The Winsome Widow (1973)

I've somehow managed to become a kind of connoisseur of 70's Italian sex comedies lately, so trust me when I say this is definitely one of the better ones. It has a GREAT plot: a man is killed in a car accident while rushing home to have sex with his wife. Because he died in testate, his considerable inheritance is to be split among his wife and his eleven no-account brothers. However, the dead man's scheming mother-in-law finds a loophole. If the wife (her daughter) is pregnant, the inheritance is all hers. And since she has 300 days to give birth to the "heir" (do the math there), she can easily make use of a surrogate father (if she hurries) to produce this heir. But where will she ever find a willing surrogate? Well, since the wife is played by the voluptuous Edwige Fenech, THAT is certainly not going to be a problem. In fact, the brothers, many of whom are low-level mafiosi, have to recruit a bunch of goons to keep away the mob of male suitors who want to "console" this "inconsolable widow", but then they even have to worry these virile toughs might themselves prove TOO right for the job.

Fenech's character herself goes from a shy, demure woman manipulated by her grasping mother to a more than active participant in the scheme, justifying herself all the way in hilarious monologues with her dead husbands photograph (which keeps changing expressions). Fenech here shows why she was the reigning queen of 70's sex comedies. Even with the usual bad English dubbing, she delivers a very funny performance that would be worthwhile even if she didn't take her clothes off (but, of course, she DOES take her clothes off too). Fenech managed to work with pretty much all the 70's Italian sex comedy directors from the best (Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci) to the relative hacks (Michele Massimo Tarantini). The director of this one, Mario Laurenti, with whom Fenech also made "Ubalda, All Naked and Warm", "Vice in the Family", and "Schoolteacher in a Boy's College" among others, was kind of in the middle of the pack, but he definitely does an adequate job here. But it would have been hard for any director to screw this up with such a great concept and such sexy AND genuinely talented leading lady.

I can even pay this the ultimate compliment for an Italian sex romp and say that it would have been entertaining comedy even WITHOUT the sex. (I know--the mind boggles). Recommended.