"I STARTED to say The Swinger, with Ann-Margret, has a good idea, but, on thinking it over for 30 seconds, I can't even give it that. This blazingly gaudy color picture, which opened in neighborhood theaters yesterday, is evidently meant to be a put-down of the lurid sex magazines that lead you to believe that the orgy is a way of life in the United States. But in trying to kid this subject in a snappy, sophisticated way, it is even more gooky and tasteless than what it is trying to kid...George Sidney, the producer-director, has tried to disguise this trash with a lot of splashy production and mechanical trick-camera work. But he can't conceal cheapness and a lack of talent. Sample of the wit: the chief of the vice squad is Sergeant Hooker. So that is what swinging is!"
- Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

"The Swinger is a very amusing original screen comedy which satirizes nudie books and magazines...Ann-Margaret's best screen work derives from [George] Sidney's direction, which herein spotlights her singing-dancing talents...David Winters choreographed the terp sequences, one of which is a rather sexy bit in which Ann-Margret, in a fake orgy, rolls about on canvas with her body covered with paint."
- Variety

"If there's gold in unwholesomeness, this raucous and raunchy little movie ought to make a mint from the strong-stomach crowd at least...Disguised as a morality tale for teen-agers, it's actually a monster movie. The monsters include Ann-Margret, a pale-faced creature with streaming red hair and over-inflated mammary glands who emits strange sounds through her nose; Tony Franciosa, a former actor (distinguished by lots of teeth and a cleft chin that might grow up to match Kirk Douglas's) who has been transformed into a satyr, and Robert Coote, another erstwhile actor, who has been transformed into a dirty old man."
- Judith Crist, N.Y. World Journal Tribune

"A hectically saucy mixture of lechery, depravity, perversion, voyeurism and girlie magazines...a heavy witless pudding."
- MFB (Monthly Film Bulletin)

"A witless comedy...insufferably cute."
- Wanda Hale, New York Daily News

"The constant fizzing of lights, color and costume finally wears you down like fireworks if you're too close to them...the picture conquers all and it's pure disaster as entertainment."
- Archer Winston, New York Post

"There are parts of The Swinger that are so bad they are funny; other parts so bad they are awful....Franciosa seems stunned by it all. Ann-Margret's performance is like all the others she has turned out- that of a femme fatale leaning heavily on obvious sex appeal, clenched teeth, languorous eyes and skimpy costumes. It's more a science than an art by now."
- Toni Mastroiannio, Cleveland Press

"It's hard not to love The Swinger, since it's proof positive that Elvis Presley didn't make the worst movies in Hollywood history--Ann-Margret did. In fact, The Swinger just might be the tackiest major studio movie ever made: the opening voice-over features a narrator who belches not once but three times."
- Kevin Hennessey, Movieline

"This film is a humorous satire against overly sex-oriented culture. Ann-Margret is good in a role that takes advantage of her bombshell image. The script also satirizes what that image represents."
- TV Guide

"Brassy, artificial yarn..."
- Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide

"One of the reasons The Swinger is such an adorably awful piece of cinema trash is that it tries so very hard to be "hip" and fails at nearly every turn....With its crazy costumes, wacky musical interludes and faux bohemian concepts, The Swinger is a star vehicle that features everything a bad movie aficionado could ask for. And when Ann-Margret is added to the mix, that's when a movie like The Swinger truly becomes a slice of bad movie heaven."
- Cool Cinema Trash, http://www.coolcinematrash.com/movies/swinger.htm