The Men’s Club ** (1986, Roy Scheider, David Dukes, Richard Jordan, Harvey Keitel, Treat Williams) – Classic Movie Review 8019

The remarkable cast ensures quality acting for director Peter Medak’s oddball, worrying 1986 film The Men’s Club, based on a novel by Leonard Michaels about a group of men who get together to form a discussion group to share their feelings, and one middle-aged man’s night out at a luxury cathouse.

Roy Scheider is the main star as a sex-mad married man who has left his wife but is considering reuniting with her. It also stars Frank Langella, Harvey Keitel, Treat Williams, Richard Jordan, David Dukes, Craig Wasson, Stockard Channing, Cindy Pickett, Gwen Welles, Ann Dusenberry, Ann Wedgeworth and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

The provocative and uncomfortable story gets bogged down as it explores what it sees as men’s often-unpleasant attitudes to the opposite sex.

The Men’s Club is worth it for the acting of the fine players and the exploration of an important theme, but John Cassavetes’s Husbands and Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill were better at this kind of thing.

Also in the cast are Gina Gallego, Penny Baker, Rebeccah Bush, Claudia Cron, Marilyn Jones, Manette LaChance, Laurie Ambert, Joan Foley, Kelly Haverur, Helen Shaver and Karen Trott.

The Men’s Club is directed by Peter Medak, runs 100 minutes, is made by Atlantic Entertainment Group, distributed by Atlantic Releasing Corporation, is written by Leonard Michaels, is shot by John Fleckenstein, is produced by Howard Gottfried, is scored by Lee Holdridge and is designed by Ken Davis.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 8019

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