Secrets of a Door to Door Salesman (1973)

This 1970s British sex comedy – co-written by Denis Norden of It’ll be Alright on the Night fame – features a young West Country lobster fisherman named David Clyde (Brendan Price) who attempts to start a new life for himself when his father drowns in the sea, and he inherits £3,000.

He moves to London and takes a room in a boarding house which is run by Mrs Eva Donovan (Jacqueline Logan) and occupied by several luscious ladies.

Penny (Sue Longhurst) is an “actress” who gets David a job with her in a blue movie where she shags him.

Air hostess Sally Cockburn (Victoria Burgoyne) arrives home to find him occupying her old room and bed, so – even though they’ve never met – she strips off and hops into bed with him.

Susanne (Felicity Devonshire) is the youngest of the girls, a 17-year-old who flounces around seriously under-dressed, begging him “to make me a woman”. He might have taken her up on the offer if he weren’t getting so much sexual release from her older housemates.

Other girls in the house include a repressed religious girl and a nice Jewish girl who gets him a job as a door-to-door salesman at the vacuum-cleaner company where she works (“Tidee-Up”).

He has little success at his new job, but it gives him an opportunity to have even more sex with various randy housewives (and the opportunity to make bad jokes about “sucking” and “blowing”).

But David has fallen in love with a German au pair called Martina (Jean Harrington), who he picks up at the side of the road wrapped only in a pink towel after one of her romantic escapades had gone awry.

He then tries to convince her to stay in England.

Brendan Price is an unappealing hero, lacking the cheeky charm that made Robin Askwith such a favourite in his Confessions series of films. There’s a cameo from Coronation Street star Johnny Briggs as a rival vacuum cleaner salesman.

Jonathan Demme was signed to direct the film but departed after a few days because of “artistic differences” and was replaced by Wolf Rilla – best known for directing Village of the Damned (1960). Demme’s work still survives in the main titles.

Released in the US as Naughty Wives.

David Clyde
Brendan Price
Martina
Jean Harrington
Penny
Sue Longhurst
Sally Cockburn
Victoria Burgoyne
Susanne
Felicity Devonshire
Charlie Vincent
Graham Stark
Mrs Eva Donovan
Jacqueline Logan
Nancy
Elizabeth Romilly
Jane
Jan Servais
Rachel
Jacqueline Afrique
Jake Tripper
Bernard Spear
Bruce
David Rayner
Ron
Ron Alexander
Loman
Johnny Briggs
Edith Simons
Noelle Finch
Anthony Clyde
Steve Patterson
Mrs Barling
Geraldine Hart
Mrs Green
Valerie Bell
Sandra Bell
Tara Lynn
Mr Bell
Tony Doonan
Chimes Lady
Caroline Dudley
Crossways
Peter Vernon
Policeman
Chic Murray
American Tourists
Ray Marioni
Anita St John
David’s Girlfriend 
Karen Boyes
Traffic Warden
Mary Millington
Singer at Discotheque
Lesley Roach

Director
Wolf Rilla