Giovannona Coscialunga disonorata con onore

The absolutely gorgeous Edwige Fenech is reunited once again with comic Pippo Franco for this Sergio Martino-directed Italian sex comedy. Their last pairing was Ubalda, All Naked and Warm.

Fenech enthusiastically throws herself into the role of a streetwalker with a heart of gold who is asked to pose as the wife of a shady businessman (Gigi Ballista) in order to seduce a government official (Vittorio Caprioli) into reopening a cheese factory that was closed for pollution.

The usual sexual hijacks ensue! Very little sex, just occasional nudity, and a lot of screwball comedy.

Fenech looks magnificent. This was Martino and Fenech's first sexy comedy after a string of successful giallos and set the tone for future entries in the genre.

It was starting to look like a Benny Hill movie at the end, but everything worked out.

Italy didn't exactly hold back when it came to ripping off films back in the seventies - everything from Dirty Harry to Jaws got the Italian treatment, but I must say I never expected to see an Italian sex comedy version of the classic romantic comedies of thirties USA! Even more surprising than the premise of this film is the fact that it's good! Sergio Martino, a director who tried his hand at a number of different genres, but will always be best remembered for his superb Giallo efforts such as The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh and The Case of the Scorpion's Tail, has put together a delightful comedy that works thanks to the fact that the action never lets up, and it's really quite funny! The plot focuses on Commendatore La Noce, a man who has polluted a river. He realises that he has to bribe an honourable to get away with it - but the problem is that the honourable in question IS completely honourable. However, he does have one vice - he likes to sleep with other people's wives. Not wanting use his own frigid other half, the Commendatore lets his assistant find him a prostitute to act as his wife.

It was actually quite odd watching this film as after watching a number of Italian sex movies, I've come to expect a lot of sleaze. This one features brief nudity and some swearing, but it's extremely tame overall. Martino has made the film more 'cheeky' than anything else, as the lead characters are sexually promiscuous, but sex itself isn't actually seen. This is no bad thing, however, as loads of sex would have distracted from the comedy. Of course, my main reason for seeing this film was because it stars the beautiful Edwige Fenech - and although I say this almost every time I see one of her films, she really has never looked better than she does here! Martino and Fenech worked together on a number of occasions throughout their careers, and it shows as the director really knows how to make best use of his stunning lead actress! The plot is quite incidental to the set pieces, but it's not important as the film is never boring. The scenes aboard the train midway through are the best, but the film introduces new things to chew every time it seems to be drying up, and this ensures that Giovannona Long-Thigh is absolutely great fun to watch!

Not, for me, as funny as 'Umbalda, All Naked And Warm', from the year before and also starring the lovely Edwige Fenech but still pleasant enough. All the usual Italian preoccupations on view, Catholic church, bribing of government officials, streetwalkers, although now I think of it barely any eating! Unless you count the seductive sucking on a bread stick from Edwige, not much eating at all. As usual although it is the men who come up with all the scheming it is the women who make the running in all the action. And action there is in this sunny farce, non-stop, actually which prevents it from getting too dull . Added to which some of the jokes really are funny, if only the bumbling Pippo Franco weren't quite so bumbling, I quite liked him in Umbalda but less so in this. Bit of a Benny hill finale this is not meant to be serious and it does have Edwige in various stages of loveliness.

The owner of a cheese factory is trying to get an Italian government official to look the other way at the industrial pollution his factory is creating. He finds out the "honorable" official has a thing for other men's sexy wives. Unfortunately, his own wife is a devout Catholic and pretty unattractive to boot, so he entrusts his dimwitted assistant to procure him a fake wife. After the first potential "wife" turns out to be a transvestite, the desperate assistant picks up a very sexy streetwalker (Edwige Fenech), who unfortunately also turns out to be hilariously profane and uncouth. The movie than turns into a kind "The Pygmalion"/"My Fair Lady" on the fly as they try to pass her off as a more respectable lady, and the zaniness increases when the industrialist starts to fall for the official's own very large wife, while the official's puritanical battle-axe of a secretary tries to sabotage the whole thing, and the bumbling assistant continues to mess things up further.

This sex comedy has the usual nude scenes from Edwige Fenech, but it's a lot more enjoyable than the vast majority of Italian sex comedies because it's a lot more satirical and clever, not to mention genuinely funny in places. Obviously, Edwige Fenech is gorgeous, but there was certainly no shortage of gorgeous women in 1970's Italian sex comedies. Fenech, however, shows some genuine comic talent that puts her above the likes of Gloria Guida or Nadia Cassini, who were equally ubiquitous in these kind of films, but were more just eye candy. And it helps that this film was directed by the talented Sergio Martino, a regular collaborator with Fenech (his producer brother, Luciano Martino, was a one-time paramour of Fenech, but it was their professional collaboration that proved the most fruitful).

I actually rented this thinking it was a "decamerotici" or other period sex comedy like "Ubalda--All Naked Warm" which Fenech was known for. It is actually more a political satire, like Fulci's "The Eroticist" (albeit with more "Benny Hill"-style high-speed antics and other "physical humor"). Like that one it may be "too Italian" for some people, but also its pretty clever for an Italian sex comedy, hell, for ANY sex comedy.

Comic movie that has some funny moments but also some very low ones. The plot, while not exceptional, develops smoothly and Fenech is perfect in the part of the woman of the street.