The Seduction of Inga (1968) User Reviews

Joe Sarno's underrated sequel to "Inga"

[lazarillo · 19 November 2007]

This is Joe Sarno's sequel to his Swedish erotica classic "Inga", and while it is much-maligned (and somewhat deservedly), it does have a few things on its more famous predecessor. First off, it's in color (if pretty ugly color). Second, its incredibly beautiful Swedish star Marie Lilljehdahl is actually "barely legal" here whereas in the first one, made a few years earlier, she could better be described as "hardly legal". Perhaps most importantly though , this is more cosmopolitan, "Swinging"-Europe era movie rather than a provincial domestic drama like its predecessor.

As the story begins Inga has just broken-up with her long-time boyfriend, Sven. She takes a job as a secretary for an older writer (wearing the shortest miniskirt ever seen on any secretary anywhere) and, not too surprisingly, she falls into an affair with him. She also becomes involved with a bad Swedish rock star, which raises the ire of another of the rock star's girlfriends, an icy but sexy blonde minx name Greta (an alternate title for this movie was "Inga and Greta"). So will Greta take revenge? Maybe. Will her revenge involve lots of nudity and some lesbian/bi-sexual escapades by both Swedish lasses? I'm not saying. This movie IS kind of depressing as other reviewers have said, but then sex itself is often kind of depressing, so you perhaps shouldn't expect movies about it to always be light-hearted and fun.

Strangely, this pretty obscure movie recently got a star DVD release including interviews with Lillejedahl and with Joe Sarno and his wife Peggy. Joe Sarno has got to be the nicest man in porn, but he says some really strange things here like claiming that "other directors" (perhaps a reference to Jess Franco) really "exploited" Lillejedahl. That may very well be true, but coming from the guy that cast her in the original "Inga" when she was all of about sixteen. . .ummm. Not Sarno or Llijedahl's best movie certainly, but worth watching if you like 60's and 70's Swedish erotica.

bad acting, bad lines, depressing

[Katy-13 · 2/10 · 10 April 1999]

In this movie Inga is living in a boarding house with prostitutes also living there. She's almost forced to become one to pay her rent. The acting is particularly bad in this movie, as Marie Liljedahl is usually expressionless. The brief sex scenes are very unnatural, jilted and unpassionate. The whole movie is depressing and seedy. What it lacks the most is comedy. It seems as if the director, Joe Sarno, wanted to recreate (however shallowly) the somber mood of Scandinavian films. This has to be the worst softcore sex movie I have seen.

Poor, even by the standards of '70s European softcore

[smatysia · 3/10 · 24 July 1999]

Poor, even by the standards of '70s European softcore. Marie Liljedahl is (was) a babe, and so is Inger Sundh, but the acting was poor, the direction so-so, and the plot just OK. The nude/sex scenes, the raison d'etre of this film were few, far between, and not very stimulating. Maybe a lot was lost in the dubbing into English.

One of Sarno's Very Best...

[Falconeer · 8/10 · 27 January 2021]

Joe Sarno was certainly an uneven director, with many of his films being a chore to sit through. But sometimes he really got it right. Those times seem to be the instances when he concentrated more on the story and the characters, then on getting all the sex scenes in. "The Seduction of Inga" scores in two ways; first the story, which is quite intriguing, and gets more mysterious as the film progresses. And of course, when there is a character like Inga, it is sure to be an enjoyable film, regardless of the story. Inga is utterly lovable in her naive innocence, her beauty, her way of talking, like a hopeful young girl, full of life and endlessly curious about everyone around her; Marie Liljedal is a true joy to watch, and to hear her deliver her lines..she just has that certain quality, Christina Lindberg had it too, Sarno really found some incredible women for his films. As far as the story goes, I was hooked from the beginning. She is "introduced" to this older man, by a somewhat shady younger guy, apparently a character from the prequel "Inga," which I am dying to see now...Inga falls for him, and he leaves her the key to his apartment, and his beautiful orange Porsche...and then just, disappears. He says he will return but he doesn't even write, leaving the 19 year old to her own devices. and of course, living in a rooming house with people her own age, she meets a boy and becomes involved. He is a rock singer in a band that plays at the local night club, where Inga soon feels the icy glare of a beautiful girl, night after night. She eventually discovers the girl is Greta, the former lover of Inga's much older gentleman. Why does the girl despise Inga so much when it was she that abandoned the older guy without explanation? And it just gets more intriguing by the minute. And when all is revealed; WOW! It is a real scandal film, fine soap opera of the highest order. I found things so intriguing that I forgot to notice the lack of sex in the movie. While there is sex and nudity, this one is quite tame for a Joseph Sarno production. But the true test of a film's strength is if it manages to hold the viewers attention with the story and the character development alone. And the backdrop of Sweden in Autumn/early Winter is also something to behold, with it's 70's brown and gold tones... and fans of movies from this era will know what I'm talking about with that..As mentioned, I look forward to the opportunity to see the first "Inga" from 1968; the black and white clips that i saw look really beautiful, and I am curious to know more about the character and her beginnings. As far as the films of Joe Sarno go, I think this one, along with "Butterflies" and "The Young Playthings" are his masterpieces. However I really didn't like his other films such as "All the Sins of Sodom" and "Abigail Leslie," and i thought "Marcie" was a terrible tease that went nowhere. Of course I have much more to see from this man. i just can't understand the low rating for this wonderful film...