Lady Chatterley's Lover (1981)

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The once-notorious D. H. Lawrence novel Lady Chatterly's Lover seemed like kid stuff by the time this 1981 adaptation hit the screens. To pep up Lawrence's tale of an aristocratic woman who conducts an affair with her earthy gamekeeper, soft-core porn specialist Just Jaeckin attempted to convert the… More The once-notorious D. H. Lawrence novel Lady Chatterly's Lover seemed like kid stuff by the time this 1981 adaptation hit the screens. To pep up Lawrence's tale of an aristocratic woman who conducts an affair with her earthy gamekeeper, soft-core porn specialist Just Jaeckin attempted to convert the material into Emmanuelle Goes to England. To this end, Jaeckin utilized the undraped talents of his Emmanuelle star Sylvia Kristel, who behaves more like a saloon hall gal than the mistress of an 18th-century manor. Lady Sylvia--er, Lady Chatterly--can't get no satisfaction from her paralyzed spouse, so she dallies with low-born Nicholas Clay. As in most other Just Jaeckin films, the production values and photography are exquisite, the dialogue and acting less so. An earlier, more sedate version of Lady Chatterly's Lover was filmed in France in 1959, with Danielle Darrieux and Erno Crisa in the leads. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi