Anna, quel particolare piacere (1973)

Director:

Giuliano Carnimeo

Writers:

Ernesto Gastaldi (writer)
Luciano Martino (story)

Release Date:

27 November 1973 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A beautiful but poor young girl finds all the money and material goods she never had when she becomes the girlfriend of a crime boss, but soon learns that there is a price to be paid for that kind of life.

Plot Keywords:

Prostitution | Drugs | Smuggling | Beautiful Woman | Female Nudity

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Edwige Fenech	...	Anna Lovisi
Corrado Pani	...	Guido Salvi
Richard Conte	...	Riccardo Sogliani
John Richardson	...	Lorenzo Viotto
Laura Bonaparte	...	Loredana
Ettore Manni	...	Zuco
Corrado Gaipa	...	Doctor
Antonio Casale	...	Sogliani's henchman
Umberto Raho	...	Sogliani's lawyer
Bruno Corazzari	...	Albino
Carla Calò	...	Anna's mother
Aldo Barberito	...	Anna's father
Wilma Casagrande	...	Susy
Tom Felleghy	...	Porter (as Tommaso Felleghi)
John Bartha	...	Gerli

Also Known As:

Anna: the Pleasure, the Torment
Secrets of a Call Girl

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Bergamo, Lombardia, Italy

Company:

Compagnia Cinematografica Champion

Trivia:

Italian censorship visa # 63499 delivered on 14-11-1973.

Not entirely successful, but Edwige delivers a great performance!

Secrets of a Call Girl is a rather odd Italian crime film as instead of focusing on the usual areas - shootings, car chases, fist fights etc, we focus on the hard done to girlfriend of a mobster; Anna, played by Edwige Fenech. The film is, therefore, is something like a cross between a crime drama and a romantic drama and in my opinion, it doesn't quite gel together - but that's not to say that this isn't a good film. The title implies that this will be a 'confessional' drama and implies that the central character is a prostitute, though that is somewhat misleading. As mentioned, the plot focuses on Anna; a young girl who works in a café. She goes from rags to riches when she catches the eye of Guido; an Italian mobster who takes her out of the café and into the gangster life. She soon realises that all that glitters is not gold when she witnesses a mob hit and the boss wants her silenced. Guido then decides to push her into prostitution, but when he is caught by the law; she decides to escape him and makes a new life with her son and a doctor.

Edwige Fenech takes the lead role and does brilliantly with it. Her role here requires her to a little more than just take her clothes off, and she rises to the occasion well. It's easy to forget that she can act considering her roles in many of her films, so Secrets of a Call Girl serves as a nice reminder! The film also features performances from Corrado Pani, Richard Conte and John Richardson, who all do a good job in supporting roles. Giuliano Carnimeo takes the directors chair and does a good of directing Fenech for the second time, after The Case of the Bloody Iris. It has to be said that this film is more than a little slow at times, especially compared to other similar genre films owing to the fact that the focus is more on Fenech's character rather than the mob activities. However, this is not always a bad thing. I can't say that I'm a big fan of Romance films, but Fenech does enough to light up the screen every time she's on it and the film never becomes boring. It all boils down to a powerful ending that actually does have an impact. Overall, I'm not crazy about this film; but it's a good entry into Fenech's resume and it gets my recommendation.