The Stud (1978)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Incredibly silly but sleazy "drama" about Fontaine (Joan Collins), a woman married to a very rich man but whose having an affair with Tony (Oliver Tobias), the stud running their club. Poor Tony is good looking and has an unlimited number of great looking women wanting to sleep with him but before long the stud begins to feel sorry for himself.
THE STUD is a pretty awful movie that came out of nowhere and somehow became a very big hit. Who knows why something like this would have become a hit but I'm going to guess that part of the reason was the awful disco era that was going on at the time and the fact that someone like Collins was going full nudity and trashy with the material. Yes, the film is sleazy, campy and at times trashy but that still doesn't make for a lot of entertainment.
The biggest problem with the film is that none of the characters are all that entertaining. I've read some reviews that complained that none of them were likable but that I really don't care about. You don't have to have likable characters for a movie to work but you do need to have some that are interesting. All of the characters here were rather forgettable and boring. The same could be said for the performances but it seems the two leads are having fun with their roles and especially Collins and her bitch quality.
The film became somewhat notorious for the various bits of nudity and sex. The highlight of all of this is a bizarre pool orgy sequence, which is just campy enough to where you can have a good laugh at its expense. The film is certainly a very bad one but it remains mildly interesting just because of the weird stuff going on. Did I mention the awful title song, which was clearly ripping off the SHAFT theme?
