L'amour primitif

Primitive Love (1964)

** (out of 4)

This Italian film mixes their sex romps with the Mondo "documentary" but the real highlight here is that Jayne Mansfield was at a point in her career where she'd agree to do something like this. In the film she plays Dr. Jane who travels to Italy to meet a professor who she's going to show some footage to about different cultures from around the world. Before doing this she is pretty much stalked by a couple bell hops (Franco Franchi, Ciccio Ingrassia) who want her sexually. PRIMITIVE LOVE is a pretty bizarre film because of seeing someone like Mansfield partake in it. The entire beginning of the film is devoted to the "story" of her being preyed upon by these two bell hops who are clearly a European version of Martin and Lewis. I can't say I found any of the comedy very funny because of how forced it was but at the same time it was simply so bizarre that I couldn't help but be entertained by it. Both Franchi and Ingrassia come off rather annoying but they're certainly not the worse that I've seen. The "Mondo" footage, as you'd expect, is going to turn most people off. The majority of the footage shows various love rituals from across the world. One of the highlights is a sequence where two people fall in love in a rice field and there's an outrageous sequence where a woman in China has eggs thrown at her by her husband because she cheated on him. There's also some real animal deaths in the film including a cockfight as well as a pig, crocodile, snake and a chicken being slaughtered. These type of scenes always stir up a large debate so your feelings on the matter will determine how you take such scenes. As for Mansfield, she's really doesn't have too much to do as it appears to be someone dubbing her voice. In her "acting" scenes she basically just either sits around are looks at the bell hops as if they're dumb. She does get to do a belly dance during a fantasy sequence and towards the end she does a strip tease, which should please her fans.

PRIMITIVE LOVE, a strange Italian sex comedy, concerns two bungling hotel bellhops played by Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia, a team of bargain basement Euro Jerry Lewis imitators. They will do anything, I mean anything, to sneak a peek at one their new guests, a buxom, bleach-blonde beauty (Jayne Mansfield). About halfway through the film, Jayne invites a guest to her swanky hotel room. She takes out an 8mm projector and shows him rather mild footage of African natives. (I think once or twice we see bare-breasted native ladies. Hence the title of this movie?) This National geographic-esquire footage takes up a chunk of PRIMITIVE LOVE's 77 minute running time. After the lengthy film showing, Jayne does a striptease for her guest. She happily continues the strip tease even after she uncovers the spastic Franco and Ciccio spying on her.

What a hoot as we have our beautiful and glamorous Jaynie playing "herself" but as an anthropologist who shows her "professor" footage (some of it actual) of the mating habits of tribes and people all across the world. There are a couple of scenes that are not for the faint of heart as a chicken and a pig are sacrificed in some mating rituals. But of course, we have two dance numbers where the beautiful La Mansfield shakes her groove thing! There is a comic pair in this much like Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. They don't get on your nerves as much as has been reported and they are actually rather cute. The DVD version of this movie is almost like being in the actual theater. The film gets a 10 for one reason, Jayne Mansfield. We are even given a treat as she does a variation of her famous 1963 'Satire On The Strip'.

I just watched this film today, and while the scenes where they show "authentic" footage from around the world was interesting to see (if maybe not 100% accurate), the entire film was ruined by the "low-brow" Italian comedians Franco & Ciccio. Franco especially mugged and overacted to a degree that I've never seen before in my entire life; he made Jerry Lewis at his worst look like he was on horse tranquilizers in comparison. Jayne doesn't exactly do a great job of acting herself either. She comes off as her generation's version of Anna Nicole Smith. So, I wouldn't recommend getting the Something Weird DVD this appears on (along with Mondo Balardo) as Balardo isn't worth seeing, and like I said, the painful comedy ruins Primitive Love.

Cool film that's documentary style. Shows 'primitive' cultures and their mating rituals (Not sure we could do this today) Although the movie itself is kind of weak, i'll go easy on the rating because of Jayne.