Top Sensation

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.)

AKA The Seducers I do like my Italian sleaze and having heard plenty about Top Sensation I was looking forward to watching this entry.The bulk of the film takes place on a luxury yacht owned by a wealthy business woman called Mudy. Also on board are a young couple and a friend of theirs, Ulla (played by the delightfully beautiful Edwige Fenech), and the mentally challenged son of Mudy, Tony. Mudy thinks that by getting Ulla to take her son's virginity it will cure his troubles! This movie is hardly politically correct, and lines such as "Women should be beaten!" only reinforce this. Edwige and her friend Poalo (played by the equally attractive Rosalba Neri) spend most of the time half naked, and are joined later on by another attractive girl called Beba (Eva Thulin), who also gets naked (note - no full frontal nudity). Seeing these three beauties without their clothes on and indulging in soft core sex is pretty much the reason for this movie's existence. For me it did get a little bit boring after a while, however there is one infamous scene involving Edwige and a very lucky small goat that is really worth seeing! As for Mudy she is very butch looking but that doesn't stop her indulging in sex with a younger married man, not to mention a spot of incest! The Mediterranean locations are very nice. This film is NOT a Giallo, Edwige starred in many of these but this isn't one. I started off by watching the dubbed English Language version on DVD but the dubbing was awful, plus it kept dropping into Italian without subtitles, so I would suggest to viewers watch it in its native Italian. More of a curiosity than anything else.

When I heard this was the film where Edwidge Fenech gets friendly with a goat, I thought she just fed it some oats, maybe gave it some fresh straw to sleep on. Boy, was I wrong! Although I guess she did feed it something...

This hugely daft pile of crazy nonsense called Top Sensation is yet another giallo set on a boat where the female cast lounge around in tiny bikinis. The entire plot of this one seems to be set around getting shy, possibly autistic son of an oil heiress laid to make him a man, but he just wants to play with his toy racing car (that's not a euphemism). Neri and her husband have hired Fenech to do the job but nothing's getting him interested.

Also, the heiress has CCTV in her boat so she can watch folks getting it on, but then Neri's husband can watch her getting it on with Neri (and he gets it on with Fenech). It's a sixties film. They probably all had crabs.

The boat of course crashes on a sandbank and that's when our mob of nymphs find a local goat herder, a lucky goat, and the goat herder's wife, who raises the interest of the heiress's son! It's about this time when Fenech makes a remark about how rough a goat's tongue is...Plus, they have to get that lady herder spruced up for the strange son...and Rosalba needs some sun cream rubbed on her chest...

Of course, this not being a hardcore porn film everything is implied and there's very little by way of nudity, and the plot kind of deviates away from all the sleaze (save for the last five minutes). It's an enjoyable film, not least due to the strange story and the actresses involved, and for a film involving murder, it's all so light hearted.

I wonder if Edwidge's grandkids have ever watched this one? And I also wonder if the subsequently made it illegal for Fenech and Neri to star in the same film (or put the moves on another woman at the same time - my blood pressure!).

Because of its elusiveness and because of the poor quality copies that did circulate, Top Sensation developed a reputation that it really doesn't deserve. It is not a thriller. The exploitation goodies, while present, are not as numerous as what one might expect giving its X rating (now, easily an R). Still, Top Sensation provides undemanding viewers with a good time throughout its short running time.

The film could be accurately called seven loonies on a boat. Mudy is a rich, decadent bi-sexual on a private cruise. Her yacht is staffed by an ambitious, morally dubious couple, both of whom are sleeping with the boss. In addition, there is a hired companion (the lovely Edwige Fenech) along to seduce the boss's son. The young man suffers from a mental illness which makes him act like a child. In 70's swinger psychology, mom thinks getting him laid will turn him into a man. The only thing is that boy won't come near his girl toy (turning down Edwige Fenech? The poor boy is worse than I thought!). When the yacht runs aground on a sandbar, the son sneaks off to explore a nearby island. There, he befriends a young, innocent shepherdess. Mom and company are thinking the girl might be good at tending something besides sheep, but what to do with her husband?

This is a silly film, but one that is hard to dislike. It moves along at a nice pace. The viewer is never bored. There is a pleasant music score. The scenery is gorgeous and so are the girls. Edwige Fenech, Rosalba Neri, and Eva Thulin all radiate charm in their bikinis (and occasionally less). In addition, once in a while director Ottavio Alessi will go for an arty touch just because (check out the editing on the scene where the two more experienced girls make up the shepherdess). As nautical themed sex dramas go, Top Sensation is far more fun than Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon.

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!