Set somewhere between the sexual revolution and just before the feminist movement, "Love Me Like I Do" is perhaps most notable for featuring Dyanne Thorne of "Ilsa" fame, and as such it is interesting to watch this future "She Wolf of the SS" play Sharon, a doormat of a housewife. At the movie's opening, Sharon's biggest worries in life seem to be getting enough ice for the guests at the swinging backyard party she and husband Bill (Peter Carpenter) are hosting, and keeping her best friend, salty divorcée Marge, who strips naked by the pool, under control. But when Bill sneaks off with Nanette (Maria De Aragon) to go skinny dipping, obviously Sharon has more problems than we first realize. Not that Sharon is totally oblivious to Bill's philandering. She even goes over to Nanette's house, whips out a gun and fires a couple shots into the other woman's window (while husband Bill creeps naked out the front door). As often happens, Sharon places most of the blame on the other woman. "She's what psychologists would probably call a nymphomaniac," she says of Nanette.
Bill's not off the hook, but when confronted he just accuses Sharon of being a money-hungry bitch. Enter Keith Hunter, who wants Bill's business and his wife. Sharon resists his advances ("I don't believe in adultery"), until he attacks her, ripping her clothes off and then forcing himself upon her when she crawls naked and screaming to the bedroom. Following a mating logic that usually only exists in Harold Robbins novels, Sharon actually responds favorably to the rape. She's not as receptive to Keith using her as a bargaining tool for buying out Bill's struggling business, however. After the two men fight over her like a piece of property, Sharon shows up at Marge's door with the kids and a black eye. Wisely, she's decided to leave Bill.
Cut to: Sharon livin' it up in Las Vegas with Keith (their hotel room coincidentally has the EXACT SAME painting as the one that adorned the wall of the bedroom Sharon used to share with Bill). Apparently she did go to the highest bidder. Bill, consequently, comes unhinged, and he tries to take Nanette and Marge down with him.
The movie's tone switches back and forth--abruptly--from goofy sex farce to hateful melodrama. In one scene characters are spouting lame, suggestive "Laugh-in"-style one-liners (drunk guest to Sharon: "Do you know how you to make Sex on the Rocks? Very carefully! Har-de-har-har!");the next is filled with brutal confrontations. In between there are scenes of soft core sex (the movie was originally rated X). Thorne, barely recognizable beneath a red wig and a mask of makeup so thick she should be in Kubuki theater, does a lot of sighing and casting her eyes heavenward, delivering her lines in Marilynesque breathiness. By contrast,Carpenter gives a particularly hot-headed performance. Even when he's not yelling he seems about to fly into a rage.
Though it drags in a few places, "Love Me Like I Do" is worth watching, not only to see a pre-"Ilsa" Thorne--and wonder if she ever has made a movie wearing her own hair--but to marvel at the warped interpretations of male-female relationships, which are as dated as the mod '70s decor.
