Beffe, licenze et amori del Decamerone segreto (1972)

Director:

Giuseppe Vari

Writers:

Giovanni Boccaccio (novel)
Antonio Racioppi (screenplay)

Release Date:

26 January 1973 (Finland)

Plot Keywords:

Sex | Italian Sex Comedy | Beautiful Woman | Female Nudity | Sex Comedy

Cast

Dado Crostarosa	...	Cecco
Malisa Longo	...	Mother Lucrezia
Giacomo Rizzo	...	Camillo
Orchidea de Santis	...	Dinda
Patrizia Viotti	...	Tessa
Antonella Patti
Claudia Bianchi	...	Fiammetta
Renzo Rinaldi	...	Gianni Lotteringhi
Jaime Manca Graziadei
Carla Mancini	...	Nun
Luciano Troiani
Josiane Tanzilli	...	Nun
Wanda Pollini
Franca Tedeschi
Anna Mallarini

Also Known As:

Love, Passion and Pleasure (UK)
The Ribald Decameron

Runtime:

100 min | UK:87 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Telecolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Elios Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Corinzia

Another "decameretoci" with another sumptuous female cast

For some truly inexplicable reason, I have watched a whole lot of 1970's Italian sex comedies, but my favorite (relatively speaking) are the "decamerotici", a subgenre loosely (often VERY loosely) based on the famous Boccaccio work "The Decameron", but probably more directly inspired by the Passolini film of the same name. While I wouldn't exactly call these films "intelligent" or "classy" (or even, you know, "good"), they do have a little more gravitas than the usual dumbass Italian sex comedy due to their literary origins, and they tend to be somewhat clever satires of human foibles as opposed to simply the infantile antics and pratfalls of annoying Italian male comics like most of their sex comedy ilk. Usually these movies, like "The Decameron" itself, are a series of short bawdy morality tales (sometimes taken right out of "The Decameron"). This one is a little different, however, in that it has a one central story that revolves around a lovable rogue/traveling actor, "Cecco" who swindles brothel owners, cuckolds both his friend and local poetry-obsessed nobleman, and plays elaborate pranks on the new mother superior (Malisa Longo) of the local abbey (i.e. telling her a the town brothel is an abbey, disguising himself as a nun to take advantage of her novice charges).

This movie is actually intermittently funny, but of course the main appeal of these movies, as with all Italian sex comedies, is the cheesecake. This features a solid cast of second-tier Eurobabes. Malisa Longo was not a great actress, but she was a very prolific one, taking many roles more talented actresses like Edwige Fenech or Barbara Bouchet no doubt passed on. (Of course, she is not remotely believable as elder nun, but oh, well). Orchidea Santis was a very underrated actress. She has a very funny role here as unfaithful wife who feigns illness so she can get together with "Cecco" right under the nose of her dimwitted dullard husband, but then gets pregnant and has to try to seduce her own impotent lout husband to cover it up. Patrizia Viotti, who plays the nobleman's wife, was not only underrated but virtually unknown--she had a small part in the classic Italian giallo thriller "Amuck" and a leading role in the worthwhile but more obscure giallo "Death Falls Lightly". Like Longo and DeSantis though she has quite a lot of films to her credit, even if she usually appears much further down the cast list than her two co-stars.

Of course, it probably goes without all saying all three of these women (and a couple others) get naked early and often. Movies like this definitely appeal to a very specific audience, but if you have found your way to this site in the first place, I imagine you might enjoy this.