Film-Forward Review: [SECRETS OF A CALL GIRL/THE SENSUOUS NURSE (both 1973)]

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SECRETS OF A CALL GIRL (ANNA, QUEL PARTICOLARE PIACERE) (1973)
Directed by: Giuliano Carnimeo.
Produced by: Luciano Martino.
Written by: Ernesto Gastaldi & Francesco Milizia.
Director of Photography: Marcello Masciocchi.
Edited by: Eugenio Alabiso.
Music by: Luciano Michelini.
Released by: NoShame Films.
Language: Italian with English subtitles or English audio.
Country of Origin: Italy. 95 min. Not Rated.
With: Edwige Fenech, Corrado Pani, Richard Conte, Eltore Manni, John Richardson, Bruno Corazzari, Umberto Raho.
DVD Features: "Memories of a Call Girl" (25 min.) featurette with director Giuliano Carnimeo, actress Edwige Fenech, & writer Ernesto Gastaldi. Trailer. Poster & still gallery. Italian & English audio. Italian & English subtitles.

THE SENSUOUS NURSE (L'INFERMIERA) (1973)
Directed by: Nello Rosatti.
Produced by: Carlo Ponti.
Written by: Nello Rosatti, Claudia Florio, Roberto Gianviti & Paolo Vidali.
Director of Photography: Ennio Guarieri.
Edited by: Alberto Gallitti.
Music by: Gianfranco Plenizio.
Released by: NoShame.
Language: Italian with English subtitles or English audio.
Country of Origin: Italy. 101 min. Not Rated.
With: Ursula Andress, Duilio Del Prete, Jack Palance, Luciana Paluzzi, Marina Confalone, Mario Pisu, Lino Toffolo.
DVD Features: "Calling the Nurse" (23 min.) featurette with director Nello Rosatti & production designer Tony Rosatti. Trailer. Poster & still gallery. Italian & English audio. Italian & English subtitles.

Unified by a common theme of hookers and breasts, The Sensuous Nurse and Secrets of a Call Girl are distributor NoShame's latest rejuvenations from obscurity. If you've ever shied away from watching Porky's or American Pie, you can use the following three excuses to quell your hesitations and validate watching The Sensuous Nurse: it's European, it's a time capsule from 1973, and it features ex-Bond girls Ursula Andress and Luciana Paluzzi splayed in all their splendor. As the wealthy owner of a vineyard falls into a sudden coma, his impatient heirs hire nurse Anna (Ursula Andress) and her Nordic bounty to finish him off by lusting him to death. Wackiness does indeed ensue.

NoShame's other new release is a more complicated fare. Secrets of a Call Girl combines genres (crime drama, woman's picture, and carnal sex-fest) into one hell of a bad movie. Cashier Anna (Edwige Fenech), pretty and poor, meets sexy Guido (Corrado Pani) at her café counter. He proceeds to stalk her, beat her, rape her, force her into prostitution and to abort her baby - but he's sexy so it doesn't bother her. The story turns in the second hour when Anna realizes her pimp/lover is raping her and she starts to mean it when she says, "No" (as opposed to before, when she was just kidding). From that point on it's a dull game of sex and vengeance. Offensive attempt at making a woman's picture aside, it's the ridiculous characters, a shameless and uninspired story line, horrible screenwriting, and overindulged editing that make this a cheesy movie.

DVD Extras: There's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that both films are given a truly remarkable transfer to christen their DVD debut. The bad news is that everything else falls short of that minor joy. Both films include production stills and their original theatrical trailers (which are worth watching if only to calculate the ratio of nude to clothed shots in the minute-long trailer).

"Memories of a Call Girl" begins as screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi and actress Edwige Fenech (looking as if she hasn't aged since filming wrapped) admit they can barely remember anything about the film. They manage to continue talking for another 20 minutes. Faring slightly better, the Rosatti brothers, who directed and designed The Sensual Nurse, seem a little less surprised to be talking about their movie in a sterile series of interviews for "Calling the Nurse." That said, both DVD releases offer the only opportunity to own these films. And since the digital transfer is excellent, each DVD is a solid purchase for collectors of Italian obscurities and those beleaguered souls tired of watching the same Shannon Tweed movie on Cinemax. Zachary Jones
August 30, 2005

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