One wonders where some of the softcore films would be today if it weren't for the home video market. At one time, this West German production, released as part of the now-occasional Private Screenings series from Media Home Entertainment, may have been made extinct; its master print shredded and turned into ukulele pits. But since the video market is in need of product —"any product, please" some of the companies appear to be saying — curiosities like Imaginary Lovers suddenly become at least mediocre commodities for the marketplace. Now, when do you think they'll start colorizing the sex loops from the 20s and 30s?

Imaginary Lovers features a tacked-on title card, which makes it unlikely this was the original title of a film that seems to have been made around 1972. Definite drive-in fodder during its time, the film offers a dose of nostalgia to those who recall the wave of softcore sex films that arrived from places like West Germany, Sweden and Austria in the days before porn flourished.

The story is about a "skinflick" (we're talking early 70s, folks) screenwriter who hires an American secretary for dictation. Of course, the woman — a blonde and lithesome, and not-very-American, Ingrid Steegar — is intrigued by the man's occupation and gets involved in helping him create the fantasies he puts down on paper.

The movie features several fantasy sequences highlighting heavy-duty softcore nudity. The women, including Steegar, are mostly big-breasted and blonde, and there's a number of fantasies played out for the sake of literature, of course. One sequence offers two interracial couplings - the secretary and a black man, the writer and a well-developed black lady — that are erotic and, one assumes, somewhat controversial for its time. Also, there's a lengthy masturbation scene, a sequence that interweaves a bowling match with fornication and a segment on truck drivers' sexual drive.

Compared to the XXX-rated stuff released today, this is innocuous. But Imaginary Lovers could fit neatly into a time capsule on the evolution of the sex film. The dubbing is pretty lousy, the characters oh-so liberated and the dialog ridiculously coy. Yet Imaginary Lovers has its charms, particularly for those seeking some nostalgia and a parade of topless European actresses looking groovy.