All'onorevole piacciono le donne (Nonostante le apparenze... e purché la nazione non lo sappia) (1972)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Lucio Fulci

Writers:

Sandro Continenza (writer)
Lucio Fulci (writer)

Release Date:

November 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Senator Pupis feels a strong and uncontrollable urge to grab women's bottoms, a habit than can lead to embarrassment...

Plot Keywords:

Vatican | Dream Sequence | Rome | Catholic Priest | Nudity

Cast

Lando Buzzanca	...	Senator Gianni Puppis
Lionel Stander	...	Cardinal Maravigli
Laura Antonelli	...	Sister Hildegarde
Corrado Gaipa	...	Don Gesualdo
Renzo Palmer	...	Father Lucion
Agostina Belli	...	Sister Brunhilde
José Quaglio	...	Pietro Fornari
Arturo Dominici	...	His Excellency
Eva Czemerys	...	Fantasy Woman
Anita Strindberg	...	French Ambassador's Wife
Francis Blanche	...	Father Scirer
Armando Bandini	...	Bardolino - Maravigli's Secretary
Christian Aligny	...	Puppis' Secretary
Aldo Puglisi	...	Carmelino the chauffeur
Claudio Nicastro	...	Baddoni, police captain

Also Known As:

All'onorevole piacciono le donne (Italy) (short title)
Obsédé malgré lui (France)
The Eroticist
The Senator Likes Women (USA)
The Senator Likes Women... Despite Appearances and Provided the Nation Doesn't Know (UK)

Runtime:

109 min | Argentina:105 min | France:85 min | USA:96 min | USA:74 min (heavily cut)

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:X | Argentina:18 | France:U | Italy:VM18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Les Productions Jacques Roitfeld

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Nel supremo interesse della nazione - A history of censorship (2007) (V)

Soundtrack:

Dormi serena

Surreal and hilarious Fulci sex comedy

Lucio Fulci is and will always be best remembered for the films that won him his 'Godfather of Gore' title, but like most of the best Italian directors; he was actually quite versatile and made films in many different subgenres. This is the second sex comedy I've seen from Fulci; the first being Dracula in the Provinces, and I would say that this one is second best; but that's not to say it doesn't offer what you want from a sex comedy (a good fun time) and I'm sure that most people wont be too disappointed. The title makes you think it's going to be an Exorcist parody...until you realise this film actually came out before William Friedkin's masterpiece. The base of the plot is really simple and we focus on Senator Gianni Puppis; a man with an embarrassing problem. The problem is that whenever he gets close to a woman's backside, he gets the uncontrollable urge to grab at it; and as you can probably imagine, that leads to a few problems! It's not long before he realises that something needs to be done about the problem, and he goes off to live with a priest (and some nuns) to help him solve it.

The first thing I noticed about this film was the near two hour running time and I worried that it might be heinously overlong. When the film is cracking jokes and sticking to the main subject material, it's fun and entertaining; but there's a bit too much focus on the political element of the story for my liking. I'm not sure if the film was trying to make some sort of political comment (seeing as I wasn't in Italy in the seventies), but even if it trying to do this; I wouldn't give it credit as that isn't what I tuned in for. The film does feature plenty of good moments, however, that more than make up for the problems. There's a host of beautiful women – the well endowed Laura Antonelli is a big standout towards the end of the film, and there's no shortage of nice female behinds for our hapless lead to grope. Lando Buzzanca is great in the lead role and fits into his character really well. The dream/fantasy sequences are all big standouts and Fulci obviously delighted in making things as lewd and surreal as possible. Overall, I'm happy that Fulci stuck to horror films in the long run - but he makes a decent sex comedy too and I'm sure most people who catch this one won't be disappointed!