User Reviews

Edwige Fenech - who was only just a giallo queen but a star of commedia sexy all'italiana movies - and Pippo Franco had been a success in 1972 in Mariano Laurenti's Quel gran pezzo dell'Ubalda tutta nuda e tutta calda which was released around the world as Ubalda, All Naked and Warm.

Franco is Ragionier Mario Albertini who has been asked by his boss Commendatore La Noce (Gigi Ballista) to find him a fake wife so that he can get the philandering judge who closed the cheese factory to get in a scandal and reverse his decision. Albertini hires Giovannona "Cocò" Coscialunga (Fenech), a prostitute who looks pure but has the filthiest of mouths.

Directed by Sergio Martino, this was written by Franco Mercuri, Francesco Milizia and Carlo Veo from a story by Tito Carpi and Sergio's brother Luciano, who was married to Fenech for a time. The cinematographer was Stelvio Massi, who went on to direct Arabella the Black Angel and Convoy Busters.

Italian sex comedies don't always translate all that well, especially because so many of them are fifty years old. But you know, you get to look at Edwige Fenech for the entire movie. It can't be that bad.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Humor doesn't travel well. When it comes down to the genuinely culture-bound folk farces of France, Italy or Germany, us poor foreigners are frequently left scratching our heads in disbelief. Produced primarily for local consumption, a surprisingly large number of these were exported throughout Europe, a handful even reaching American shores. This was usually down to one added ingredient that would never fail to make audiences put up with as much frantically running about, falling down and door-slamming as their perpetrators managed to cram into an hour and a half, i.e. nudity ! In the land of pasta and pizza, this was to become an entire sub-genre unto itself, the so-called "sexy comedy", full of randy bug-eyed males drooling over curvaceous sex goddesses in form-fitting peekaboo frocks forever exceeding their grasp. Fellini and Passolini may have represented the "respectable" face of Italian cinema to the rest of the world, but it were these lusty little laugh getters and their dark counterparts, the sick and twisted "giallo" murder mysteries, that duly raked in the cash at the local box office.

The Martino brothers, Sergio and Luciano, both still alive and active, were key figures in Boot Country's popular cinema of the '70s. Usually, the first would direct while the other produced, but they were pretty flexible. Together, they would mine every possible genre likely to generate a profit, from stylized slashers like ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK and THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH to fundamentally old-fashioned adventure yarns spruced up with sex and violence such as THE GREAT ALLIGATOR, MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD and the delirious ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN a/k/a SCREAMERS.

Taking along Algerian born leading lady Edwige Fenech, who had bared all in their aforementioned "gialli", they embarked on a series of naughty numbers featuring popular local comedians such as Aldo Maccione and Renzo Montagnani setting up ludicrously elaborate schemes (which inevitably back-fired) to lure the lady into their lovers' lair. In retrospect, it's fairly amazing that this type of movie could still do the business it did in a decade as progressively permissive as the 1970s. Ostensibly about sex, they're surprisingly coy on the subject, offering little more than topless nudity and lots of leg shots, but they provided a guilt-free opportunity to enjoy the exposed female form as opposed to the burgeoning porn industry which left nothing to the imagination and has forever suffered society's two-faced repercussions and repression because of its insolence. Their minds may have been in the gutter, but the visuals remained comparatively chaste.

GIOVANNONA LONG-THIGH (HONORABLY DISHONORED) offers a good example of what the genre was all about. About to be sued for polluting a nearby stream with chemicals, the Straccolone cheese company tries to sway the deciding vote of a morally upstanding Member of Parliament (broadly portrayed by the late Vittorio Caprioli, who went from Fellini's VARIETY LIGHTS to playing Claudius to Penthouse Pet Anneka Di Lorenzo's depraved empress in Bruno Corbucci's insanely enjoyable MESSALINA, MESSALINA!) by playing to his sole weakness, defendants' sexy spouses. As the wife of factory owner La Noce (Gigi Ballista, who had a bit part in Alan Parker's MIDNIGHT EXPRESS) is a pious prude, it's up to his bumbling underling Albertini (Pippo Franco, previously partnered with Fenech on UBALDA, ALL NAKED AND WARM) to provide a suitable replacement. Initial attempts predictably fail, producing "humor" of the most groan-inducing kind (primarily aimed at homosexuals and homely girls), until he finds fledgling streetwalker Coco whose shapely stems once earned her the nickname the title suggests.

What follows is a seemingly endless pile-up of mistaken identities borrowed from French bedroom farce – minus most of the sexual release that was considered a Continental prerogative – as characters exchange rooms in the middle of the night, invariably winding up with partners other than those desired. Though she looks absolutely stunning, Fenech often seems inexplicably side-tracked in her own star vehicle, kept out of proceedings for long stretches in time and then silenced when she does appear, first as a means to guard the amorous Parliamentarian from her prostitute's potty mouth and later inadvertently drugged out of consciousness. Fortunately, she would take a more pro-active role in subsequent fare including the popular SCHOOL TEACHER and POLICE WOMAN series. Meanwhile, Franco provides the pratfalls as the hopeless klutz who, naturally enough, gets the girl in the end. One of the downright funniest bits has him picked up at night by the driver of a Maserati who, as a radio news report informs, proves an escaped mental patient, played with scene-stealing relish by Sandro Dori with an infectious mad giggle. Also look for minor skin starlet Patrizia Adiutori as sexy secretary Luisella, who can't be rightfully considered for the job because of a jealous boyfriend. She had supported Fenech before on MADAME BOVARY and turned up in several DECAMERONE type carnal fables, including Joe D'Amato's CANTERBURY N° 2.