SEX WITH A SMILE A.K.A. 40 GRADI ALL’OMBRA DEL LENZUOLO
Directed by Sergio Martino
Italy
1976 – Approx. 104 minutes
“They’re the best pair of suckie-wuckie in the world!”
SEX WITH A SMILE is a collection of five unrelated vignettes focusing on burlesque-style bawdiness and slapstick comedy. The parade of immeasurably beautiful Italian women is the most obvious reason to acquire this title. However, there are some fun moments to be had if taken in small doses. As it is broken up into twenty minute stories (approximately), the best way to really enjoy this is to avoid over exposure; it’s a lot of silliness to take all in one sitting. It does have its rewards, though, for example: Barbara Bouchet, Edwige Fenech, Dayle Haddon, Giovanna Ralli and Sydne Rome. Rewards indeed!
The first story is called ONE FOR THE MONEY and features Barbara Bouchet as a woman approached with an indecent proposal. A man spots her on the balcony one day and rushes up to ring the bell. He has twenty million Lira in a briefcase and says that it can all be hers if she’ll sleep with him. She’s offended, naturally, and then they do it. It’s on the condition that she’ll never have to see him again. Fair enough. He comes back the next day with twenty million Lira more and says he needs one more replay before he is off to Australia. She flatly refuses. They do it again. The day after that she is at the airport waiting to pick up her husband, who is due to return, but she runs into the financially endowed pervert yet again. She insults him and walks away. They do it at the airport. There is a really sick twist at the end of this one but, don’t worry, you won’t read about it here.
Next up is THE BODYGUARD, my personal favorite of the bunch. It stars Dayle Haddon as a put upon woman who’s far away father insists that she have a bodyguard to protect her. The part of the bodyguard is played by (No, not HIM!) Marty Feldman. Yep, that’s right, Marty Feldman. He’s a carrot chomping (good for the eyes), bubble burping, imbecilic, over-achiever who takes his job all together too seriously. When the beautiful Marina’s thighs start shaking over an avant-garde artist and she wants some alone time, things get severely complicated. For openers, the potential suitor hits Feldman over the head with a baseball bat so as to get some peace but accidentally kills him. Or does he? Now, Marina (Haddon) is in even more danger than anyone feared. Lots of great sight gags (ho-ho) like the googly-eyed periscope Feldman uses while hiding in the pool. Have to love the frisking scene, too. “That’s funny, he doesn’t look Jewish”. This may be your one chance in life to see Marty Feldman frolicking about the fields in full hippie regalia. Can you really afford to let a chance like that slip away? I think not.
Now it’s CATCH IT WHILE IT’S HOT. Giovanna Ralli is a tempting Countess with a chauffeur that suffers so badly from his horniness that he is constantly putting the both of them in life-threatening danger, themselves as well as anyone else on the road. It doesn’t help that the humidity is so high, either. The Countess is constantly tormenting her driver by taunting him with her… assets. A peak of this, a flash of that, and soon this libidinous Sicilian “It’s my hot Southern blood! I can’t help myself!” can barely contain his passions. Still, no favors are granted. All is not as it appears to be though…
Fourth up is DREAM GIRL, the Edwige Fenech episode. She plays Emillia Chiapponi; she is everyone’s dream girl. The town nearly stops whenever she decides to take a walk. One man in particular (Tomas Milian, who is nearly unrecognizable in his role!), an uptight and anal-retentive nerd type, is especially tormented by this vision of beauty. He has… aggressive dreams about her. Eventually he begins to call her to talk about his suffering in hopes that it will help to cure him of it. It doesn’t. This man intrigues Fenech and it isn’t long before she wants to meet him in person. As usual, things don’t turn out exactly as anyone plans.
Last, and certainly least, is A DOG’S DAY. While looking over a potential new apartment for himself, the twitchy Adriano notices Marcella (Sydne Rome) on the ledge outside his window. He saves her by dragging her in and she is so over-whelmed by his caring and compassion that she clings instantly to him. Our accommodating gent is over-powered by his lust and they head back to her place for a bit of the old “horizontal bop”. There’s one minor complication however; her insanely jealous German Shepard, Othello, won’t let him anywhere near her. Soon, Adriano ends up hiding on the window ledge and even more hilarity ensues, I guess. I found it to be the weakest and the least interesting of all the stories.
It’s all sort of ridiculous and is certainly not the best place to begin nurturing an appreciation for European sex comedies. At its finest it’s an altogether average movie but it does have some funny moments and a catchy soundtrack provided by the De Angelis brothers. There is a sequel, made the same year, simply titled SEX WITH A SMILE PART 2. It’s more of the same and was also directed by Sergio Martino.
The end credits contain the following disclaimer…”Any resemblance to actual events or real persons living or dead is entirely coincidental…Who would believe it anyway?”