The Seducers (1969)

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It's a familiar story. Not this tale of Tony, who is apparently mentally handicapped, and his mother Mudi (Maud de Belleroche) and friends' attempts to rid him of his virginity, amidst exotic, sun-kissed locations. I mean the story of a film with a certain reputation presumed lost - or woefully incomplete - found and meticulously reconstructed, proving to be ... mostly unspectacular.Not since Godzilla trudged out of the water to confront a shabby Japanese King Kong have two more mighty icons shared screen-time together. Seeing two mighty giants of giallo films - Rosalba Neri (Paola) and Edwige Fenech (Ulla) - sharing screen time together is an almost surreal scene, and it is this pairing that probably ensured interest in 'Top Sensation'. The result spends vast amounts of its running time exploring the tremendous environment and the equally tremendous star players.Visually, it is great. The locations are incredible and lend themselves entirely to the casual paradise in which these rich layabouts live their lives. It goes without saying Fenech and Neri are masters of their craft: naturally beautiful and exuding casual confidence and a sense of presence, it is a pity this is the one and only time they are billed together. There's a scene featuring Fenech and a goat that is as mind-boggling as it sounds.Mudi is pretty fixated on her son's plight, going to the lengths of implanting hidden cameras in the yacht and copping off with Paola's husband Aldo (Maurizio Bonuglia). The stinger here is that Tony, despite being surrounded by such wanton temptation, falls for uncorrupted local farm girl Beba (Ewa Thulin). Only then do events turn particularly strange and nasty, and the shift from mild sex-romp to drama becomes apparent. This interesting development almost feels tacked on, it arrives so late, but is still very effective and unexpected.The final scene leaves things open-ended but fairly gloomy, which is a good contrast to the sunny, carefree hi-jinks earlier on.

Unlike what you may think going into this one, it only barely qualifies as a thriller and is more an erotic drama with some thriller elements. There's really no suspense generated at any point, even if the plot-line does move onto murder in its latter half. No, this one's focus is more squarely on other things for the majority of its screen-time. This is not exactly a bad thing though, as it means The Seducers is perhaps slightly less generic than a lot of its contemporaries. I was definitely brought to mind of Roman Polanski's psychological drama Knife in the Water (1962) though, with its group of unsympathetic characters playing out their melodrama and mind-games on a private boat cruise. But then again, I was also reminded of the outrageous Greek exploitation extravaganza Island of Death (1976) on account of that one's scene of goat-based bestiality – in The Seducers we move into a similar basic ball-park, albeit of a decidedly less disgraceful variety. Unlike in Island of Death where we have a male sociopath roger an unfortunate animal, here we have the lovely Edwige Fenech really only getting up close and personal with it. It's a mixture of the questionable, the erotic and the outright bizarre – a properly strange scene whichever way you look at it.The story takes place on a luxurious yacht cruising in the Mediterranean. A wealthy woman of questionable motives hires three people – the seducers of the title - to deflower her mentally-deranged son. Add an innocent farm girl to the mix and you have the recipe for much sexploitation shenanigans.This one is notable for both being a very early screen appearance from cult icon Fenech but is of additional note in that it pairs her up with another of the hottest actresses working in Italian genre films at the time, Rosalba Neri. In actual fact this film is owned by Neri mainly. Kitted out in a leather bikini, carrying a rifle and throwing dynamite into the sea, she is a bad girl par excellence in this one. I've seen Neri in a number of movies but this may very well be her definitive moment here, as her assertive sensuality is a perfect fit for this character. In any case, her and Fenech together in an erotic set-up is never going to be a bad thing, in actual fact they even at one point indulge in a three-way girl-on-girl-on-girl romp with the farm girl they bring on board.All-in-all, this is a bit of an unheralded gem. I only saw it when a very kind fellow IMDb user sent me a copy which suffered from pretty ropey sound quality. It's definitely a movie, though, that is crying out for a proper transfer, it definitely deserves that kind of care and is one that Euro-cult enthusiasts will definitely lap up.

Rosalba Neri, Edwige Fenech and Eva Thulin. All in one film and in and out of their clothes, throughout, I barely need to say any more. And yet, all three perform really well, be it barely clothed or nude and the film moves at a decent pace with constant surprises and sharp dialogue. A middle aged woman (who seems to have a preference for women) owns a smart boat and takes a young couple along with her son and a hooker in an attempt to get the son to recover from his madness by having sex with Fenech (the hooker). As you can see she is as mad as her son, but all get it on in various ways and much fun is had. There is also a shepherd and his young wife (Thulin) and an amorous goat who Fenech seems to take a shine to. This is an early film for Fenech, who would go on to make some classic giallo, but at only 21 she certainly gets stuck into the sex scenes even if Neri steals all the other scenes. She is 10 years older here, a veteran of many films already and assuredly takes centre stage, especially when given a gun to hold! Really good fun.

Rosalba Neri and Edwige Fenech in the same film...what could possibly go wrong? Very little, it would seem, as what we have here is a sensational slice of Italian trash that works in every way you could want it to. The film is something like Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water mixed with naked women and a handful of Giallo themes. It's a real shame that this film hasn't been given a proper DVD release, as while the seductive nature of the film still shines through on the bootleg DVDr that I saw it on, the film would be much better served with a crisp, clean picture and adequate sound. Anyway, the plot focuses on the events transpiring on a yacht. Mudy - a stone-cold matriarch, wants her son to get laid. Tony is an odd kid to say the least, and even when Mudy recruits Aldo and his sexy wife Paula (Rosalba Neri), as well as saucy prostitute Ulla (Edwige Fenech), he still doesn't seem interested. It's only when he bumps into farm girl Beba that his interest seems to be sparked, and his mother quickly insists on the pair returning to her boat. However, the lovely ladies decide to start playing games with the boy's new girl...Despite the fact that the film doesn't go too far, it is amazingly sexy, and that is of course down to its female leads. Director Ottavio Alessi makes good use of his women, and scenes involving Edwige Fenech and a goat, as well as a three way lesbian scene stand out most. Neri and Fenech spend most of the movie wearing hardly anything, and neither one minds taking their top off - which is fine by me. The plot doesn't take a backseat to the sex and nudity, however, and that's what really makes Top Sensation stand out above similar films. The way that the yacht is rigged with cameras makes the film feel all the more sleazy, and the idea of a mother trying to get her son laid is exactly whiter than white either. The sleazy elements exist in harmony with the storyline, which makes the film feel more complete than your average porno. The characters are all presented in an interesting way, and the director does well at ensuring that the plot is always interesting by upping the stakes at the right time throughout. The ending is shocking enough, and overall - Top Sensation comes highly recommended to all fans of Italian sleaze!