I remember the advertising line for this film – 'Doctors Wives have everything
except husbands.' You'll never forget it, just like the film. The nausea lingers on. This is one of a number of films that Dyan Cannon made to cash in on the success of 'Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice'. Others included 'The Burglars', 'The Love Machine' and 'The Anderson Tapes', but this is surely the least of them. I have to announce that "Doctors Wives' has no redeeming features, and is actually worse than 'The Love Machine'(if such a thing is possible although apart from Cannon being in both the two are actually not connected.). The plot is incoherent and even when you can understand what's going on, it makes you want to, well
go back to sleep because you couldn't understand what was going on before, and that was what made you go to sleep in the first place. (I hope I haven't lost you.) Is there any reason why anybody should give a toss about these rich, upper class, well groomed nitwits who go around sleeping with each other's husbands, and then cry about it when they're dumb enough to get caught? I think I'd rather torture myself with daytime television on an endless tape loop (come back Oprah, all is forgiven).
Some notables in the cast should be mentioned here, in case they have, for the sake of their careers, left this woeful little number off their CVs. We have Gene Hackman, Richard Crenna Janice Rule and Rachel Roberts (a distinguished British stage actress and how did she ever get involved in this particular project?) These are the only participants I am cruel enough (or is it stupid enough), to remember as members of the cast, either playing total boneheads who have no idea what their wives are doing behind their backs, or bimbos who are sleeping with other women's husbands.
This was one of Hollywood's attempts to cash in on the 60's sexual revolution, but I think the members of this cast were the first casualties. What seemed disgraceful in 1971, seems a bit silly nowadays, and the premise of one of the wives making a dare to her bridge pals that she will sleep with all of their husbands is a tad tacky even if it wasn't before, back when the film was originally made. These ladies do not seem the least bit liberated. Just catty. As the Phantom of the New York Daily News would say, this film is viewed at your own risk, so you can't say you weren't warned. In other words, viewers beware, as 'Doctors Wives' is a totally mind (as well as behind) numbing experience.
