The Love Merchant is populated by performers who were essentially the stock company for Sarno's New York City-centered output. The plot concerns Kendall Harvey III (Judson Todd), a rich gadabout and go-go bar habitue, with an insatiable sexual appetite he'll fill by any means necessary. This isn't lost on the ambitious, smooth-talking biker Click (Warhol regular Louis Waldon, here billed as "Jim Chisolm"), who wants badly to be part of Harvey's inner circle, and is ready to prove his worth by landing any lady who piques the millionaire's interest.
Harvey's visit to the studio of Click's artist girlfriend Bobbi (Joanna Mills) leads to an encounter with her old classmate, the attractive housewife Peggy Johns (Lorraine Claire) and her adman husband Roger (George Wolfe) While Harvey's fascination with Peggy is immediate, she's uninterested in his attentions. When Roger loses his largest client thereafter, Harvey seizes the opportunity. He uses his influence to drop a major new account in Roger's lap. He then contacts Peggy with an ultimatum that she submit to his desires for the weekend that Roger's out of town sealing the deal, or he'll pull the plug.
This pre-Indecent Proposal gets more than serviceable performances out of Claire as the conflicted and subsequently guilt-ridden heroine, and Todd as the smarmy, debauched heavy. There's plenty of colorful supporting work, particularly by Patti Paget as Harvey's lesbian personal assistant, who's got a well-merited surprise for Chick when he attempts to paw her. The ample film has window dressing in the form of Sarno regulars Peggy Steffans (later Mrs. Sarno), June Roberts and Francine Ashley.
Sarno had set up shop in Florida during the period in which he did The Layout, and while the performances aren't as polished as those he got out of his New York regulars, there's plenty of sultry action to commend it. The plot, such as it is, concerns the travails of a pair of attractive business partners/housemates, architect Pam Ritchie (Susan Thomas) and developer Wendy Dawn (Betty Whitman). Wendy's conducting a torrid affair with building contractor Rob (Linda Lovelace/Marilyn Chambers Svengali Chuck Traynor, billed as "Howard Dale"). Rob's wife Emmy (Barbara Lance) catches on to the dalliance, and responds by getting the seemingly frigid Pam to renew their girlhood friendship in a fairly profound manner.
This hanky-panky isn't lost on the summer houseguests, Pam's co-ed cousin Ellen (Rene Howard) and her classmate Marie (Jeanne Muniz). Eager to torpedo Pam's prissy façade, Ellen spends the balance of the narrative stoking the sexual tensions amongst the female cast leading up to the concluding boudoir pile-up.
Image did a superlative job on the mastering of both films, thanks in no small part to Something Weird's provision of Sarno's original negatives. The healthy extras package is marked by a nice selection of trailers from the Sarno portfolio. Besides the preview for Love Merchant, we're treated to My Body Hungers (1967), Red Roses of Passion (1966), The Sex Cycle (1966) and The Swap and How They Make It (1966). A pair of old-school nudie-cutie shorts and a gallery of exploitation magazine covers rounds out the supplements.
For more information about The Love Merchant/The Layout, visit Image Entertainment. To order The Love Merchant/The Layout, go to TCM Shopping.
By Jay S. Steinberg
