La voglia matta

This film is a very beautiful bittersweet comedy with the great Ugo Tognazzi and a very young and splendid Catherine Spaak. Antonio is a middle-aged industrialist who has succeeded in his professional life but missed out on his private life: divorced, incapable of a lasting love relationship with women and barely recognizing his son when he visits him at boarding school... When meeting a group of young hedonistic and liberated teenagers, he falls irresistibly under the spell of the beautiful and provocative Francesca, her freshness and her innocence. Constantly mocked and ridiculed by the group of young people, he finds himself in a way in front of a mirror which gives him a very pitiful image of himself. The culmination of this "demolition work" being the scene where he is"crowned" Indian chief on the beach... Without speaking about the male topless beauty contest...Subjugated by Francesca, Antonio accepts all humiliations, to the point of becoming truly pathetic. Under the air of a comedy, the result is very melancholic and even bitter. Unable to hold back Francesca, the great industrialist Antonio, rises to be a weak, lost and overwhelmed man. As for this golden youth issue from the economic boom years, she is described as idle, carefree, superficial and even sometimes cruel. The generational gap is abysmal and nothing will come to bridge it. Luciano Salce will have spared no one in this film which absolutely deserves to be discovered and appreciated at its true value.

"Crazy Desire" (aka "La Voglia Matta") was shot in 1961, and while it wasn't the first film for 16 year old Catherine Spaak, it was the one that catapulted her to international stardom. Ugo Tognazzi's midlife crisis is that he has never fallen in love, preferring his females horizontal rather than vertical. While driving to pay his 12 year old son a visit at boarding school, he gets waylaid by a group of hard drinking , chain smoking youths who eventually lead him to their beach hideaway, where he simply cannot help falling 'head over heels' for the stunning Spaak, whose character admits to being only 15 (!). She seems alternately touched and amused at his occasionally awkward but genuinely heartfelt attentions, going so far as to ask her to marry him. The male characters are a chore to watch, but the girls are all gorgeous, with the China Girl (Lilia Neyung) being a particular standout, whether just dancing up a storm or doing an impromptu striptease, making all the boys drool. Still, no other actress can dim the lustre of the luminous Catherine Spaak, who I had previously seen only in the 1971 Dario Argento thriller "The Cat O'Nine Tails," where her outfits truly provided some real eye candy for this red blooded American teenager. Both "Crazy Desire" and "The Easy Life" were Spaak titles that aired on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater during the odd 1969-70 season, which saw a number of foreign comedies and dramas being paired with the usual string of low budget sci fi/horror (their two co-features were "Frankenstein's Daughter" and "Billy the Kid versus Dracula"!). The 1969 version was dubbed in English, but current prints in Italian are at least subtitled.

Voglia Matta is virtually lacking in any redeeming qualities, apart from occasionally competent if uninspired cinematography. Aside from Tognazzi, the acting is substandard and even he seems to be going through the motions. The characters and motives of nearly everyone lack credibility, and none are likeable or sympathetic much less amusing. The scenarios are beyond absurd, unintentionally. The gang of adolescents are extremely grating - some middle-aged writer's idea of what today's spunky youth (ca. 1961) probably kind of ought to be like, with a double helping of casual indifference towards others. The scene of Spaak forcing Tognazzi to careen at high speed down a small winding road, threatening dozens of people's lives in the process, is treated as a grand and clever jape. And that's about the highlight of the film. Almost every comic gag falls flat. It's hard to see why even a contemporary audience was supposed to find humor in a 39 year old father repeatedly pawing a 15 year old girl.

If the film can be said to have had a purpose at all, it was to show off Catherine Spaak's beach body. That is the one thing it managed to do.

The older, positive reviews of this film are puzzling. It is one to avoid.

Was it crazy? I certainly think it was in this case. The film sets up with this sophisticated guy tony, a succesful businessman with a beautiful girlfriend his own age. Its also established he has no problems with bedding other numerous women. And yet he falls head over heels for a teenage temptress and suffers multiple humiliations on her part. Frankly he is made to look an absolute fool by her and the kids she knocks about this.

You just ache for him to get up and leave but franchesca has him completely under her spell. OK its easy to see why on just a visual level. Cathereine Spaak, 16 years old in real life, is an absolutely mesmerizing beauty. But she has a touch of evil in her character that middle aged tony just cant see or compute. This was highly watchable to the very end.

Someone PLEASE PLEASE tell me where I can obtain a copy of this Ugo Tognazzi vehicle from 1962, which also starred the luscious Catherine Spaak. One of many of early 60s Italian comedies that explored the bittersweet longings of aging adults amongst youth culture, CRAZY DESIRE or THIS MAD URGE boasted Ennio Morricone's first score and some haunting pop songs of the period, plus a lot of good looking Italian youth in beachwear. Most poignant, though, was the aging but dapper Tognazzi in his sports car, clinging wistfully to his younger self. This film is burned in memory now for 30 years as I, myself, approach that turning point. See it with someone you're growing older with.