Strange Ailments

Screenwriter Goldsmith deals with the sexual modes and obsessions that make life interesting, adventurous and troublesome. Wealthy, 34-year-old L.A. pharmacist Michael Marcus lusts for Genie Cotler, a 17-year-old babysitter whom he discovers making passionate love with her teenage boy friend in Mike's livingroom. Mike's wife, Marilyn, an obstetrician who wants to found a health farm, does not have Genie's erotic gifts, but Genie knows tricks grown women haven't even fantasized about, due to an incestuous relationship with her father. Mike's courtship is enlivened when he shoots a holdup man holding Genie hostage. Unfortunately, it turns out that the criminal was armed only with a water pistol, which gets Mike into trouble with the ACLU but makes him a hero with Genie. In this trendy narrative, which borrows heavily from the Bernhard Goetz subway shooting, from Lolita and from The Seven Year Itch, the sex is graphic, though the personae talk too much about it. (October 15)