Man of Letters

1984, VHS

Johnny's comments:

This 1984 telemovie is the most ABC thing ever. Basically it's about prominent academic Sir Dorton Serry (Warren Mitchell) who goes to town thinking he's going to impart his wisdom and get some action from women while he's at it but soon realises he's an old man who can't handle women's changing role in the world. He meets an old girlfriend who flatly refuses to sleep with him. He meets a feminist filmmaker (Genevieve Mooy) who he fancies despite been told she's a lesbian then after he says sone harsh and out-of-touch things about her movie, she and her girlfriend (Debra May) humiliate him with an aggressive display of their sexuality (see below). Dorton also meets a PHD student (Arna-Maria Winchester) who he's been flirting with in letters but he humiliates her and walks away with his tail between his legs. He then comes home and finds that his wife and his pregnant daughter won't bow to him and the final straw is when a young girl teaches him a lesson so he has a nervous breakdown which he flatly refuses to believe he's having.

It's has some resonance with today's world but the handling of it is very much of the time particularly the feminist stuff. Also Dorton is seen as a bit of a cad by his friends and himself but he breaks down so easily over the simplest of things you have to wonder how he got that reputation.

There's a couple of nude scenes in the telemovie. The aforementioned scene where Genevieve Mooy and Debra May sexually humiliate Dorton where they both show their breasts. The scene is more than a bit silly but that's of little concern here.

There's also a brief scene where Arna-Maria Winchester flashes her breasts to Dorton after he rejects her advances when he came over very much looking for action. Arna-Maria also has 3 nude scenes in the 1981 nuclear thriller The Chain Reaction and in a couple of episodes of Spyforce.

various women film clips (IDs below)

Genevieve Mooy and Debra May

Arna Maria Winchester