Being somewhat of a connoisseur of 70's Italian sex comedies (that or just a drooling idiot), I have seen any number of the countless movies in this generally dimwitted, inbred genre. The best, relatively speaking, are the ones that feature the sumptuous and genuinely talented actress Edwige Fenech, and those that fall into category of "decamerotici"--basically a series of period sex comedies loosely based on Boccaccio's classic literary work "The Decameron" (but more likely based on the hit Pier Pasolini movie of the same name). Well, this movie is a "decamerotici" AND it features Edwige Fenech in the title role, so naturally it is well above par.
Fenech plays the titular "Antonia" who wants to marry her true love, but the path is blocked by she and her lover's feuding families. She gets some help though from a charming rogue painter, at least when he isn't busy dipping his brush in every available paint pot, including the elderly inn-keepers wife (Malissa Longo), Antonia's two young ladies-in-waiting, and even her betrothed's youngish-looking mother (Lucrezia Love). There's also a whole subplot going on with "Antonia's" ridiculously horny father and a put-upon male servant. And then there's this whole thing with ladies' underwear, which apparently was just coming into fashion at the time (and would have been pretty inconvenient given the absurd amount of sexual activity that seemed to be routinely happening in this era). The movie also dips briefly into "nunsploitation" as "Antonia" enters a convent at one point (I have to say, if real nuns looked anything like all the Italian actresses that have variously played nuns in these movies, I personally would have never left Catholic school).
Fenech is every bit as sexy and naked as usual, and she is ably assisted here by Longo, Love, et. al. She was still pretty young in this movie though and doesn't get to do the comedy she'd come to excel at later in her career. For better or worse, this is all handled by the male cast, and while they're not great, they're generally less annoying than the likes of Alvaro Vitali or Lino Banfi who were ubiquitous in the non-"decamerotici" Italo-sex comedies of the era. This isn't as good as the director (Mariano Laurenti's) other famous "decamerotici" (also with Fenech), "Ubalda, All Naked and Warm", but it is solidly entertaining.
Fenech plays the titular "Antonia" who wants to marry her true love, but the path is blocked by she and her lover's feuding families. She gets some help though from a charming rogue painter, at least when he isn't busy dipping his brush in every available paint pot, including the elderly inn-keepers wife (Malissa Longo), Antonia's two young ladies-in-waiting, and even her betrothed's youngish-looking mother (Lucrezia Love). There's also a whole subplot going on with "Antonia's" ridiculously horny father and a put-upon male servant. And then there's this whole thing with ladies' underwear, which apparently was just coming into fashion at the time (and would have been pretty inconvenient given the absurd amount of sexual activity that seemed to be routinely happening in this era). The movie also dips briefly into "nunsploitation" as "Antonia" enters a convent at one point (I have to say, if real nuns looked anything like all the Italian actresses that have variously played nuns in these movies, I personally would have never left Catholic school).
Fenech is every bit as sexy and naked as usual, and she is ably assisted here by Longo, Love, et. al. She was still pretty young in this movie though and doesn't get to do the comedy she'd come to excel at later in her career. For better or worse, this is all handled by the male cast, and while they're not great, they're generally less annoying than the likes of Alvaro Vitali or Lino Banfi who were ubiquitous in the non-"decamerotici" Italo-sex comedies of the era. This isn't as good as the director (Mariano Laurenti's) other famous "decamerotici" (also with Fenech), "Ubalda, All Naked and Warm", but it is solidly entertaining.
