Night Games [Jeux de nuit] (1980, Cindy Pickett, Joanna Cassidy, Barry Primus) – Classic Movie Review 11,799

Director Roger Vadim’s 1980 erotic thriller film Night Games [Jeux de nuit] stars Cindy Pickett, Joanna Cassidy and Barry Primus.

It narrates the sexual history of a traumatised Hollywood wife, Valerie St John (Cindy Pickett), who as a 13-year-old child was the subject of the undesirable affections of an older man, and is unable to enjoy sex with her husband, who leaves her. Alone in a large house, Valerie has erotic sexual fantasies, while endangered by another possible rapist.

Joanna Cassidy also stars as Valerie’s best friend Julie Miller, with Barry Primus as Jason St John, Paul Jenkins as Sean Daniels, Gene Davis as Timothy, Mark Hanks, Juliet Fabriga, Clem Persons, and Carla Reynolds.

Director Vadim should know better than to try and pass off a cheap soft porn exploitation flick as an investigation into female psychology, and the film doesn’t work as an erotic thriller and is distasteful in the extreme.

The film was released on CED in 1983 and VHS in 1989, with a running time of 104 minutes but a later DVD release runs only 96 minutes.

Part of the funding came from the Philippines, where the movie was partly shot and other backing came from Raymond Chow of Golden Harvest.

Pickett recalled: ‘Vadim had to fight to get me into the picture. Chow had wanted someone with long hair and a big bosom – another Bardot, presumably. And here I was with short hair and a boyish figure. Vadim had to explain that fashions had changed since the Bardot era. And in the end, Chow accepted this.’

Pickett added: The film was a disappointment. It was supposed to be a psychological thriller, but it wound up as a soft porn film. That wasn’t Vadim’s fault; he didn’t have final cut. Many of my best scenes were cut out altogether.’

Pickett and Vadim dated during the making of the film.

Pickett went on to become one of the stars of St Elsewhere and play the mother Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Night Games [Jeux de nuit] is directed by Roger Vadim, runs 104 minutes or 96 minutes, is made by Golden Harvest and Pan Pacific, is released by Avco Embassy Pictures (US) and ITC Entertainment (UK), is written by Anton Diether and Clarke Reynolds, from a story by Anton Diether and Barth Jules Sussman, is shot by Dennis C Lewiston [Denis Lewiston], is produced by Roger Lewis and André E Morgan, is scored by John Barry, is designed by Robert W Laing.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,799

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