Review: LA PARTE PIÙ APPETITOSA DEL MASCHIO, Pioneering Italian sex film

[Nzoog Wahrlfhehen]

La parte più appetitosa del maschio (1979), directed by Petunia Lawrence Hamilton [Lorenzo Magnolia]


It looks as if the European softcore genre and its subsequent hardcore development attracted a great many directorial obscurities whose sole film credits until then had been as on-set assistants. Such is the case of Lorenzo Magnolia who, working on a script by the prolific Giovanni Simonelli, made La parte più appetitosa del maschio, an Italian-German co-production that, although little-seen, still enjoys a controversial reputation for its pioneering place in the history of the Italian porn movie. The hardcore trend had already been taken up by the Italian Emanuelle films, although only in their foreign versions, and it was D’Amato (perhaps inevitably) who made the first domestically-screened hardcores with his late-seventies Dominican series, although these wer first shown in the 80s. This apparently leaves three 1979 films, Giorgio Mille’s I porno amori di Eva, D’Amato’s Immagini di un convento (apparently) and Magnolia’s La parte più appetitosa del maschio, in that order, as the very first Italian hardcore films exhibited as such at home, even if the facts as such seem to be controversial (1). Anyway, La parte più appetitosa del maschio (made, like Mille’s film, for Pietro Beldepio) seems to have simultaneously circulated in Italy in an alternate softcore edition, which presumably corresponds to the Barcelona-dubbed version I have seen, first screened in Spain in 1982, precisely the very year “S” cinema was threatening to glut the market.

Simonelli’s story concerns an academic (played by veteran Renzo Rinaldi) who, engaged in writing a dissertation on the sexual stunts of antiquity, decides to hire a thief to steal, then return, precious material from a female rival scholar. The choice falls on the mathematician Eugenio Cavallo (Paolo de Manincor), himself engaged in intellectual pursuits of his own, having turned to theft as a means to finance an demonstration of his “Theorem of Cavallo”. Although nerdish, unprepossessing and bespectacled, Cavallo appears to be irresistible to women for reasons hinted at by the meaning of his Italian surname – shades of Pippo Franco’s adult comic book Peter Paper– and thus becomes much coveted by assorted females (one of them played by Cathy Greiner) who, on discovering his thefts, blackmail him into surrendering some of his money and providing them with constant sex in various different postures, corresponding to those being researched by the Rinaldi character. Following a seemingly endless series of scenes with Cavallo involved with his various women in increasingly difficult sexual acrobatics, there is a happy fairy-tale ending for all.

Certainly, Magnolia’s film can claim some interest on the basis of its pioneering or quasi-pioneering status. Its other asset lies in a great title: “the most delicious part of the male”. Otherwise, this is repetitious stuff, poorly paced and of no visual interest, although the lead does come across as a professional legit actor, and the women (especially Grenier) are generally attractive. There may be some background themes to be found here: like so many sex films, this one’s about power games and gaining the upper hand. Here, however, the theme extends to social and monetary status, bringing a reminder of the fact that in a society such as ours, promoted as providing equal opportunities for anyone, the reality is that it is much easier to become wealthier if one is wealthy for a start. Here, however, I wouldn’t dwell too much on this.

For the record, the music is routine synthesiser stuff with Rossini quotes. It is credited to Alessandro Alessandroni on my print and, reportedly, to Roberto Pregadio on others. The Spanish-language soundtrack features the late Gloria Roig providing her distinctive, slightly guttural voice for Cathy Greiner’s role.

[mattblake]

Thanks for that review, Nzoog, I'd never even heard of this one! Looking at Sr Magnolia's credits, he must have been quite a respectable AD, which he did, on more than one occassion, for Elio Petri and Giuliano Montaldo.

This must have had some German input as well, from the look of the credits... and it's interesting to see the name of Roxy Film's Luggi Waldleitner linked with it on IMDB (I know you shouldn't trust IMDB, but has anyone else noticed that their info has slowly been getting a lot more reliable!).

[C., James C.]

Thanks for the review! Some films, like this one, are more enjoyable to read about (in a thoughtful contextualized description) than to see, I sense. Thanks for volunteering Nzoog,

PS: Since we're on the topic of early Italian hardcore...do you know anything about the Carmen Russo vehicle Le Porno Killers by our old friend Roberto Mauri? It just missed the 1979 'very first wave' benchmark (it's 1980) but seems to be another one with inserts (with body doubles) hastily assembled and added for some showings (domestic? abroad?)

[mattblake]

That's one I've had around for ages, but have never got round to watching. It looks... unsophisticated!

But I think it was, as you say, a sleazy film which then had inserts added, possibly by another director than Mauri. This seems to have been happening all over the place at the time, and there are interviews with several directors who protest their ignorance of what was happened with their work after it was completed. Hardcore inserts had been used since the early seventies I think (two examples that spring to mind are Fidani's Calde labbra and Nello Rossati's La nipote, both of which had inserts added for distribution in France.)

Whereas these three, they were fully fledged porn films weren't they, i.e. they were made as porn films, rather than 'transformed' into them? I think that's the difference...

[C., James C.]

Moana e le altre, a history of Italian hardcore, reports that Le Porno Killers was one of two films in its year that pushed softcore to the limits and even a little beyond. The inserts aren't mentioned but actor "Mark Shannon" (Manlio Cerosimo) relates how (pardon the expression) the film and he simultaneously became hard while doing a shower scene with Carmen Villani. Director Mauri's first response was to bawl out the actor but, thinking about the inexoorable course of things, he finally shrugged and kept shooting. Two weeks later the actor was off to Santo Domingo with D'Amato for further adventures in the skin trade.

The other film mentioned is Ragazze in affitto spa by the psudonymous and mysterious 'Regine Deforges.' Film.tv.it reveals the director's identity: actor-director Michel Lemoine in conjunction with Mauro Ivaldi, a seemingly French-Italian coproduction (cameo by Carmen Villani again) about Jeanne Descat and two friends who pick up extra cash as call girls: they'e trying to fit their assignments as covertly and quickly as possible into their 'normal' lives (I'll skip the Clockwork Orange-inspired gag I was about to write)

Nzoog's got the scoop on the writers of the Moana book: they don't mention the film under review at all.

[mattblake]

Ah, interesting... I must dig it out and have a watch.

So was Mark Shannon ever in any non-porn films before embarking upon his career in hardcore?

[C., James C.]

Cersosimo (I mis-spelled) had a small part in a softcore Laura Gemser sex comedy...supposedly.

One odd credit is Funny Frankenstein a 1981 softcore erotic-horror directed by Mario Bianchi or, probably, Luigi Petrini (the latter claims credit). Aldo Sambrell is supposedly in it too. There's a tape of this floating around, I see.

Even these credits are for erotic films. Mark Shannon (or Shanon) and his parts seem to have bloomed with the genre.

Ps: imdb doesn't list the actor in its Porno Killers credits but mymovies.it (also source for information above) repeats the anecdote I supplied and adds some more info.

PPS: Nothing's certain about this fellow including his name and how to spell it. A fascinating article here has him, again, as Cerosino without the extra s, and relates that he's the son of the (infamous) fascist leader of the trial in Verona at world war 2's end of alleged conspirators within the ranks, chief among them Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini's own son in law. Cerosino senior made sure that neither he nor the others accused were shown mercy and had them lined up against a wall and shot.

Claudio Gora played Manlio's dad (sentencing Frank Wolff's Ciano) in Carlo Lizzani's 1963 recreation Processo a Verona.

The redlight star-son claims in the interview presented that such recreations are false and crazy: his dad was a nice, merciful guy who would never have done those terrible things.

Pretty mindbending stuff, and, to top it off, imdb lists the character's name as Cerosimo.

[mattblake]

Aah, I think they took the quotes from a longer interview in one of the Cine70 magazines. Fascinating stuff...