Mademoiselle cuisses longues

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.

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.

Giovannona Long-Thigh (1973)

** (out of 4)

A new government minister closes down factory that is leading to all sorts of pollution so a plot is unhatch to try and get him to open it back up. A couple dimwits hire a prostitute (Edwige Fenech) to seduce the man in order to make him change his mind. As with most of these sex-comedies from Italy, this film is full of misses but there are a few hits that actually get a nice laugh. The biggest problem is the problem of all of these types of films have and that's the fact that everyone in them, with the exception always being the lead woman, are complete idiots who are constantly doing dumb things. Some might say this is where the comedy comes from, which would be fair to say but there comes a point where you at least need something serious or at least not so over the top where you feel as if you're watching something being aimed at a child. This movie features all sorts of dumb characters doing dumb things but a few of them are funny. There's a very long sequence on a train where the government guys try to get their plan working but Fenech keeps messing up because she wants someone else. Earlier in the film we get a pretty funny scene of Fenech needing to pretend to be a proper lady but her foul mouth keeps that from happening. These scenes, as well as a pimp duel towards the end, work but this is about it in terms of laughs. The nudity/sex side of things is also pretty low with Fenech only getting naked a couple times but we all know this is better than nothing. As usual, she delivers a charming performance as she could certainly act unlike many of the other sex actresses of her day. In the end this certainly isn't the best the genre has to offer but both director Martino and star Fenech would continue to do these types of films and they quality would eventually go up.

As it turns out, Edwige Fenech didn't just appear in top-notch giallo thrillers directed and produced by, respectively, brothers Sergio and Luciano Martino. Following her appearances in such excellent gialli as "The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh" (1970), "All the Colors of the Dark" (1972) and "Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key" (1972), Edwige appeared in the team's 1972 Italian sex comedy "Giovanonna Long Thigh," with winning results. In this one, Edwige plays a stunningly beautiful (natch) streetwalker who's hired by a doofus functionary of a polluting cheese factory to seduce a certain government official. The doofus in question is played by Pippo Franco, who had just appeared with Edwige in the even funnier and sexier "Ubalda, All Naked and Warm" (also 1972...a busy year for Edwige!). Fenech, despite playing a hooker here, surprisingly remains mostly clothed for the duration of the film, some brief topless flashes excepted. Viewers interested in seeing her more in the altogether are advised to check out any of the other titles mentioned above. What this film DOES offer is an extremely fast-moving story, some outrageous situations, some truly laff-out-loud moments, and a sped-up conclusion that almost seems like an Italian variation of "Benny Hill." No Shame has provided us with yet another gorgeous-looking DVD, with one unfortunate problem: The subtitles get frozen for around 10 minutes around 2/3 of the way in. And in a rapid-dialogue film such as this one, that's a big loss! Still, the film is well worth your time, if only for another opportunity to bask in Edwige's exquisite presence...

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.