Of the dozen or more Edwige Fenech films that have been subtitled and released in the U.S. over the last few years, '69's "The Sweet Pussycats" is, chronologically, the actress' oldest. (Oh, my...Edwige luster that I am, I find that writing a sentence containing the words "Edwige," "69" and "pussycats" has suddenly given me palpitations!) Though she is widely acknowledged as the Queen of Giallo AND the Queen of the Italian Sex Comedy, this early film of hers is a West German sex farce that just manages to please. It concerns two noblemen, an earl and a colonel, living in what appears to be 19th century France, who are in contention as to just who owns the rights to a tremendous castle. Until this court case can be tried, they simply draw a line down the center of the disputed pile and cohabitate, as Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas would later do in '89's "The War of the Roses." Each nobleman has the hots for a pair of virgin washwomen in the area, and things are made even more complicated when the colonel's fiancée, our Edwige, drops in for a visit. (Edwige wastes little time disrobing in this one, and is fully naked within two minutes of her initial appearance!) Then things get even more complex, as the virgins' aunt hatches a scheme by which the girls can marry the noblemen, and the earl's handsome nephew arrives, and a local judge and lawyer get thrown into the mix, and the local madam schemes to get her hands on the lawyer, and Edwige schemes to bed down with the nephew, and so on. The film is only occasionally funny but moves along very quickly; indeed, the (poorly translated) subtitles fly by so rapidly that you had better be an Evelyn Wood speed reader before venturing in! A bawdy film that might have almost been penned by Chaucer as one of his "Canterbury Tales," "The Sweet Pussycats"'s chief claim on our attentions today is surely Edwige Fenech, who is very lively and appealing in this early role....
Review of Alle Kätzchen naschen gern
