Wilde Betten - Lippenstift-Tigerinnen

What a great concept: Take 4 of the most popular European actresses of the Seventies and pop them into a Italian- style comedy that takes place mostly in bed. Unfortunately, „Letti selvaggi" is another one of those anthology comedies with eight separate episodes. It goes without saying that the quality ranges from terrible to okay. You'll get Sylvia Kristel, Ursula Andress, Monica Vitti and Laura Antonelli for two episodes each.

The movie starts off with Sylvia Kristel, playing a seemingly bored girl in a flat on the beach. She lures in a mobile trader who thinks she wants to have sex with him, but there is actually a body she must get rid off and the guy is just her scapegoat. Sylvia Kristel was hot and sexy in the Emmanuelle films, but she definitely was no good actress. Her wooden play is painfully obvious here, and it's up to co-star Orazio Orlando to save this quite promising episode that in the end suffers from bad writing and bad acting.

Next up, Ursula Andress as a grieving widow, visited by a journalist. He can convince her to pose for some pictures which then evolves into a whole striptease. No fun here, no gags, no surprises, no twist, nothing. A waste of time.

Next. A (weirdly dubbed) kid asks hooker Monica Vitti to act as his mother and bring him to school. She agrees, but in the principal's office she must find out that the kid is a terrible pupil. What an awful episode! Vitti is actually a good actress, so is Roberto Benigni, but there is no way they could save this pointless nonsense.

Then Laura Antonelli as the beautiful wife of a distrustful old jerk. It's only about two minutes long and the less said about it, the better.

Back to Kristel, playing the wife of a nutty professor who is constantly quarreling about her lack of quality as a cook and in bed. Kristel's acting is even worse than before. But it fits this horrible ordeal of an episode.

Then Andress in a very short one: To boost business of a garage, she'll strip in lingerie on the nearby street, causing a huge pile-up. Watchable, but also forgettable.

The second Vitti outing is surprisingly good and while the storyline is ridiculous, it is also high-paced and more or less entertaining. Vitti as a jewel thief who is after an invaluable necklace. She doesn't know yet that another crook is already close on her heels. Vitti and Co-Star Michele Placido harmonize quite well and the episode definitely benefits of the two.

Then we have the final episode with Laura Antonelli, and they saved the best for last. In fact, this one even saves the neck of the whole movie. A shy orchestra conductor meets a beautiful woman on the street and to his surprise, she agrees to dating and shows up at his home a little later. While there is something going on between the two, this Giovanna is a pure businesswoman and she has calls and meetings one by one. Not much time for a romance, and actually Giovanna is more in need of a servant than a lover. The story then shows the two constantly rushing around while trying to make out in some two-minutes-slots. This is quite funny, at a very high pace and with good actors. Jose Sacristan is a nice guy and quite likable, but it's of course the fantastic Laura Antonelli who makes this worth watching. Once more she proves her talent for comedy, she is bursting with energy, as always pleasing to the eye, and there are a couple of lingerie scenes thrown in.

Overall, it's hard to rate these anthology comedies as impartially as possible, but I doubt this could have appealed to audiences back in the day. Especially the first episodes are just awful and I know dozens of Italian comedies of the Seventies outclassing this totally. Best thing to do is probably to skip all this rubbish and go for the last two episodes only. To those I would give 5 and 6 stars, if watched separately.

Lamely functional eight-parter may be one of the most colossal misfires of its era, with the four willing actresses (of whose beauty and talents this should surely have been a celebration)wasted on sketches which are mainly plodding and obvious and in other cases amazingly brief and insubstantial. The visual approach is bland and straightforward - there's no zippiness, certainly no taste for farce or panache. And the most titillating thing in the movie is the seaside postcard-type design of the titles that link the episodes - the thing seems to lack much real sexual appetite. Andress is merely glacier-like in her first episode; this quality seems better deployed in her second, playing a woman in league with a repair shop, causing mass traffic crashes by strutting down the street half-dressed. Vitti is perhaps the most technically accomplished of the four but with the worst material. Kristel's opening episode is one of the better structured of the lot. Antonelli closes with a moderately complex role as a woman who juggles an attempt to sleep with a music conductor and a non-stop business schedule.

Most of the shorts within this film are pretty bad, and even if you want to see several sex symbols of the past in the same movie, it just isn't worth it. But at least this movie does save the best for last, as the final short with Laura Antonelli is definitely worth watching. So, if you ever come across this film, skip everything but the final twenty minutes or so. But if you do decide to watch it all, you probably won't be in a laughing mood once the only funny segment begins.

This could have been more enjoyable if the English dubbing could be better. I mean, jeez... I'll take Italian lessons or wait for the French version.

Still, the main actresses are all beautiful and funny. Watch out for a young Roberto Benigni with his typical haircut.

My review was written in February 1985 after watching the movie on Monterey video cassette.

"Tigers in Lipstick", which has gone through various title changes including "Wild Beds" and "Hijinks", is a made-in-1979 Italian throwback to the multi-part sex comedies that flourished in the early 1960s. Okay film is interesting for never having obtained a U. S. theatrical distributor, instead belatedly surfacing via home video after rights were acquired by Julian Schlossberg's Castle Hill Prods.

Lack of U. S. theatrical release can probably be traced to the fact that Laura Antonelli, then at the peak of her U. S. popularity, does not disrobe in the film. Nudity is provided by Sylvia Kristel, but overall package tips the balance towards comedy, neglecting the obvious voyeuristic potential of the material (which remains an important factor for European imports, even those of the arthouse variety).

Seven segments of various lengths emphasize the woman as aggressor, with various Continental actors and comics playing second fiddle to the attractive leading ladies. Most effective routine is "The Pickup", in which Antonelli has a field day a a nonstop businesswoman who makes an assignation with a young orchestra conductor who approaches her on the street, but keeps putting him off and getting him into slapstick situations as she runs around wheeling and dealing with lawyers, real estate men, etc. Unfortunately, this funny segment ends abruptly, lacking a satisfying or ironic payoff.

Monica Vitti is also amusing in "The Shell Game", getting to pose as a nun and as a doddering olf lady as she competes with Michele Placido in trying to steal an expensive necklace from a lady at a casino. Kristel is lovely but wooden in her turns, while Ursula Andress is the sexiest performer in the film. As with Antonelli, Andress avoids nude footage.

Vet neorealist director ("To Live in Peace") Luigi Zampa is merely marking time here, with film helped by a bouncy Riz Ortolani score.