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| Forget other girls! demand Italian beauty only! |
The more you watch Italian movies, the more you realize Italy is a synonym for genius. Whenever, a newcomer into the world of cult cinema states the exploitation genre best examples come from the USA it is our duty to remind him/her how wrong that statement is. Actually, the USA ripped off of many Italian films from many genres. For example, the horror genre with serial killers is actuallly an idea developed by the Italians long before the Americans decided to "americanize" the Italian Giallo genre. Nevertheless, the reason that gathers us today here is to continue reviewing the magnificent and prolific career of another Italian 70's diva: Gloria Guida. If the number one beauty of Italy and the whole world is Ornella Muti then, number two bombshell in the list is definitely Guida, the blue-eyed blonde.
Last year we reviewed one of her films, namely 1979's La liceale, il diavolo e l'acquasanta. Now it's time to continue with perhaps, her most famous film and one of top Italian blockbusters of all times: Blue Jeans. The film grossed about 310 millions lire at the Italian box office. The film critic Vittorio Spiga referred to the film as "an adult comic book that flows into a real exaltation of the remarkable ass of Gloria Guida".
A key work in Gloria Guida's elusive filmography is her fourth feature, Blue Jeans,
released in Europe just about a year after Guida had been
crowned Miss Teen Italy. Guida was just 18 when she shot the admittedly
uneven, but mildly entertaining, Blue Jeans with director Mario Imperoli, the filmmaker who had introduced her to film audiences with the very popular La Ragazzina, AKA Monika
in 1974. Italian audiences had responded immediately to Imperoli's
sexy blonde discovery and by the time she reunited with the director
again for Blue Jeans, Guida already had another two hits on her resume (Silvio Amadio's La minorenne and Giuliano Biagetti's La novizia)..
Absolutely perfect for the sexy comedies that Italians were flocking to throughout the seventies, Gloria Guida was one of the most charming actors that came to fame in the commedia erotica all'italiana genre. Standing in clear contrast to her darkly sensual Italian peers, Guida was all sex and sunshine and she had the absolute perfect face, figure and openness for the Sex Comedies that she became famous for. Guida was also very funny and had a wonderfully sweet quality about her that gave even her more explicit films an oddly innocent feel, and a director who absolutely recognized this special quality was Mario Imperoli.
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| "$21.000 Lire and you can have me any way you want" |
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| Thinking 'bout sex? |
Absolutely perfect for the sexy comedies that Italians were flocking to throughout the seventies, Gloria Guida was one of the most charming actors that came to fame in the commedia erotica all'italiana genre. Standing in clear contrast to her darkly sensual Italian peers, Guida was all sex and sunshine and she had the absolute perfect face, figure and openness for the Sex Comedies that she became famous for. Guida was also very funny and had a wonderfully sweet quality about her that gave even her more explicit films an oddly innocent feel, and a director who absolutely recognized this special quality was Mario Imperoli.
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| And the award for Best Title Screen Ever goes to... |
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| Bombshells hitchhiking! |
Gorgeous Gloria
Guida plays a teenage streetwalker nicknamed "Blue Jeans" because of
the short-shorts(what's left of 'em anyway, and no Daisy Duke didn't come up with them at all)that she always wears. After
she is picked up on prostitution charge by the police, she claims to be
the illegitimate daughter of Dr. Carlo Anselmi (Paolo Carlini) a wealthy local artist--even though he
denies it--and is sent to live with him until he is able to legally
disavow his relationship to her. Much (alleged)hilarity ensues as she
wanders around the house naked, antagonizes his live-in girlfriend (Marisa, played by annie Carol Edel), and
disrupts his society parties. Nevertheless, the plot twist, changes the mood of the film in its entirety, as we find out Blue Jeans owns her pimp money and that he's followed her and planned to kill Dr. Anselmi so that they can inherit his money.
Blue Jeans is a slight film that is only fitfully funny but it is never less than compulsively watchable thanks to Guida, who appears in nearly every scene of the film (that she easily steals from all of her more experienced costars including Paolo Carlini as her bumbling father). Featuring a delightfully breezy score by the legendary Nico Fidenco and some truly gorgeous color photography by future Dario Argento cinematographer Romano Albani, Blue Jeans is finally mostly just a showcase for Guida and her considerable physical charms (Imperoli all but abandons his already thin narrative throughout the film with fetish-like closeups of Guida's long muscular legs and shapely behind). If the film is perhaps more memorable than it should be it is probably due to the perverse and violent final act that seems taken from another work entirely.
When his camera isn't ogling Gloria Guida's astonishing physique,
Imperoli's direction is workmanlike and not especially stylish.
Compared to say the incredible satiric comedies that the great Salvatore
Samperi was making with Laura Antonelli, such as the masterful Malicious (1973), Blue Jeans
feels fairly weak indeed. Perhaps the big tragedy of Gloria Guida's
career is that most of the films she did make throughout the seventies
survived mostly due to her presence alone, with a few notable exceptions
like Fernando Di Leo's haunting To Be Twenty (1978). Still, this does not mean Blue Jeans is not worth watching. The film is the altered reality every man wish he lived on: Easy horny teens waiting for a good piece of dick, no pun intended.
Like most of her films, Blue Jeans has never been released on home video in the United States and finding a copy can be very harsh. Nevertheless, internet has proven with time to be an excellent distributor for many unreleased gems like this one. Finding the appropriate subtitles may also take some time to master but patience will get you to the right places. Guida is definitely a cult-figure in need of a larger audience, if only she could find a major new following if some enterprising company would invest in her elusive filmography. Until then, fan subbed versions of some of her films, like Blue Jeans, can be found on the web while a few have been granted Region 1 release (with special mention going to To be Twenty and Monika). For those with all-region players, with no need for English subs or dubs, a number more are available on European disc.
Overall, Blue Jeans is a very entertaining Sexploitation Commedia All'Iataliana. Gloria Guida continued to work in films alike until her career was no longer an object of interest. The amount of nudity on this film is not that exploitative, every nude scene is connected to the plot, just don't expect high standards of acting here, Guida is gorgeous but she was never nearly as good as Ornella Muti was in the acting department. Her beauty is stunning, no doubt about it but it's a pity that most of her films revolve around her body assets rather than acting, good storytelling or creativity. Still, she did manage to star a few good films. All of those films will be reviewed here as soon as possible.
One final commentary, If you want the queen of Italian sexploitation, look no further!
Here's the official German trailer:
And since, we can't have it on DVD or Blu Ray in America, here's the real deal (Italian only, sorry)
Blue Jeans is a slight film that is only fitfully funny but it is never less than compulsively watchable thanks to Guida, who appears in nearly every scene of the film (that she easily steals from all of her more experienced costars including Paolo Carlini as her bumbling father). Featuring a delightfully breezy score by the legendary Nico Fidenco and some truly gorgeous color photography by future Dario Argento cinematographer Romano Albani, Blue Jeans is finally mostly just a showcase for Guida and her considerable physical charms (Imperoli all but abandons his already thin narrative throughout the film with fetish-like closeups of Guida's long muscular legs and shapely behind). If the film is perhaps more memorable than it should be it is probably due to the perverse and violent final act that seems taken from another work entirely.
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| Nice to meet you daughter. |
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| Let's go shopping daddy! |
Like most of her films, Blue Jeans has never been released on home video in the United States and finding a copy can be very harsh. Nevertheless, internet has proven with time to be an excellent distributor for many unreleased gems like this one. Finding the appropriate subtitles may also take some time to master but patience will get you to the right places. Guida is definitely a cult-figure in need of a larger audience, if only she could find a major new following if some enterprising company would invest in her elusive filmography. Until then, fan subbed versions of some of her films, like Blue Jeans, can be found on the web while a few have been granted Region 1 release (with special mention going to To be Twenty and Monika). For those with all-region players, with no need for English subs or dubs, a number more are available on European disc.
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| Can't you see I'm only 17? |
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| My oh my! |
One final commentary, If you want the queen of Italian sexploitation, look no further!
Here's the official German trailer:
And since, we can't have it on DVD or Blu Ray in America, here's the real deal (Italian only, sorry)
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