Bestialitá: Dog Lay Afternoon

Borderline exploitation!

The time has come to take a look at Leonora Fani's sleaziest film of her career: Bestialitá (Bestiality) AKA Dog Lay Afternoon. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, bestiality means either sex between a person & an animal or a cruel and violent quality. In the case of today's film in review, it means the earlier. Yes, you read that right, a movie that features (simulated) sex between a person and an animal, in this case a dog. Disgusting, isn't it? If you're still with us, bare in mind cinema has relied on exploitative tricks since the dawn of time. Linda Lovelace, the world famous Deep Throat legendary porn star is said to have been forced to have sex with dogs many times. There are even some biographies stating she couldn't even bare to pronounce the word dog, replacing for its spelling d-o-g. If you're interested in reading more about this god awful paraphilia, there's a very interesting and serious article about it, written by Mish Barber Way here.   

The SPAM-Alternative team is a group of sound minded people. In the past we have explained several times how we will never post any film related to illegal practices that go beyond the "it's only a movie" quote. We don't even support piracy. So, why is Dog Lay Afternoon still being reviewed after all this mumbo jumbo? Well, because the film doesnt' feature any actual scene of paraphilias of any kind. As a matter of fact, there are two scenes (the opening & the final scene) that deal with this serious matter in a very childish way that denotes clearly, it's a farce and no animals were harmed whatsoever. We love pets, we love dogs, we love everything that means doing no harm towards anybody or any animal, so rest assured, this film only uses the theme to gain more audiences throughA curiosity rather than shocking their viewers with, crap that goes beyond any sound mind idea. Still, that's why there's a warning message before accessing our blog, because it's meant to be visited by grown up adults who understand.

Witness of an act of bestiality.

Lusty tourists.

Setting explanations aside, Bestialitá is a 1976 Italian sexploitation directed by George Eastman (from Anthropohagus & Porno Holocaust fame) & Peter Skeri. The film premiered on November 16th in Italy and in 1977  in Turkey, Belgium and Spain. Obviously, it never premiered outside Europe due to censorship regulations that are more than needed at certain times. Although the film could have been internationally known as "Bestiality" distributors opted for "Dog Lay Afternoon" which clearly ripped off from Al Pacino's 1975 Dog Day Afternoon which has absolutely no resemblance with the earlier.

Anyways, the story begins with the perverted love relationship a married woman has with her dog. Unfortunately, her daughter Jeanine (Leonora Fani) witnesses the entire scene, and her father burns the house with the dog inside and take them out of there for good. Later, the movie changes its focus to a fifty something year old married couple that is visiting the island on vacation. Years have gone by, and the story of the woman & the dog ends up being an urban myth locals tell tourists to add some darkness to their vacation. For some reason beyond comprehension, Paul (Philippe March) gets interested in the story and every time he spots a mysterious girl and her dog, he somehow fantasizes about her being the urban myth. Yvette (Juliette Mayniel) who happens to bo Paul's wife, soon realizes there's a wandering young girl who seems to be unreachable to everyone, developing an interest on her too. 

Ilona Staller is also in the movie.

Sunbathing in the nude.

Although publicized as a Leonora Fani film, her role isn't exactly the lead. Instead, the movie is told and seen through the eyes of the married couple touring the island (no exact location of the island is given during the movie).

The married couple is there for pure sex & entertainment. On the island they meet other tourists like them, and join in with them several times. Ilona Staller's unnamed character seems to be that of a prostitute hired by older men or interested in dating rich old men. Anyways, she barely gets a line on the film, all she does, is I presume, her best, getting naked and dancing while teasing some more old men. I've always wondered why she chose the porn industry instead of following a softcore career with more respectable fans. Even her appearance changed over the years as porn wasn't easy to shake off of her skin. 

Jeanine & her dog.

Sunbathing pals.

So, anyways, after partying a lot, the married couple finally meets the mysterious girl who happened to have stolen Paul's photo camera. From then on, they befriend her and end up somewhat becoming a family spending days together in the sun. Paul & Yvette never had any children because they couldn't so, Jeanine seems to be the daughter they never had. Nevertheless, the sleazy factor can't possible allow us to picture them as a family because as soon as they're together, Jeanine & Yvette fuck each other on a daily basis until Paul is invited to join in for a threesome that will happen several times again. 

Later, Jeanine sort of develops something that looks like an epilepsy condition that has her screaming and mumbling about her dog and her mother. Here's where the married couple is like "what the fuck is wrong with this girl?!". Although plot wise there isn't much explained on behalf of her condition, it's implied she became a nymphomaniac (a dated word I might add) because seeing her mother with a dog, traumatized her so hard, the only way she could cope with it was fucking random strangers every time tourist season began.

Hey, let's swim!

Hey! let's fuck!

Despite the fact Bestialitá is known as a must watch cult piece among film connoisseurs, the movie clearly doesn't live up to its hype, neither it survives as an entertaining sexploitation film. The only item that drives people into watching this flick, is obviously the heavily marketed (and luckily simulated) disgusting paraphilia scenes. The fact that Leonora Fani is in it, doesn't really mean much. Her role as a support character isn't nowhere as good as other support roles she's done in other films. The amount of nudity and/or sex scenes the film has is very little compared to her later works. Not even Ilona Staller has a lot of naked business in the film. As for the leads, well, they look too old for school and their nude scenes are meh!

So, is there any real artistic value in this film?

No, there isn't. I for one believe Leonora Fani wasn't that lucky when she began her film career. Most of the roles she was in were, well, basically an abused girl who ended up enjoying forced sex and, that clearly isn't something to be proud of. She had potential, and you can see it in Pensione Paura, Nene, Sensitivita and even in minor roles in The Last Round & The Private Lesson. To be fair, surviving the sleazy 70's film industry being an actress, was a beast of a burden only few could master.  The sexploitation genre helped built the career of many European starlets but, on the other hand it closed doors for a more serious driven type of film genre. As a matter of fact, out of all the Italian starlets that raised to stardom in the 70's I believe Ornella Muti is the only one who enjoyed a satisfying career working in varied film genres. 

a young Ilona Staller.

Your wife inviting you into a threesome? How can you say no to that?

By the time the movie reaches its climax, we're introduced to a private investigator that's been following Jeanine's case for quite some time. After Jeanine's shocking revelation, she leaves the couple and goes back to wherever she lives to sort of, re-arrange her life with her dog. Bestialitá has shocking all over, so by the time the grand finale comes, it is also revealed locals have been trying to find this mysterious girl in order to cure her off of her disease by killing her dog. Obviously, easier said than done, so once Jeanine accepts her perverted destiny, she decides it's time for her to take her mother's place in a disgusting legacy. Unfortunately for her, and this is pure presumption by myself, the one time she tries to do as her mother did, she's attacked & by her dog and hurt so bad, her screaming alerts the locals who ultimately kill her and her dog (there are no graphic scenes of the murder, only sounds and a few shots of the sea rocks whatsoever) 

Overall, not Fani's best work by a long shot. Also, there's a lot of dialog that, had it not being for the Italian language & the English subtitles, I would have seriously thought this was a lame French art film. The Sexploitation value is very low. Sexploitation films are usually about comedy, murder, mystery, coming of age and even horror, Bestialitá is nothing but a fucking perverted publicity stunt with a few shocking twists that add up nothing to the overall feel of watching this movie. Only for Lenora Fani fans only. Faint of heart, stay away from it!

The beauty of Ilona Staller.

The beauty of Leonora Fani.

Believe it or not, there's a film trailer that looks way better than the actual copy I got to review this flick:

In addition, there's a music video with a glimpse of the soundtrack written by Coriolano Gori:

La Svergognata: The Shameless Woman

Shame on you Leonora!

1974 marks the year the world witnessed the debut of Leonora Fani in the film industry, the sexploitation film industry to be more precise. Directed by the rather unknown Giuliano Biagetti who worked as director, writer and producer of Italian erotic films, he is known for Decameroticus & directing Gloria Guida in La Novizia. La Svergognata AKA The Shameless Woman, AKA La Desvergonzada, can be best described as a forbidden love story between a married couple, their horny teenage daughter and a former lover. Although the film has been officially released on DVD in Italy, such release is currently out of print and there are no international official editions available as of yet. Unfortunately, the available copies that are online,  feature neither English subtitles nor dubbing of any language, so I guess it's  a good time for you to pay a little visit to your local Italian Culture Center and sign for an Italian language course. 

La Svergognata is starred by Philippe Leroy (who looks like The Flash's John Wesley-Shipp) as Fabio Lorenzi; Leonora Fani as Ornella Bernardi and last but not least, blonde bombshell Barbara Bouchet as Silvia Lorenzi (yes, Fabio's wife)

I'm your wife Fabio, of course I'll take anal!

I'm your teenage craving Fabio, of course I'll swallow!

In a nutshell, La Svergognata is about a writer (Philip Leroy)comes to stay at an island resort and gets involved with a teenage lolita (Fani) who is there with her parents and rather malicious best friend. She teases the older man mercilessly--going to a hotel and dancing with him naked and then suddenly getting dressed and running off to a party with a young American guy. But it's not so much because she is malicious, but because she is really an insecure virgin. Finally, he gives up on her after his beautiful wife (Barbara Bouchet) shows up. But the younger woman becomes jealous and is not going to give up so easily. So, essentially this film is about a malicious love triangle that has a poor man making the hardest decision of his life: Is it Barbara Bouchet's blonde and experienced beauty the best? or is it Fani's malicious teenage teasing?

In the past, we reviewed many films about the same love triangle/forbidden love story line, and as a matter of fact, most of the sexploitation movies from the 60's, 70's & 80's were mostly based upon  teenage characters craving sex, something that allowed many beautiful actresses to rise to stardom through making a few of these films. Names like Christina Lindberg, Ornella Muti, Gloria Guida, Laura Antonelli, Peggy Church, Marie Liljedhal and Solveig Andersson  are only a few I can think of right now as actresses that portrayed horny teenage girls more than once throughout their careers. 

a walk on the beach keeps the dick craving away.

I'm confused, do men want me?

So, is La Svergognata just another teensploitation in an extended list of rip offs?

Yes and no depending on what your personal standards define a movie as worth watching or a total waste of time. Philippe Leroy & Barbara Bouchet (despite showing up only after half of the movie is done, and not as naked as she's been in other films) certainly deliver in their roles. Leroy is a bored writer who's lost inspiration long ago, while Bouchet  is his believable wife. Leonora Fani, on the other hand, is a newcomer to the world of acting on screen, and yet, her role as malicious teen Ornella is skillfully carried out, I might add.  Nevertheless, the film's plot is highly derivative and won't bring any refreshing ideas to a genre, that although it was on its peak in the early 70's, it quickly hit rock bottom by the end of the decade. In its defense, I'd say La Svergognata is neither a pretentious film nor an avant garde softcore film desguised as art. In addition, its running time is only 78 minutes, so it doesn't beat around the bushes. So by the time, Fabio's wife arrives on the island, things go south pretty quickly, and just before he can give Ornella a good fuck, his wife gives him a hard time and leaves. Unfortunately, Ornella is more of a tease than a slut, so after she is confronted  by Silvia, she decides to call it a day too, leaving our poor infamous main character with blue balls.

I wanna suck it.

Uhm, nope, now I don't want to.

La Svergognata was filmed in its entirety on the beautiful island of Ischia, near Naples. Most of the outdoor scenes are stunning just for the fact they were filmed on the island. The cinematography of the film was in charge of Antonio Borghesi (a regular in Biagetti's flicks). The music was composed and arranged by Berto Pisano, who worked mostly making music for horror films. His most remembered work is 1981's Burial Ground: The nights of Terror.

Although the film premiered only in Italy in 1974, the film was internationally released in Spain & Greece. The film never made it to American theaters. However, the VHS tape release, made it a very popular cult film during the 80's outside of Europe. If you're lucky enough, you can still find copies of it around the internet. The only known releases of the film were the original Italian version (bootlegged as is) and a Spanish dubbed version, so a second language diploma may not seem that useless now.

The Spanish dubbed VHS.

Good girl! you swallowed it to the last drop!

Author Susan Bassnett wrote the book Feminist Experiences (RLE Feminis Theory) in 1986. In such book, she has a few lines for Leonora Fani: 

Section 2 opens with an interview with Leonora Fani, an actress who has appeared in box-office pornographic movies, one of which featured her having intercourse with a large dog. Leonora Fani defends her work with the now traditional "they don't have to see it if they don't want to" line...

Now, let's straighten things up. First, Leonora Fani has never worked in a pornographic film. Her movies are either known as softcore or erotic films. The 1975 porn film "Calde Labbra" features a brief intervention by her, but it has nothing to do with real sex. Second, she's right, if you don't like her movies don't fucking watch them, and that's it! She was an erotic film actress and nude model because she chose to, she wasn't forced to do it. The 70's were a very different time and age where society was opened to every source of entertainment with almost no restrictions. She was a part of it, she didn't conspire against women to become sex objects. 

There's nothing wrong with erotic films, you know.

To each his own ma'am!

Overall, La Svergognata's relevance is evidently the fact that it marks Leonora Fani's debut in the world of the erotic film genre. Plotwise, it's the same story that has been told way too many times and in some cases with better production or a more sex centered focused plot that may be more interesting to certain viewers. So, as a teenage love story, lame. As an erotic movie, a little less lame, and as the debut of a young Italian actress, well, it can't get any better than this. Sharing on screen time with experienced actors (Leroy & Bouchet) is priceless. Thanks to the popularity this film got her in Italy, she was able of nailing around 15 roles in different sexploitation films. If we were to rank all of her films, our ranking would be as follows:

1.Pensione Paura

2.Nene

3.Giallo a Venezia (yes, you read that right)
4.Bestialitá (yes, you read that right too! it's our next review!)

5.The Last Round
6.Naked Massacre
7.La Svergognata
8.Eden no Sono
9.The Private Lesson (yet to be reviewed)
10.Sensitivita.

Bare in mind she worked in more films but in very minor roles.

Barbara Bouchet.

Leonora Fani.

Finally we move to our video section with some very audiovisual material. 

Here's the movie trailer:



Here's the main theme from the soundtrack:



And here's the entire film (Italian only) courtesy of YouTube:

Eden No Sono: The Garden of Eden

Sex & youth.

Eden no Sono AKA The Garden of Eden, is a 1980 Japanese-Italian film written & directed by Yasuzo Masumura. The film is very similar to the world famous The Blue Lagoon, a teenage sexploitation film released the same year and starred by the then nude and under aged Brooke Shields. Another similar film is Il Sole Nella Pelle, the Italian sexploitation filmed starred by Ornella Muti circa 1975-1977 (IMDB's date is wrong, it wasn't made in 1972 and you can read all about in our review of it clicking on the blue link)  So, whether today's film in review is a rip off of the rip off, I guess we'll never know. However, what we do know is that this film is the last film in which Leonora Fani had a starring role. From Eden no Sono on, her career was reduced to mere cameos in softcore & hardcore films, thus misleading viewers into thinking she actually did porn, which she actually didn't. 

Anyways, The Garden of Eden is the story of two opposites who are inevitably attracted, thus breaking the barrier of social class. Alessandra (Fani) is an art student, the daughter of a very wealthy family, while Michele (Ronni Valente) comes from a poor family with a tradition for pick pocketing and stealing. Michele doesn't go to school, nor he has any job, so he spends his days visiting highly populated areas in Rome in order to pick pocket something of value to bring home to her vicious mother & brothers. One day, he goes to the art school where Alessandra is in and voila! steals her purse in the blink of an eye. She goes home totally unaware of the act. Once Michele goes home, he's given a hard time by his uncomprehending  mother who tells him, he's not worth of food since he never brings anything of real value. This, pisses him off in the most adolescent way, thus promising his twisted family he will make it big sooner than later. In addition, there's a nonsensical background story about his father being a fisherman who "stole from the sea", thus making his surviving family fishermen who steal in a "sea of people".

Meet Alessandra, the art student.

Meet Michele, the pick pocket.

While the first hour of the film can be easily described as predictable, derivative and plain boring, let me tell you, the second half of the film makes this teenage romance sexploitation flick easily outdo other similar films. While Michele, offers Alessandra to find a mysterious Greek vase  a friend of his has found nearby, he soon realizes he can leave his stealing past behind and live a new life next to his beloved Alessandra, if she agrees to follow of course.

All the cliched teenage love discovery items are on the film, yet we don't really get to see Leonora Fani in many nude scenes. Also the sex scenes are very brief and there really isn't much going on visually, at least. Fani fans know she's spent way more nude time in all of her previous films, but here on The Garden of Eden, she's given the opportunity of spending more time acting, thus diminishing her nude scenes up to a few shots, necessary for her character development. 

So, who's this boy you've been seeing lately.

Fuck the rich girl as much as you want but, do get us some money next time.

Although The Garden of Eden  can be certainly described as a sexploitation film, it's real value lies in the plot & character development. Once, Michele & Alessandra are living together on the beach, there's a very interesting plot twist happening. You see, Michele's family think he's actually kidnapped the rich girl, in order to ask a lot of money for her ransom, but since they haven't heard from him lately, his older brother decides to find him and pay him a little visit. Once this happens, Michele tells his brother he doesn't give a fuck about what they think, and that his days of crime are long over because he's found true love. Unfortunately, his elder brother and family are smarter than he thinks, so they sort of, get in the way in order to cash in and pretend they're the actual kidnappers of the poor rich girl. 

Unaware of this, Alessandra spends her days fucking Michele dry, while swimming in the nude, to fuck some more on the beach. In addition, she teaches him, in the nude, all she knows about painting, while they fuck some more. A pity, the film maker didn't add more sex scenes to the film, since Fani is not a stranger to sexploitation. Anyways, they seem to live a pretty happy life: They have peace, they live in a magnificent secluded beach, they spend 24/7 naked and what's more important, they feed off of each others' sex. 

Runaway or kidnapping?

Not really, she's actually fucking all the time!

Alessandra's parents, utterly worried about her, spend some money on newspaper prints with the description of the kidnapper and info on how and when she disappeared. On the other hand, Michele's family is already blackmailing the poor wealthy family asking for a lot money in case they want to see their daughter alive once more.

The Garden of Eden, like most of Leonora Fani's films is currently out of print and there aren't any plans on future releases on, so the only way to watch it is by either streaming services or bootleggers. Either way, the best available version of the film is the English dubbed edition with hard-coded Greek subtitles.  While, I'm always supportive of the idea of watching films in their original language, dubbed versions are usually found easier. The version I watched was terribly dubbed in English but you know what? almost every dub movie I've seen suffers the same unfaithful faith. The problem is, dialog is way more cheesier than originally intended, and some of the idioms, figurative speech & slang sound weird or unnatural, thus giving you the impression the acting quality on this movie couldn't get any worse.

I'm hungry, I need some of your cum.

And maybe you can have some of my pussy juices.

If dialog is cheesy, wait until you pay attention to the background music composed by Stelvio Cipriani (known for his work on a Bay of Blood, Death Proof and more recently The Man from U.N.C.L.E. remake), a man who surely knows what he's doing because he delivers a soundtrack that perfectly accompanies the teenage couple throughout the film on their coming of age adventure while the unexpected grand finale is around the bend. 

Once Michele's family gets the money they want, his older brother (strangely enough, the only characters with an actual name on the film are those of Alessandra and Michele only) returns to the beach to give his brother some money for having casually given them the idea for the job of their lives. Of course, this leads to a violent confrontation between brothers all the while, Alessandra is scared as fuck because she knows Michele's brother wants a piece of her ass. Fortunately, the cops followed Michele's brother and in a very confusing action sequence Alessandra is rescued while Michele & his family are arrested and sent to jail for plotting the kidnap.

Why don't you paint me with your cum Michele?

This whole art is getting me really horny Alessandra.

By the 1980's the teenage sexploitation genre had grown tired of itself, and movie producers efforts didn't truly help in the making of new master pieces of the genre. Had The Garden of Eden being released in the early 70's, it may have ended up being a cult film but, since that wasn't the case, the film tries too hard and delivers very little in the end. The concept of living a hippie life out of love and mother nature was already a worn out story by the late 70's. In addition, the coming of age concept was also entirely over used, and only the porn industry would keep on using it to sell their "virgin gone wild" stories starred by actresses that clearly looked nothing like a teenage girl. Still, being the final film in which Leonora Fani worked, it may be a good farewell movie in which she was allowed to spend more time dressed up than she used to in all of her previous films. Unfortunately, the way her character is written, doesn't really up her game as a skilled actress.

Overall, The Garden of Eden, doesn't offer much on original story telling as well as sex and nudity, so if you're looking for one or the other (or both) you may want to look for another movie instead. For Leonora Fani fans, this film is clearly a must watch, since it's her last movie. For casual movie enthusiasts I think you should watch Ornella Muti's Il Sole Nella Pelle instead (better story & better acting) For sexploitation fans, well this movie is mildly a sexploitation film so, nope, keep looking.

After all the semen I've swallowed it was about time you gave me a ring!

a behind the scenes photo from the film.

Will this film ever see the light of an official release? I doubt it, since her most popular films are either out of print or not officially released as of yet. However, we still have plenty of Leonora Fani movies left for reviewing. The next entries will cover her debut film, 1974's La Svergognata (The Shameless Woman), 1975's Bestialitá (Bestiality, maybe her most shocking film ever), 1975's Lezione Private (Private Lessons) & 1975's porno film Calde Labbra (Burning Lips) So, stay tuned as our blog is the only blog (and website for that matter) in the whole world covering her career with very detailed information, so yeah, we want to be the official unofficial guide to all things Leonora Fani.

No movie trailer this time, better luck next time I guess.

Eat your vegetables!

Sensitivita: The House by the Edge of the Lake

The Spanish poster, my favorite.

After a strictly commercial review (see? a Frank Zappa gratuitous reference) we return to our latest obsession: Italian beauty Leonora Fani. Today's entry is 1979's sex horror  flick Sensitivitá (Sensitivity) AKA The House by the Edge of the Lake, The Last House Near the Lake, Witch of the Lake & Diabla, among others. There's a censored made for TV version of the film known as Kira: The House Near the Lake. We strongly recommend you to skip that version by all means. Our review was made after watching the never released before director's cut of the film. Yes, we are connoisseurs, we know our way into the world of obscure cult films. 

 

Despite being recognized as an Italian sexploitation actress, Leonora Fani has worked in very different films ranging from straight shocking sexploitation to romance movies. However, there isn't a single film where she hasn't appeared nude or screwing, leading viewers into questioning her acting skills. Nonetheless, she is an actress and has proven so in many of her films as both lead or support cast. Anyways, let her films do the talking. 

a Burning hand emerges.

a Murdering monk.

Sensitivita may not be one of the greatest Italian horror films ever made but, since it's starred by our goddess Leonora Fani, it's worth the watch. Directed by Enzo G. Castellari, known for action films like Keoma, 1990: The Bronx Warriors, Cold Eyes of Fear & Warriors of the Wasteland admitted some years ago that this wasn't one of his best directing jobs since he didn't had an active role in the filming of Sensitivita. Nevertheless, his  filmography is hit and miss, specially miss.

A young university student "Lillian" (Fani) returns to her family's country villa near a lake where years earlier her mother drowned. She is supposedly researching a local legend, a witch called Kira (Caterina Boratto) and a strange symbol associated with her. However, our heroine spends a lot less time at the library than she does flat on her back fucking all local guys. Nevertheless, there is a catch: whenever she cums, she faints (and not out of sexual exhaustion I might add) into a trance and some horrible fate befalls her sex partners (a car accident, a drowning etc.) Naturally, there's a lot of talk in the town about this strange, slutty outsider girl (but she still never seems to lack for willing sex partners). "Lillian" also seems to have some kind of weird relationship with a retarded girl named "Lilith"(Patricia Adriani), who is always spying on Lilian's sexual escapades and masturbating whenever she has sex (which makes for quite a rigorous masturbation schedule). Meanwhile, Kira, the witch also seems to be hanging around. And Lillian's own mother, though generally unseen except in the prologue, is referred to by the locals as the "lady in the lake". And if four weird women isn't enough, there's also a little, local blind girl who tears the heads off her dolls and says a lot of cryptic things.

Bouncing tits speak louder than words.

I want to masturbate so badly!

Evidently, Sensitivita is not Enzo Castellari's best film by a long-shot. But,  the visual style is clearly the best element of the film. Castellari makes this nonsense horror look & feel as scary as possible, and despite the numerous sex scenes (which we're not complaining about, keep 'em coming Leonora!), he manages to maintain a suspense atmosphere despite the many misleading softcore sexploitation tricks the film has. With the possible exceptions of "Pensione Paura" & "Nene", this is probably Leanora Fani's classiest film. To some,  this may not be saying much for an actress who starred in a movie with the self-explanatory title "Naked Massacre", in the under rated kitsch "Giallo a Venezia", in the deranged "Beastialita" (we're saving this film review for last), and even in some hardcore porn films (although she was not actually a hardcore actress). Anyways, we see Leonora Fani as a daring actress who had the, uhm, pubes, to film a varied range of films that not only got her into the annals of  Italian sexploitation but also, allowed her to be internationally recognized by her now obscure and hard to find filmography. And what the hell! is 2016! and we're still promoting her films 42 years after her debut! (La Svergognata, another of our forthcoming reviews)

 

Italian horror films are generally well known for choosing visual style and atmosphere over logical plotting and realistic dialogue, but in the 1970's these films became increasingly over-the-top stylistically and often downright nonsensical. Of course, they also tended to paper over all the gaping plot holes with copious, and often even ridiculous, amounts of sex and nudity. 

I'm gonna cum all over your face babe!

Please don't cum inside.

By now, I'm sure you've all realized this film hasn't been officially released on DVD or Blu Ray, you know, those ugly screen caps come from an 8mm film that must have been poorly digitized ages ago. Will an official release ever see the light? I don't know and in a way, I don't think so since, there isn't much value to add to the horror genre here. Obviously, Leonora Fani fans, like you and I, will most certainly try to find every film she's been into no matter how crappy the quality of the copy you can get your hands on. After all is Leonora Fani! 

Horror fans won't miss much if they decide not to watch this film. However, there are a few scenes here and there that might leave you wondering "Oh my! did others stole ideas from this movie to create their own 80's slasher blockbusters?"  We may never know the answer, as perhaps such scenes are merely coincidences and not straight rip offs, but you never know. American film makers have "borrowed" a lot of ideas from their European & Asian counterparts.

Leonora Fani, Italian beauty.

Are you talking to me?

Overall, Sensitivita, is an OK sexploitation horror film with lots of nudity and sex, of course, Leonora Fani makes the difference big time. On the horror side of things, there are a lot of better films out there. Advisable to Fani fans and horror enthusiasts who are looking to complete their obscure film collections.

Here's the Spanish dubbed trailer:

 

Il Conto e' Chiuso: The Last Round

Revenge, southern style.

What do you get when you sum a mysterious martial artist, a poor man with a blind daughter and two rival mafia families? you get a fucking masterpiece! that's what you get!, a fucking underrated obscure cinema piece everyone should add to their "best of" list as soon as possible.

Il Conto e' Chiuso (something like, "the bill is paid" or "we're even") is  a 1976 action packed Italian mafia thriller directed by Stelvio Massi & written by Piero Regnoli. Known in English as "The Last Round", I guarantee you will love this film as much as we do. Besides, Leonora Fani is in it in a minor role that shows her acting skills in full.

A war veteran from southern Italy (played by the World Middle Weight boxing champion for over 7 years, Mr. Carlos Monzon) comes to a northern industrial town looking for work and gets tangled up with two rival clans of mafiosi. The plot of this sounds like another knock-off of "Yojimbo" (the Japanese film that inspired "A Fistful of Dollars" and any number of other spaghetti Westerns and Italian crime thrillers), but it's a little bit different in that the hero turns out to have a very personal vendetta against the leader of one of the rival mafia clans (Luc Merenda) and is not just a pure mercenary. Of course, there's a lot of stuff going on before you tell this is a revenge film. 

Fear the worker's union fist!

I love the sound of a firing gun.

First, our working class hero (see what I did there?, a John Lennon reference) Marco Russo (Carlos Monzon) arrives just in the nick of the time, seconds before a group of abused workers are viciously fired by Beny Manzetti (Gianni Dei), who happens to be the second in command in the Manzetti mafia family. Marco is a man of justice, so he uses his bare fists to do justice in no time. This evidently, pisses the mobsters off so they catch him off guard and get rid of him in the outer area of the city. Once our hero wakes up, he meets Nina (Leonora Fani) a  blind girl who offers him to stay at her place, and no, she's not offering exploitative derivative sex as you may be thinking, she's a good righteous girl. Later, she introduces her father, Sapienza (Giampiero Albertino), to our one man army. Casually, Nina & Sapienza will end up being the only friends Marco has in the film. 

Second, Marco is looking for a job. For reasons unexplained he seems to be unemployed and completely out of money. Coincidentally, the fight he had with the lowlife mobsters, called the attention of Rico Manzetti (Luc Merenda), the real deal of the family, who happens to be looking for more capable men to help him with very illegal businesses, so as soon as he's back in town, he's granted a hitman job. In the past, Marco served as a soldier during the infamous Vietnam war, so he's more than proficient in martial arts, knives & fire guns. 

Marco is in trouble dad.

You're going to work for the mafia, I can feel it Marco.

Third, Marco is not only a fantastic fighter, he's also a fantastic negotiator, and he's here to negotiate for himself and himself alone. The Manzettis have a long dispute with rival family, The Belmondos, you see, they both want to control the city but each group has equal force, so a gentlemen agreement is the only way out. However, Marco knows how to play his cards, so he uses this agreement for his own benefit. From then on, the film becomes an action packed revenge tale that keeps on getting better scene after scene.

Stelvio Massi is considered one of the greatest directors in the Italian crime genre. The Last Round's producer is Gabriel Crisanti who was responsible for a series of notoriously sleazy exploitation flicks in the late 70's/early 80's--"Giallo a Venezia", "Malabimba", "Burial Ground", and "Patrick Lives Again" among others. In addition,  Mariangela Giordano, Gianni Dei, and our muse Leonora Fani who've worked with Crisanti in other films, are all part of The Last Round's cast.

I'm rich and you're not, fuck you!

Shoot 'em down!

Whenever someone utters the name of Leonora Fani, they are instantly reminded of the sleaziest films she's worked in. Fani did it all in the 70's. She played a coming of age adolescent discovering sex, she masturbated in front of a kid (and even gave him a blowjob), she fell in love with a perv who drove her crazy, she played a girl who was into bestiality, and not to mention she was raped in several roles. Nevertheless, Il Conto e' Chiuso can easily be described as one of her few PG rated roles. When I watched this film for the first time I was like "great, she's playing an innocent blind girl, time to show some real acting skills" As a matter of fact, I for one, think Leonora Fani differs from most Italian sexploitation starlets because she can truly act. Nina's role, although minor, compared to other characters in the film, is a very challenging task. Playing a blind girl, is not that easy and believe you me, she kills it. Unfortunately, just as are you about to say "Yes, she's not naked in this one, she's only here for acting skills" you're reminded she was a sexploitation starlet known for being either fucked or raped in almost every movie she was in.

Mariangela Giordano, another Italian sexploitation regular, is also in the movie playing Rico's submissive wife, and Luisa Maneri plays her daughter Lisa. At the time The Last Round was filmed, she allegedly was 16 years old, thus making her topless sunbathing scene rather controversial. To make matters worse, Rico Manzetti (Luc Merenda's character) is sick and tired of his old wife, so he sends her into oblivion to die of starvation, while her under aged daughter is forced to take her place, if you know what I mean. In addition, the Argentinian TV star, Susana Giménez, has a minor role as a stripper and girlfriend of mafia boss Bobo Belmondo (Mario Brega) So, the gal value this movie has, increases by four.

Sunbathing.

Susana Giménez, Argentinian TV legend.

Although pretty much forgotten, The Last Round is a good example of a familiar story made fresh by the quality of its execution, as a stranger drifts into a decaying Italian industrial looking to settle an old score. But this violent modern-day (well, 1976) poliziotteschi is closer to Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest than the first two films it inspired, Yojimbo and Fistful of Dollars, set in its own Italian Poisonville divided between two rival gangs that he soon sets against each other. Surprisingly, despite being directed by the sometimes more adequate than inspired Stelvio Massi, it's shot with striking visual imagination and remarkably fluid camera-work from Franco Delli Colli. The two leads are impressive too, with Luc Merenda a wonderfully effective and dapper villain and undefeated middleweight champion boxer and offscreen wife-beater and murderer Carlos Monzon a surprisingly effective leading man in the mould of a young Charles Bronson.

The movie was officially released in 2005 by NoShame on a fully functional Region 1 DVD. The release also featured an extra disc with the original soundtrack written by the legendary Spaghetti Western composer Luis Bacalov. Unfortunately, the DVD is currently out of print. 

Here's the movie trailer: