cinema, I decided to pick five movies to fill out the roster of spooky month that could both be considered Blaxploitation as well as supernatural in some way. Trust me, I’ve got some good ones on tap, and the one right in the middle of the month… It’s a wild one.

So, come back next week so I can introduce you to a pair who have bad blood running between them – Ganja & Hess.