Folies Danoises

These vintage Zodiac Sign titled Danish porn features have a peculiar charm about them, but that can't hide the fact of dumb, filler entertainment on this Gemini edition. Yes, the silly story line revolves around twins.

I vaguely recall back in the day, notably in the case of such movies I attended like Bedroom Mazurka and Without a Stitch (latter quite memorably shown at a local Northern Ohio drive-in theater with English subtitles, pretty rare) that Danish porn both softcore and hardcore seemed to inhabit an entirely different universe than our domestic variety. Largely due to local mores, what was considered a "family film" in Scandinavia would be deemed pornographic or "Adult" here in the States.

Such is the case, as in between laborious slapstick running around and dumb gags, plus endless female toplessness and nudity for eye candy in the '30s set story, there are the briefest of XXX content in the form of blow-jobs or intercourse, often directed (with speeded-up footage a la "A Clockwork Orange"'s famous William Tell Overture sex scene) for comic effect. Simply not enough porn content to satisfy an Adult Cinema fan then or now.

Ole Soltoft is up to his usual tricks playing the lead role of a record label executive out to sign a blonde singer, but kidnapped and replaced by a substitute, his twin brother. The girls are pretty though none of them a knockout and the sex scenes are not sexy. Director Werner Hedmann lingers a couple of times on close-up blow jobs featuring very long cocks, but otherwise is skimpy on the old in & out.

Most peculiar here is the inclusion of a relatively lavish production number (dance routine) right out of a Technicolor Hollywood musical, plus the attractive costumes, neither of which is usual or even appreciated in the porn world. Perhaps the same Kool Aid drunk in Chatsworth back in the days of "Blonde Ambition" and other Adult would- be epics was also being served in rotten old Denmark.

If the sound of "Hardcore Benny Hill Style antics, in Danish" doesn't appeal to you, you'd find this movie an hour and a half of wince and cringe. If, on the other hand, that tickles your fancy, then this will be the greatest thing your little eyes have ever beheld, because that's exactly what's going on here.

There's really nothing like the "Tegn" films. Not even the Bavarian comedies. For one thing, they're hardcore. But mostly they're alike. A whole lotta slapstick and some stunning and very talented actresses not afraid to show their bodies and look like they're enjoying sex. Cia Lowgren is gorgeous here, even tho Ole puts the song over better and the strip poker scene is ridiculous. Eva Weinreich, too, in a quite different way. Anne Bei Warburg does yet another alluring scene with her husband. And Louise Frevert is given ample room to display her ample charms and irrepressible overbite. She is also an incredible dancer. I believe Barbi Benton can be spotted (easily, since the camera zooms in on her) shaving her legs alongside Kate Mundt in the women's locker room.. There's plenty of nonsense, too, for example when Hans Jorgensen (I think) interrupts repeatedly with his inventions - long-playing vinyl records, stereo and television, etc - and is summarily ejected from the office, And a lot of fake mustaches and a beautifully restored Packard convertible. They don't make 'em like this anymore.

Anthon Master (the little clown Ole Søltoft) plays the lead role as a record executive who wants to sign a hot singer exclusively to his label: star Dolores Rossi, a delightful, in-her-prime Cia Löwgren who, despite participating in this "pornographic" project, limits herself to showing some skin only from the waist up. While Master tries to seduce her to win the contract, the competing label learns that he has an identical twin brother named Benny, so they kidnap Anthon and replace him with his brother to blow up the negotiations (with prior instructions and subterfuge). In this way, they ensure they sabotage the real Anthon's relationship with Dolores, preventing her from signing the record contract in favor of the competition, headed by the histrionic Ulrik Ulvenstein, the mastermind of the Machiavellian and stupid plan.

Denmark abolished all film censorship before its Swedish neighbors, opening the floodgates for skin and sin to spread across local cinema screens. While popular comedy actor Ole Søltoft was making his way through a variety of softcore film roles, producer Anders Sandberg signed him to star in what would be called "zodiac series" (only six were filmed, and this Gemini one is the third). Each film was built around a different zodiac sign, each one more erotic and/or pornographic than the last, taking into account that, appealing to Scandinavian customs and culture, what was considered a "family film" there was, in the US, for example, pornography or "for adults only." What's truly striking about this third installment of the astral collection is the inclusion of a spectacular and sumptuous choreographic musical number, a dance routine whose dancers show off almost everything, and which seems straight out of a kinky Hollywood Technicolor musical, with opulent and beautifully rendered costumes. A truly unusual spectacle in adult films of the time.