THE FEMALE: SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN (1962)

 I'm really only familiar with Argentinian sex goddess Isabel Sarli from the amazing film FUEGO where she plays an uncontrollable nymphomaniac.  It was directed by and starred her lover in real life Armando Bo and he seemed to know exactly how to show off this well-endowed lady to the fullest.  That film was from 1969 while this one was made 7 years earlier by someone else and is completely tame in comparison.  Sarli does play a prostitute as the movie opens but from there she flashes back to her boring life living with some dullard well-digger/farmer and unfortunately that's where most of the plot takes place.  I use the word plot pretty loosely too since there isn't much of anything going on and this has to be one of the most boring exercises in tedium.  Occasionally we get a few scenes back at the whorehouse where Sarli works were we glimpse some quick toe-sucking and very softcore humping.  I think I may have seen a millisecond of nipple but I'm not sure.  To make things even worse it seems these only mildly interesting nudie/sex scenes were filmed and added later on so I can't imagine how boring this movie was in it's original form.  I think I'm just gonna stick to Sarli's films directed by Bo for maximum entertainment value.

     

FUEGO (1969)

                                                                        "FUEGO!"

 Made back in The 60's in Argentina this sexploitation classic was banned in its home country for its lewd sexual displays(consisting of star Isabel Sarli's tremendous boobs and hetero plus homosexual slutty antics).  A favorite of director John Waters(no doubt due to its similarities to Russ Meyers films) and you can see where Divine was inspired with the amazingly pouty and gyration-filled performance of Ms. Sarli.  I find it amazing in reading more about Sarli that she was, in real life, a quiet Catholic gal who hated doing nude scenes but only did them to help out her lover(director Armando Bo) and I'm sure her assets helped sell many tickets.  If this little factoid is true then I would rate this as one of the greatest(and maybe campiest) performances of all time.  I also feel that in addition to the obvious sex for sex's sake there is a, surely unintentional, feminist message throughout the film.  I mean Sarli's Laura character seems pretty content with her life of sleeping around and enjoying continual lesbian romps with her maid up until the point where she gets married to a man who wants to possess her completely.  This being the 60's and being South America this theme isn't explored very fully and relegates any lesbianic tendencies of hers to being unnatural urges brought on by her insatiable "sickness".  After viewing this you will likely have visions of Latino boobs dancing through your head and as an added bonus the theme song "FUEGO!" will also be stuck in there for a while. Watching this today it all comes off as a hilariously campy film that was made with what I'm pretty sure at the time of filming were somewhat serious intentions, at least as serious as a film primarily made to show off a woman's huge breasts can be.



John Waters introduction: