The appeal of Edwige Fenech is too often described as a mere visual pleasure (but what a pleasure!). As hard as it is to deny it, there’s also some vital observation that comes into consideration: the lady is a fine comedienne, without a doubt. She has played in mainly dumb comedies in the second half of her career, broad Italian farces with plenty of nudity and saucy misunderstandings. Let’s take one typical project, the 1975 production, Lover Boy (original title Grazie… nonna), which was available on DVD from Shoarma and seems to be sadly out-of-print.

This script would be very difficult to produce in these politically correct times: we have a single father with two teenage sons, this bunch not very inspired by the upcoming visit of the late granfather’s second wife. “Granny”, as she’s being called, is already perceived as a shrewish person, an old hag to be dealt with as callously as possible. The youngest son gets the job of picking up this unknown relative at the airport, who is finally revealed as a gorgeous twenty-something from Venezuela. So now, the three men of the family will progressively try to seduce Granny and gain her good favors. She herself is a good-natured person, aware of her own charms in this entourage, but never taking advantage from it.

Viewers of low-budget European comedies of the seventies will be in familiar territory here, especially handling productions coming from Italy. There are many broad characters (or should I say grotesque?) and situations coming straight out of vaudeville, as we can consider here Fra Domenico, a gluttonous monk.

Needless to say, this is not as serious as other quasi-incestuous motion pictures like Louis Malle’s Le souffle au cœur (Murmur of the Heart), Bertrand Blier’s Beau-père or even this classic from the golden age of adult features, Taboo, starring legendary adult performer Kay Parker. But oddly, Lover Boy, with all its lame jokes, handles its granny-gets-it-on-with-not-really-her-grandson-but-kind-of scene with surprising taste. Not a man in the audience won’t cheer this obvious but still satisfying plot point.

As I stated in the intro, Edwige’s gorgeous shoulders are all that carries the film, which is mainly plagued by bad sitcom situations. Among it all, we can perceive her own subtle talent, as her character here seems like the only one who’s not an easy caricature or exaggeration.

The Shoarma DVD is obviously a copy of a badly-dubbed English VHS, with surprising strong colors from the too-often lousy image. There are no subtitled options, so you will suffer through awkward line delivery. Even then, there’s great respect for Edwige here, with an attractive photo gallery (how could it be not attractive, considering its subject?), fascinating poster gallery (lots of painting in these mid-seventies posters), a bio that clarifies that Edwige was born in Algeria from a French mother and Tunisian father, and two interviews transcripts, one from 1982 and the other from 2000, that finally gets us inside the mind of one of our favorite cult actress.

The mystery of Edwige’s origins deepens, as I recently came across a bio on the Nanarland website stating that her mom was from Italo-Spanish roots and her dad Czech-English!

Three interesting tidbits: legendary rock group Goglin supplies the soundtrack (they who are most famous for the collaboration on Dario Argento movies and horrific Italian fantasies) and director Marino Girolami has also directed Dr. Butcher M.D.! Lastly, child actor Giusva Fioravanti (whose last film this was) would soon become a terrorist, busy in these troubled political times in Italy and condemned for the murder of policemen.

At least, Lover Boy has the benefit of showing us one of the best use of the Pisa Tower I have seen in motion pictures. No joke! Of course, the many views of Edwige’s anatomy are as welcome.