Lover Boy

Lover Boy

I have to admit, my love for Euro trash cinema has grown quite a fair amount thanks to the work by Pete Tombs and his team with their work on the 'Eurotika' - So it was with some interest that I approached this debut DVD release from the ominously named 'Shoarma Digital' in Australia (ahem, yeah right - would that be Melbourne, New York?) of the Edwige Fenech sweat fest 'Lover Boy'. The end product of viewing it was very much in two mixed camps...

The film opens at the home of the Persichette family (made up of a wealthy single father and his two teenage sons), where a telegram is received notifying them that their late grandfather's second wife is coming to visit. After much fraught debate the youngest son is forcibly nominated to go collect granny from the airport and escort her to a hotel in town (none of the family have any wish to meet the old dear). When young Carlo meets granny he discovers that his sly old grandpa had in fact got hitched to a gorgeous young Venezuelan woman called Maria Juana (ha, get it? Marijuana! groan!) Once the understandably excited Carlo stops drooling he decides he wants granny for himself and whilst wining and dining her, does his best to keep her apart from the rest of the males in the family. Needless to say dad and his elder brother soon find out and Maria is invited to the family home where the three hapless men fawn over her endlessly hoping to be the one to conquer this most desirable woman. Who (if anyone) will get their wicked way with the sumptuous Maria?

At first, I was slightly concerned whether I would actually enjoy this 70's Italian pot-boiler flick but soon warmed to it immensely - all purely down to the hypnotic sexy charm of the beautiful Edwige Feneche, who oozes brow sweating sexuality throughout (especially so in various states of undress!) The film is a solid enough affair for this period of Euro cinema and has much to offer fans of the same. The general ambience is a familiar one, pretty much like the plot too (god knows I've seen many Euro flicks about teenage sexual discovery from that period, usually more so from France) but Fenech carries the film with some nice enough light hearted humorous moments to keep you smiling also. Euro fans will also get a kick from the repeating theme which is very much like a poptastic version of a Goblin track, and although the discs packaging claims that the soundtrack is by Goblin it's more likely that one track was indeed used (possibly for the scene with the live band) and plundered in variation elsewhere for the main recurring theme - nice enough though!

But it was the print on show here that left me wanting for more. The disc has obviously been mastered from an old VHS master and a cropped on at that. The image is fine but looks very much in league with an old VHS tape, bright and colourful but not as pin sharp like you'd really desire. But on the other hand I very much doubt anyone else out there will be picking this particular title up for release so I'm pleased at least to have this available. The audio is pretty decent also with everything clear and audible but it is the extras where Shoarma have made some cool effort.

There's two very nice stills galleries, one for posters and one for photographs (there's some very rare and delicious stills in here obviously compiled by a true fan of Fenech's work), there's the usual bio and filmographies pages too (also very informative and detailed) and finally there's two text interviews with Ms Fenech, one from 1982 and another more recent one from 2000. The nice extensive detail of both the stills and text pages does in fact make very interesting reading and rounds off the package as a whole nicely for fans of Fenech's work.

And it is probably really only those fans of Ms Fenech's work (and the Eurosex fanatics) that will enjoy this particular release - well it will be these folk that will be forgiving to the less than perfect print presentation and get great pleasure from the detailed extras. 'Lover Boy' is a fun sexy Euro romp and I'm now a fully converted fan of Edwige Fenech's stunning looks. If you're looking for some sexy lighthearted fun then you may just want to check this one out!

Review by Alan Simpson

'Lover Boy' can be ordered direct from Luminous Film & Video Wurks by clicking here.


 
Released by Shoarma Digital
Not Rated - Region 0 (NTSC)
Ratio - Fullscreen
Audio - Dolby digital mono
Extras :
Stills gallerys, Interviews & Bio pages
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