Swinger, The (1966)

Completing director George Sidney’s “trilogy” of cinematic love letters to Ann-Margret – the other two being Viva Las Vegas  (1964) and Bye Bye Birdie (1963) – the storyline in The Swinger revolves around Kelly Olsson (Ann’s character, who shares the actress’ real surname), an aspiring short story author who poses as a bad girl to impress Tony Franciosa, the editor-in-chief of Girl-Lure magazine (a thinly-veiled clone of Playboy).

Girl-Lure turns down her work for being too innocent, so – determined to prove them wrong – she steals sleazy material from lurid paperbacks and passes it off as semi-autobiographical material.

The story – designed to exploit the pneumatic charms of Swedish-American starlet Ann-Margret – takes a back seat to the eye candy of the lead actress and the set design, with the highlight being a scene in which she swirls around in coloured paints. The scene was also featured in an October 1966 Playboy pictorial.

A musical highlight is I Wanna Be Loved, sung to a tuxedoed Franciosa, who looks either smitten or bemused because Ann’s hair is blowing mysteriously without an open window in the bedroom!

Kelly Olsson
Ann-Margret
Ric Colby
Anthony Franciosa
Sir Hubert Charles
Robert Coote
Karen Charles
Yvonne Romain
Aunt Cora
Nydia Westman
Sammy Jenkins
Craig Hill
Mr Olsson
Milton Frome
Mrs Olsson
Mary LaRoche

Director
George Sidney

Video