A bisexual lawyer tries to have it BOTH WAYS in Vinegar Syndrome's DVD of this daring seventies porn effort.

Harvard lawyer Donald Wyman (Gerald Grant, NAKED CAME THE STRANGER) has a nice suburban life in Connecticut with loving wife in Janet (Andrea True, THE SEDUCTION OF LYN CARTER) and young son David. He loves equally (no more or less than his family) his younger Yale college student lover Gary (Dean Tait, THE DEVIL INSIDE HER) who he met in a leather bar and secretly meets in a hideaway apartment during the work week in New York. Donald likes things the way they are and it is getting harder to maintain his double life. Janet rightfully believes that he is having an affair but believes it is because he no longer desires her. Gary is tired of being a dirty little secret and wants a more open relationship with Donald. His two worlds come together when friends Hank (Bill Morgan, ONCE OVER NIGHTLY) and Louise (Darby Lloyd Rains, EVERY INCH A LADY) – also known as "those sodomites next door" according to the Wymans' housekeeper Pauline (Katherine Miles) – throw a party and Gary shows up as a bartender hoping to make some extra money. Janet is lead off the scent when she badgers Donald into an "orgy" (actually a four-way) with Hank and Louise, but his overenthusiastic performance with Louise has her thinking it is just her that he no longer desires. When Gary tries to initiate contact closer to home, the well-intentioned prying of Pauline and mystery-reading busybody antiques dealer Irwin (Jake Everett) over what they believe is a blackmail attempt. Their meddling only serves to make Janet more suspicious about Donald's friendship with Gary, and Donald will go to tragic extremes to keep his secret.

Tackling the concept of bisexuality during the sexual revolution – a topic not only socially controversial but a potential turn-off to the raincoat crowd (at least when it involves two men) – BOTH WAYS is equal parts outlandish soap opera and poignantly observant. The film does not equate Donald's inability to choose one sex over the other with the emotional immaturity symbolized by his fondness for balloons and his recreational use of the tire swing in his yard so much as his unwillingness to choose between wife and lover. Most of the sex scenes last long enough to make a point or are broken up by montage, with the only lingering sex scene between Donald and Louise since the latter goes overboard to prove himself after his wife has questioned his sex drive in front of his two friends. The heat of said sex scene is dissipated by cutaways to Hank and Janet who are distracted from their attempts to enjoy each other by the Donald's performance and Louise's enjoyment of it. The more frank discussions have a soapy feel about them but are revealing of the complexity and ambiguity of attitudes towards sexual exploration in the 1970s (although Hank offends Gary during the party with off-color jokes about "queers", he is surprisingly non-judgmental when Donald reveals that his idea of having it "both ways" means another man rather than another woman). The mysterious Grant appeared in three adult features, two for Radley Metzger with SCORE – for which writer/director Jerry Douglas (THE BACK ROW) had written the original state play – casting him as a more jaded bisexual who sets his sights on Calvin Culver/Casey Donovan and engaging in a single encounter with Rains in NAKED CAME THE STRANGER. His only other credited role is a supporting bit in the New York scenes of Umberto Lenzi's EATEN ALIVE. Just a year away from her disco one hit wonder "More More More (How Do You Like It?)", True is not a great actress but looks a little like Jennifer Welles (CONFESSIONS OF A YOUNG AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE) from some angles.

Scanned and restored in 2K from the original 35mm camera negatives, Vinegar Syndrome's progressive, non-anamorphic 1.33:1 fullscreen presentation looks only as good as the original cinematography. Coverage of the sex scenes from all focal lengths is sharp and defined as are close-up inserts, while location scenes and even some long shots within interior scenes are more lazily focused as if they were an afterthought (with a couple exterior scenes looking like either 16mm blow-ups or perhaps optically zoomed in at the time of post-production). The Dolby Digital 1.0 mono track is more consistent overall.