Homo Eroticus

The beginning of the 1970s was the heyday of Italian sex comedies. And one of the biggest stars of "Commedia Sexy" was undoubtedly the Italian actor Lando BUZZANCA (1935-2022), who played a model Italian in countless films, most of them a complete mess.

In HOMO EROTICUS by Marco VICARIO, also known under the titles "Man Of the Year" or "Husband, Italian Style", BUZZANCA is a Sicilian who has to flee a forced marriage to tranquil Bergamo. But Michele Cannaritta still has a problem that many men might envy. The good guy suffers from polyorchy, which means that his sexual libido is almost inexhaustible. Of course, word quickly spreads among the ladies in Bergamo about what women were able to enjoy in Sicily. So Michele goes from bad to worse...

You can already tell that the foundation has been laid for numerous amorous entanglements in which the usual clumsy Latin lover Lando BUZZANCA is drawn into. As always, he is supported by beautiful actresses from Italian cinema: Rossana PODESTA, Adriana ASTI, Ira vonFürSTENBERG, Sylva KOSCINA, Evi MARANDI, Brigitte SKAY, Femi BENUSSI and Paola TEDESCO know how to attract the attention of the busy Michele. The deceived husbands, played by Luciano SALCE and Bernard BLIER, are left behind.

In Italy the film was a huge box office success, so Lando BUZZANCA was able to ride the wave of success of the Italian sex comedy for a few more years and make more films of this kind.

Lando Buzzanca plays a rather naive young man from Sicily, who comes to Bergamo looking for a job. And he finds one, as the errand man for a rich businessman and his gorgeous wife (Rossana Podesta). After a medical exam reveals that he is unusually well-equipped in the genitals area, he becomes a famous figure in the aristocratic circles of his employers - basically, no woman can keep her hands off him, and he doesn't exactly turn down any offers, either. Trouble starts when some of the women start getting jealous of the others, and continues when he sleeps with the daughter of a Sicilian barber, who demands that he marries her, or else....This is a watchable sex comedy with some funny ideas (the cuckolded husband who discovers that he enjoys watching his wife in bed with Buzzanca through his telescope, eventually bringing snacks and drinks to go along with the show!) and a long list of sexy European hotties (Podesta has incredible legs, but Simonetta Stefanelli probably has the most beautiful face), however it is surprisingly tame (only Sylva Koscina goes topless, for about 3 seconds), and too long (113 minutes) for its basically one-joke premise. Bergamo makes for an unusual and beautiful setting. ** out of 4.