VividSimon Simply Perfect

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

jasontheterrible You have never seen a femme fatale that is only 12 but there are many things in this film one will never see in another film. There is no nudity below the waste though sex is implied and shown facing the male on top of an obvious stand in. You still do not see anything though Simona is often nude and clearly shown from the waste up.The story is worthwhile because I am sure this kind of attraction happens all the time. The pedophile murderer does not hide his crime but this a such a dysfunctional family they accept him and Simona even wants to have his baby. You can also view this as a cautionary tale about marriages of convenience and/or money that really have no basis beyond that.The attraction between the child and the killer is believable in every way but the ending is not at all predictable and is worth the price of admission. Shall I call it a happy ending? Pretty close.

PimpinAinttEasy L'immoralita is a rather dull thriller-drama with some interesting moments. A child molester-killer who is on the run from the police, coops up with an extremely dysfunctional family consisting of a paraplegic and impotent father, sexually frustrated mother and their strange and sexually curious girl child.The director was interested in making a thriller - this aspect of the film is emphasized by the gangsters and the policeman who are out to get the child molester. But they came across as too cheesy. Their roles were ill conceived. The film works better as an intense drama with strong sexual elements.The conversations between the small girl and her father in which they refer to nature and animals offers some clues to the films themes. When the father says every action has a reaction, the girl responds, saying she understands - "it is like punishment at school, the worse the crime the harsher the punishment" This response foreshadows the film's ending.The aviary in the garden is used as a pretty blatant metaphor.Morricone's idyllic sounding score is used in many scenes by the director. It is such a simple melody on a piano, succeeded and punctuated by the violins and Edda Dell Orso's singing.I wouldn't really recommend this film. Some people seem to be interested in it due to the graphic sex scenes. I did not find them to be titillating.Lisa Gastoni is very good as the cruel and sexually frustrated mother. Karen Trentephol's (the child actress) performance is worth mentioning.

MARIO GAUCI This is the third Lisa Gastoni "mignotta-movie" (to borrow a phrase from Italian Euro-Cult authority Marco Giusti) I've watched – after THANK YOU AUNT (1968) and Fernando Di Leo's SEDUCTION (1973) – in which a middle-aged woman is seduced by a much younger man. Also, like SEDUCTION, here the man is, in turn, seduced by Gastoni's sexually precocious daughter. However, this fact is even more disturbing than the earlier film because the girl involved in this case is not yet 12-years old! There is even one rather graphic love scene between the girl and the man in the bathroom, which follows further nudity as she is seen coming out of the bath and drying out; that it does not feel reprehensible or exploitative is a tribute to the remarkably sensitive performance of Karin Trentephol (who, perhaps unsurprisingly, never made another film appearance) as the girl.Lisa Gastoni (at 43) is still a sensual and attractive woman and has her hair dyed reddish blonde here, but this proved to be the last of several roles in a similar mode – to which I alluded above and of which I wouldn't mind catching Jerzy Kawalerowicz's MADDALENA (1971) and Giulio Petroni's LABBRE DI LURIDO BLU (1975); in fact, she went into a long period of retirement right after this one before re-emerging two years ago. A welcome surprise is the appearance of veteran Hollywood star Mel Ferrer (as Gastoni's wheelchair-bound cynic of a husband) who adds some much needed dignity to the proceedings; while he had been appearing sporadically in Italian films since 1954, interestingly, his role here does not feel like a mere "meal ticket" – unlike some of his other Italian film work of the period, namely THE ANTICHRIST (1974), THE VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS (1975), etc. Unfortunately, Howard Ross' one-dimensional characterization of the rapist/serial killer sticks out like a sore thumb alongside this caliber of acting and, in any event, the actions of the characters strain credibility on occasion – Ferrer is conspicuously absent most of the time (although he is inherently aware of all that goes on in his household and his eventual suicide arises more out of selfishness than resignation at his crippled condition or the immorality of his kinfolk), not to mention the fact that the investigating police officer decides to consummate his obsession with Gastoni while the manhunt for the rapist is in full swing.Still the film is buoyed by Ennio Morricone's unusually subtle yet effortlessly haunting piano-led score and Massimo Pirri's firm directorial control that ensures the impact of several sequences on the viewer: the powerful opening scene in which Ross is holding his latest victim in his hands on his way to burying her; the lengthy, moving stairway confrontation between Gastoni and Trentephol; the confrontation between Ferrer and Gastoni in which the latter sadistically taunts the former by taking a hysterical spin on his wheelchair, and the twist ending which concludes the film on an admirably ironic note. While the central premise of a girl hiding and aiding a fugitive is reminiscent of WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND (1961) and THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (1973), the action set-piece around the mid-point – where a band of villagers break into Ferrer's house with the intention of smoking the rapist out – is straight out of Sam Peckinpah's STRAW DOGS (1971). An odd attribute of the Italian DVD I watched is that some over-exposed shots jarred alongside the more naturalistic lighting within these same scenes, but I'm not sure whether this is a fault of the DVD transfer or if they were filmed that way to begin with...

littlelostwonders i picked up a copy of this movie at an old Italian owned video store, completely unaware of what i was about to witness for the next 90 minutes or so. what originally sparked my interest in this 70's obscurity was the box cover artwork, which was basically a black cover with a large keyhole in the center - a single eye looking through it. simple, but effective enough to get my $2 for a weekly rental.i'll never quite be able to fathom what the state of mind was like in the 70's, particularly in Italy (the origin of this film). i'm simply left speechless when i see a film like this. not that it was good. it was downright sleazy, and altogether badly done. but what concerns me here is the film's content.in brief, a escaped killer (supposedly child killer) befriends a young girl of roughly 12 years of age. she takes him to her house in a beautiful remote part of the countryside, and hides him in the basement. her mother (a widow, or divorced?) soon learns of his presence in the house, and they eventually become lovers. but it is only to be short lived as this killer will soon meet his fate.what strikes me about this film is not only the explicit content, but a brief sex scene between the killer and the young girl, which she (the character) willingly participates in (its obviously a body double, but still!?) ... i was truly shocked. and its no wonder this film faded quickly into obscurity.my question is: how did a film like this ever get made? who were the people who financed this film, and others like it? it seems that for a brief while (in that decade where anything went) if you could conceive a story so depraved, and so totally wrong, there was a good chance of getting it made.i don't recommend this film to anyone. it would only hold interest to those who have a Lolita-fetish, or collectors of hard-to-find movies. in any case, just remember: I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS FILM!