Nostalgia Kinky

On a warm summer Los Angeles evening in June of 1979, a 34 year old actress named Karen Ciral was on her way to an audition when her car was totaled in a head-on collision by an oncoming drunk driver. Up until that moment, 1979 had been a good year for Karen Ciral. She’d just gotten engaged to the love of her life and her recent appearances in FM (1979) and BLOODBROTHERS (1978) had given her the most high profile work of her career since Russ Meyer’s GOOD MORNING…AND GOODBYE! (1967). Things were going well for Karen until some shitbag decided one evening that calling a cab was just too much trouble.

In the month following her near fatal accident, Karen suffered from terrible headaches and seizures, for which she was prescribed phenobarbital. One night less than a month after the accident, following a seizure, she accidentally overdosed on the medication and passed away. Her fiancée found her that evening. It was a terrible end for a young woman who loved life and had such high hopes for her future.

While she was featured in memorable supporting turns in films like THE UNDERTAKER AND HIS PALS (1966) and THE CYCLE SAVAGES (1969), Ciral’s only starring role of her career occurred in the 1972 sexploitation feature LOVE, SWEDISH STYLE. Directed by future JULIE DARLING (1983) screenwriter Maurice Smith, LOVE, SWEDISH STYLE was all but lost for decades after it played theatrically through parts of The United States in 1973. Recently rediscovered, the film is now available online via a nice fan restoration.

LOVE, SWEDISH STYLE is the sole directorial credit for Smith, who acted as mostly a producer throughout his lengthy career. Save for some late film sequences (I’ll get to in a bit), Smith doesn’t much distinguish himself behind the camera. Still, despite its many faults, LOVE, SWEDISH STYLE is sort of an enjoyable snapshot of California in the early seventies.

First off there isn’t anything remotely Swedish about LOVE, SWEDISH STYLE. This might sound like one of Joe Sarno’s mid-seventies shot in Sweden masterworks but, trust me, this isn’t that. For the most part this is just a by the numbers sex romp, distinguished by the fact that it was inspired by a supposed real life-event covered in the sixties by the Los Angeles Herald Examiner columnist James Bacon. Focused on a Swedish maid living in the States who becomes a local sensation due to her beauty and voice, Bacon’s story smells of BS but it was enough to inspire Smith’s one directorial outing.

With its library score that sounds about ten years out of date and less than convincing barely there plot, LOVE, SWEDISH STYLE has very little going for it save its cast and location. But the cast, featuring a number of familiar faces from this period in American adult cinema, all keep the film very watchable and the sunny Los Angeles locations are utilized well. For her one starring role, Karen Ciral isn’t called on to do a lot save for speaking in a sort of Swedish accent but she carries the film more than adequately. LOVE, SWEDISH STYLE isn’t a very good film but I kind of dug it.

The recently shared print of LOVE SWEDISH STYLE runs just about 80 minutes, a few minutes shy of the running time that commonly listed online. Now that could be due to a number of possibilities as this print certainly looks uncut with some of the soft sex scenes approaching hardcore. There is a possibility this was an early hardcore film and this is just a cut print but I don’t believe that is the case. Although a 1977 run with the uber-classic hard masterpiece THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS casts a bigger question over the film’s run-time than I might have otherwise. I do think the version floating around online is uncut though.

Running time question left in then air, LOVE, SWEDISH STYLE does have one absolutely awesome section that bumps what would probably be an average rating to a good one. It is late in the film when we see Ciral’s Inga with one of her many conquests at an early seventies California renaissance faire. Suddenly, Smith’s stagnant camera comes alive and he films these moments with a trippy guerilla style abandon I wish the rest of the film possessed. There is also a fun late film Satanic inspired orgy and a great mountain top lovemaking scene, all of which distinguish LOVE, SWEDISH STYLE a bit.

LOVE, SWEDISH STYLE left Louisville, KY theaters just two days before I born in the southern part of the state. Kentucky was one of the States it played, not quite half in total. If the Newspaper ads are anything to go by it had a pretty nice ad campaign even though its promise of ‘coming fully equipped from Sweden’ was a straight up lie. After its initial 1973 run, the film had additional seventies stops and even early eighties theatrical jaunts where it was double-billed with a film titled LOVE CYCLE (Not sure on this one.

LOVE, SWEDISH STYLE is available at The Archive, VEF and I’m sure a number of other spots online by now. It seems like a prime candidate for a company like Vinegar Syndrome and I’d love someone like Casey Scott to provide a commentary providing much more historical context and info than the bit I cobbled together here. I’ll link to the Archive below for any interested:

-Jeremy Richey, October 2025-

https://archive.org/details/love-swedish-style-1972-karen-ciral-ted-roter-woody-lee-jane-tsentas-rachel-engl