The Stud * (1978, Joan Collins, Oliver Tobias, Sue Lloyd, Mark Burns, Doug Fisher, Walter Gotell) – Classic Movie Review 7586

Joan Collins romped back to box-office success and public favour in 1978 romp The Stud.

Throwing caution to the wind and getting all her kit off, the 45-year-old Joan Collins romped back to box-office success and public favour in Australian director Quentin Masters’s 1978 film version of her sister Jackie Collins’s tale of sex, discos and gambling in Seventies swinging London. The novel was described as sexual athletics among the in-crowd.

Joan Collins plays the nymphomaniac, rich, married nightclub proprietress Mrs Fontaine Khaled, married to wealthy but dull Ben Khaled (Walter Gotell), and Oliver Tobias plays Tony Blake, Collins’s hunky stud, hired as manager to run her club, in this dated, daft, softcore nonsense. Tony turns his eyes on Fontaine’s step daughter, but she uses him for revenge on Fontaine for cheating on her father.

Despite all the sexual shenanigans, this silly Seventies relic is frank but harmlessly unerotic and maybe it can now be enjoyed as camp fun. The tacky highlights are the swimming pool orgy and elevator romp scenes. And it is sweet to see the young and lovely Joan Collins and Oliver Tobias.

Boxers John Conteh and Billy Walker put in cameos. Also in the cast are Sue Lloyd, Mark Burns, Doug Fisher, Emma Jacobs, Tony Allyn, Natalie Ogle, Constantin Gregory, Peter Lukas, Melvyn Ward, Sarah Lawson, Jeremy Child, Franco De Rosa, Shango Baku, Peter Dennis, Chris Jagger, Peter Bourke, Tania Rogers, Felicity Buirski, Minah Bird, Sharon Fussey, Hilda Fenemore, Bernard Stone, Hal Dyer, Margot Thomas, Terry Yorke, Del Baker and Hugh Morton, with Suzanne Danielle as Disco Dancer.

It is written by Jackie Collins (screenplay), Dave Humphries (additional material and dialogue) and Christopher Stagg (additional material and dialogue), based on the novel by Jackie Collins.

The Bee Gees’ Barry and Robin Gibb provide the essential disco sound of the Seventies with their song ‘Emotion’ and Roxy Music’s even more essential Love Is the Drug (written by Bryan Ferry and Andy Mackay) is on the soundtrack.

It was made by Brent Walker Film Productions, Artoc Corporate Services, and Stud Film Productions for $1,000,000.

The Stud is directed by Quentin Masters, runs 95 minutes, is made by Brent Walker Film Productions, Artoc Corporate Services and Stud Film Productions, is released by Brent Walker Film Distributing, is written by Jackie Collins, Dave Humphries and Christopher Stagg, based on the novel by Jackie Collins, is shot by Peter Hannan, is produced by Ronald S Kass and Edward D Simons, is scored by Biddu and John Cameron, with music by Jef Labes, and is designed by Michael Bastow

The Joan Collins character proved a prototype for her Alexis Carrington in TV’s Dynasty in the 80s.

It was popular enough for a sequel: The Bitch (1979).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7586

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