Saturday Top Ten: Edwige Fenech

Has there ever been a more delightful lady to grace a cinema/tv screen? I think not. Though her numerous appearances in Italian comedies and giallo films Edwige has been a towering presence. Never looking less than an angel fallen from heaven she has provided me (and countless others) of hours of rapt attention. So without further ado, here's my Top Ten of of Ms Fenech:

1. La Pretora - a highly welcome double dose of Edwige here as she plays both a prudish magistrate and her twin, fun loving sister. Directed by Lucio Fulci this has immense charm, actual comedy (sometimes rare in Italian comedies) and copious opportunities for Edwige to lose her clothes. A delight which should have nabbed her an Oscar - and I jest not.
2. Top Sensation - aka The Seducers. A sleazy thriller that is helped enormously by having another Italian goddess on board - Rosalba Neri. If the the film had been those two having a cup of tea for 90 minutes I would still have been happy! Watch out for the unforgettable scene with Edwige and a goat. Really!
3. The Case Of The Bloody Iris - A cracking giallo with her sometimes co-star George Hilton.
4. All the Colours Of The Dark - A deliscious mix of giallo and supernatural thriller./
5. The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh - Yet another top notch giallo
6. Ubalda, All Naked and Warm - A period romp set in the times of the crusades. Genuinely funny and has an extended scene of of Edwige running topless through a field. 'nuff said.
7. Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key - An excellent title (actually a line from number 5) and reminiscent of Poe's The Black Cat.
8. Grazie Nonna - Comedy with Edwige playing a young man's grandma to whom he loses his virginity. Really.
9. Five Dolls For An August Moon - A film that many see as Bava's worst (including the great man himself), but I like it - even if Edwige isn't featured heavily.
10. Secrets Of A Call Girl - This is the film I would point unbel;ievers to if they say that Edwige coasts throughb her roles without acting.

Viva Fenech!

Barb Wire Dolls (1975)

It seems fitting (if not a legal imperative) to renew this blog with a classic exploitationer from the leading exponent of explotation films - Jess Franco. Uncle Jess has been churning them out an at alarming rate for over 40 years, and though he has slowed down a lot (and to be fair, he's 80) he is still making them.

Barb Wire Dolls is one of the many Women In Prison films that he made and, for me, one of his best. I do have a preference for 99 Women, but that does have Herbert Lom, Maria Rohm and especially Rosalba Neri to help it along. Anyhoo, the plot of Barb Wire Dolls is that Lina Romay has been banged up for killing her father, and apart from an 'out of left field' plot twist that's about it. But when has the sparcity of plot held our man back? Never, that's when. So without having to think about the plot too much, Jess gives us the lesbian warden, the lebian trysts, the gynaelogical zoom shots (often), the torture scenes and the ultimate escape. And he manages to make it fun and keep the viewer (me) tuned to the screen. Sleaze can oh so easily become boring after a while and it's to Franco's credit that he manages to keep things rolling along quite nicely. The actors fit there roles competently with a special nod to Monica Swinn as the sadistic, masochistic, hotpants wearing warden who keeps a monocle firmly embedded in her eye, unless she is asking one of her charges to slap her about making it fly off.

As is most usually the case, you kind of need to already be a Franco fan to enjoy this, but luckily I am.