La moglie vergine

I thought I'd take a look at the kinds of film Edwige Fenech was making outside of the giallo genre, and this one's a good example. It's a character-based sex comedy in which four separate people struggle to cope with various sex-related issues in their lives. On the one hand, Ray Lovelock and Fenech play a married couple who can't consummate due to his delicate problems, while Carroll Baker implausibly plays Fenech's mother. Meanwhile, a lengthy sub-plot involves this hairy uncle guy who finds himself pursued by a string of beautiful women. Lots of nudity, inevitably, but the humour is in short supply here.

The more Italian sex comedies I watch, the more I realise that this isn't a genre to investigate in detail. This one, like most of the others I have seen is an unfunny romp, with a smattering of nude scenes which don't make up for the general inanity of the comedy. In this one, a young guy experiences erectile problems and so cannot consummate his marriage - his lecherous uncle tries to help out and much sexual shenanigans follow. Like many of these films, the chief selling point is its lead actress, in this case Edwige Fenech, who for me will always be defined by her excellent turns in a series of awesome gialli but it seems like, at the time back in the 70's, she was probably most famous for these sex comedy romps designed to serve the domestic Italian movie market. Once again, Fenech is a welcome presence but she can't save this, as the abundance of banal comedy takes a bit of an effort sitting through. Another legend of the giallo genre, Carol Baker, also appears in this and is improbably cast as Fenech's mother! But essentially, it's the comedy that lets the side down, seeing as it's so prevalent. One example of the humour was a portrait picture which kept changing expressions - this exact same daftness appeared in the last Italian sex comedy I watched, the Winsome Widow - I mean, is this a trope of the genre?!! Anyway, I can't really recommend this - or this genre as a whole - to anyone except the most intrepid fan of Italian popular cinema.

Ray Lovelock plays a young husband who suffers from erectile dysfunction and is unable to consummate his marriage to his beautiful new wife (Edwige Fenech). Renzo Montagnini plays the husband's studly, sex-obsessed uncle who takes an interest in helping out, but he himself is too busy plowing through the luscious female cast, so it is left up to the husband's sexy mother-in-law (Carroll Baker) to take matters in hand.

This movie requires A LOT of suspension of disbelief. It's hard to believe ANY man would suffer from ED around the gorgeous Edwige Fenech, let alone a virile young guy like Lovelock. It's also pretty hard to buy American Carroll Baker as Edwige Fenech's mother since the two actresses weren't all that far apart in age (and look nothing alike). Finally, the hairy and overweight Montagnini once again severely stretches plausibility cast as an irresistible lothario sought after by the likes of his married neighbor (Gabriella Giorgelli), his other nephew's fiancée (Maria Rosario Riuzzi), and his two frisky maids. As goofy Italian sex comedies go, this is fairly effective though. Marino Girolami's direction is adequate; not as good as someone like Sergio Martino, but better than a lot of the hacks that worked in this genre. There is also A LOT of nudity by the female cast, especially Fenech, Giorgelli, and Riuzzi (Carroll Baker a little less so).

I don't know if this will have much appeal to people who don't like Italian sex comedies in general, but I'd recommend it for those that do. It's a pretty stereotypical entry into the genre.

I liked the presentation of the movie. The husband has a sex problem and some times chance plays a role too in his getting not turned on. The story is a good one, At the end the husband finds himself cuddling his mother in law. This is a classic solution to the turn-on mental block. The husband dos not have any problem of having to perform in front of his mother in law and his sex performance happens spontaneous.

The movie is funny. There are great scenes showing neighbors who try to get advantage of the wife's agony and try to help her by trying to seduce her. The wife is extremely pleasing personality. At the end when the husband overcomes his performance shyness, he shows masculine possessiveness when he notices that not only was he having sex with his mother in law, but his wife too had a sexual experience with another person in a casual but convincing manner.

Moral of the story If you have psychological problem related to performance (inferiority complex) find a surrogate wife.

Edwige Fenech, if not the movie, is worth your time in this classic Italian sexy comedy, with plenty of nude scenes (Edwige, as gorgeous as ever, gives you at least two very rapid flashes of full frontals and also a, perhaps too caste, masturbatory dream). She is the wife of an impotent husband, but the serious argument is taken very easily, with plenty of humour and of sex scenes. Very good are also the other women in the cast that wander the movie almost always naked. For getting the feeling of this genre of movie, so important in the Italian cinema of the Seventies (there are now several more or less serious studies of the subject), you get almost a winner, but it is still a very bad movie