Top Sensation

Unlike what you may think going into this one, it only barely qualifies as a thriller and is more an erotic drama with some thriller elements. There's really no suspense generated at any point, even if the plot-line does move onto murder in its latter half. No, this one's focus is more squarely on other things for the majority of its screen-time. This is not exactly a bad thing though, as it means The Seducers is perhaps slightly less generic than a lot of its contemporaries. I was definitely brought to mind of Roman Polanski's psychological drama Knife in the Water (1962) though, with its group of unsympathetic characters playing out their melodrama and mind-games on a private boat cruise. But then again, I was also reminded of the outrageous Greek exploitation extravaganza Island of Death (1976) on account of that one's scene of goat-based bestiality – in The Seducers we move into a similar basic ball-park, albeit of a decidedly less disgraceful variety. Unlike in Island of Death where we have a male sociopath roger an unfortunate animal, here we have the lovely Edwige Fenech really only getting up close and personal with it. It's a mixture of the questionable, the erotic and the outright bizarre – a properly strange scene whichever way you look at it.

The story takes place on a luxurious yacht cruising in the Mediterranean. A wealthy woman of questionable motives hires three people – the seducers of the title - to deflower her mentally-deranged son. Add an innocent farm girl to the mix and you have the recipe for much sexploitation shenanigans.

This one is notable for both being a very early screen appearance from cult icon Fenech but is of additional note in that it pairs her up with another of the hottest actresses working in Italian genre films at the time, Rosalba Neri. In actual fact this film is owned by Neri mainly. Kitted out in a leather bikini, carrying a rifle and throwing dynamite into the sea, she is a bad girl par excellence in this one. I've seen Neri in a number of movies but this may very well be her definitive moment here, as her assertive sensuality is a perfect fit for this character. In any case, her and Fenech together in an erotic set-up is never going to be a bad thing, in actual fact they even at one point indulge in a three-way girl-on-girl-on-girl romp with the farm girl they bring on board.

All-in-all, this is a bit of an unheralded gem. I only saw it when a very kind fellow IMDb user sent me a copy which suffered from pretty ropey sound quality. It's definitely a movie, though, that is crying out for a proper transfer, it definitely deserves that kind of care and is one that Euro-cult enthusiasts will definitely lap up.

This movie was obviously an influence on the later, more notorious "Island of Death" with it's decadent European tourists despoiling an idyllic Greek island. But where the latter movie crosses the line into being repulsive and genuinely unpleasant, this movie is deliciously nasty, mainly due to the excellent acting of the three female leads. Maud de Belleroche is a hard-as-nails oil heiress who lures a greedy couple (the wife is Rosalba Neri) and a nymphomaniacal prostitute (Edwige Fenech)aboard her yacht (perversely wired with short-circuit cameras in every room) hoping that one of women will seduce her dimwitted son. It's hard to imagine Neri and Fenech not being able to seduce ANYONE but they are both so incredibly, over-the-top sexy here it's understandable that the kid wilts in their presence like a flower in blistering sunlight. He instead falls for an innocent shepherd girl (Ewe Thulin), so the two voluptuous golddiggers set their sights on seducing HER.

This movie is more genuinely erotic than 10,000 porn films. Rosalba Neri shows off her incredible nude body as usual, but she's just as sexy dressed up in a short-shorts and a halter, cruelly blasting away at goats with a shotgun (she has a similar scene in the equally delicious giallo "Amuck", and she really can shoot like a pro). Neri positively oozes sex and evil in equal measure. Edwige Fenech doesn't play a villain as well Neri but she has the most incredible scene in the movie which involves a goat and gives a new meaning to the term animal husbandry. (I don't know if the SPCA would have approved, but I'm sure the goat didn't mind). Then there's an amazing three-way lesbian scene between the two of them and Ewe Thulin that literally seemed to fog up the camera lens (or maybe it was just my eyeballs). What else can I say? Wow!

This nauseous thriller tells the turpitudes of Mudy (Maud de Belleroche, the French fascist writer), a wealthy owner of a yacht flying the Panamanian flag, cruising in company of a decadent couple acting as her harem, Aldo (Maurizio Bonuglia, Giornata nera per l'Ariete) and Paola (Rosalba Neri, Amuck alla ricerca del piacere).

Aldo and Paola want to get from Mudy an important oil concession, but this should have a price: they have to find the proper way to wake up the mind of Mudy's mentally retarded son Tony (Ruggero Miti, La Rivoluzione sessuale), by awakening his sexual instincts. For the purpose, they have brought aboard the top prostitute Ulla (Edwige Fenech, Cinque Bambole per la luna d'agosto), but Tony is very shy and feels quite ill-at-ease.

Fortunately, or not, the yacht unattended by Aldo is drifted along an isolated island only dwelt by a couple of young yokelish peasants, Andro (Salvatore Puntillo, Il Vero e il Falso) and Beba (Eva Thulin, La Stagione dei sensi). Tony seems attracted by the pretty shepherdess Beba, and becomes talkative with her. Mudy decides to bring aboard the rag-clothed girl and to debauch her so that she could warm up her simpleton Tony, while keeping apart the husband Andro with astounding promises.

But it's never so good for poor people to get mixed up with rich and cynical ones, and playing the Cinderella under such depraved circumstances could actually become perilous: things won't go as they were planned by everybody. Between the dies irae of the opening credits arranged by the composer Sante Maria Romitelli and the Ecclesiastes quotation at the end, the drama, in a precocious Pasolini's Salo-like mood, will tighten up on the protagonists of this hot and stifling seafaring closed circuit. (Viewed in Italian 1h29 version.)

Eurobabes Edwige Fenech (5 DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON) and Rosalba Neri (LADY FRANKENSTEIN) get wicked, kinky and naked in this bizarre Italian thriller. A rich, sicko socialite (Maud Belleroche) plays weird sex/mind games using a parasitical young couple (Neri, Maurizio Bonuglia), a golddigging prostitute (Fenech) and her own mentally disturbed son as pawns. Most of the action takes place aboard a luxury yacht cruising the Mediterranean. The games get out of control, resulting in murder when the yacht stops at a rustic island populated by sheperds. (The scene with Fenech and the baby goat is simply unbelievable.) Composer Sante Romitelli's interesting score is kitschy and groovy at the same time. The movie looks and sounds terrible on bootleg VHS... Positively screams for a widescreen DVD release!

Rosalba Neri and Edwige Fenech in the same film...what could possibly go wrong? Very little, it would seem, as what we have here is a sensational slice of Italian trash that works in every way you could want it to. The film is something like Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water mixed with naked women and a handful of Giallo themes. It's a real shame that this film hasn't been given a proper DVD release, as while the seductive nature of the film still shines through on the bootleg DVDr that I saw it on, the film would be much better served with a crisp, clean picture and adequate sound. Anyway, the plot focuses on the events transpiring on a yacht. Mudy - a stone-cold matriarch, wants her son to get laid. Tony is an odd kid to say the least, and even when Mudy recruits Aldo and his sexy wife Paula (Rosalba Neri), as well as saucy prostitute Ulla (Edwige Fenech), he still doesn't seem interested. It's only when he bumps into farm girl Beba that his interest seems to be sparked, and his mother quickly insists on the pair returning to her boat. However, the lovely ladies decide to start playing games with the boy's new girl...

Despite the fact that the film doesn't go too far, it is amazingly sexy, and that is of course down to its female leads. Director Ottavio Alessi makes good use of his women, and scenes involving Edwige Fenech and a goat, as well as a three way lesbian scene stand out most. Neri and Fenech spend most of the movie wearing hardly anything, and neither one minds taking their top off - which is fine by me. The plot doesn't take a backseat to the sex and nudity, however, and that's what really makes Top Sensation stand out above similar films. The way that the yacht is rigged with cameras makes the film feel all the more sleazy, and the idea of a mother trying to get her son laid is exactly whiter than white either. The sleazy elements exist in harmony with the storyline, which makes the film feel more complete than your average porno. The characters are all presented in an interesting way, and the director does well at ensuring that the plot is always interesting by upping the stakes at the right time throughout. The ending is shocking enough, and overall - Top Sensation comes highly recommended to all fans of Italian sleaze!