Italian filmmakers well and truly got balls deep into any and all American genre cinema trends in the ‘70s and ‘80s in order to make some dough.
That eloquent statement brings us to the subject of Discoploitation… yup, that’s right, or pals in Italy saw Saturday Night Fever and said “Fuck yeah, we can do that!”
And they did… in a way… and now I’m going to take a gander at the results courtesy of Severin’s new Blu-ray boxset; Disco Italiana!
Things kick off with American Fever (1978)…
Our hero Tony (Mircha Carven, SS Experiment Love Camp) works as a mechanic by day and tears it up in his white suit on the disco floor at night… he’s also an aspiring actor.
All isn’t carburetors and the Hustle however, and Tony finds himself getting involved with Lisa (Zora Kerova, Antropophagus, Cannibal Ferox)… yet another aspiring thespian that he talks down from a suicide attempt.
While contending with that, Tony has to put up with with his wheeling n’ dealing aspiring (absolutely no one in this picture is content just being really good at Disco or their day jobs) screenwriter/director best buddy Dino (Vincenzo Crocitti)… and ol’ Dino is getting in debt to the local mob!
What follows is a (no doubt) cocaine fueled journey into an entertaining pastiche of Saturday Night Fever (no shit), Rocky (for a sec), and Boogie Nights (well before that was a thing) brought to us by Director/Co-Writer Claudio Giorgi and Co-Writer George Eastman (the aforementioned Antropophagus himself)!
With our working man hero who’s an absolute legend on the dance floor, it easy to see where those Saturday Night Fever vibes are coming from (Tony’s problem’s with the ladies have echoes of Travolta’s predicament in the aforementioned film)… but Tony is also a worshiper of American films with Italian leads so we get a homage to Balboa’s iconic workout, and when the financial chips are down, our hero puts his good looks to work and dives balls deep into the world of ‘70s porno!
Of course what made ol’ Saturday so iconic was the banger Bee Gees soundtrack and it’s copious dance sequences… and while American Fever is packed up the ass with the latter, the music on display here fails to reach the levels of The Brothers Gibb we do get the theme song to the picture, Spotlight’s catchy eponymous toe-tapper, which plays every time someone so much as farts.
Speaking of the soundtrack/dancing, we also get a choreographed booty shakin’ number called Passion Flower which is ridiculous and amazing simultaneously.
And while you are doubtless still dancing around your living room you can check out the special features included here which include an audio commentary courtesy of Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson And Howard S. Berger that provides an amazing amount of trivia and info on how American Fever came to be, a mini-doc featuring Author Alan Jones providing a history of disco and how it lead to the Italian Discoploitation genre, and the film’s trailer.
All in all, American Fever is groovy (and entertaining) as all hell, and a solid way to kick of this collection with a platform shoe!
Next we have Grease Rock (1979) which comes to us from the director of the astonishingly dinosaur-less cannibal flick Massacre in Dinosaur Valley, Michele Massimo Tarantini.
I’m going to do my best here…
Happy-go-lucky Robbie (Monty Ray Garrison) lives with his family (whom we meet in a sequence lifted from Saturday Night Fever but with way more eating of hair-styling products) and spends all of his time riding around on an absolutely fucking ludicrous motorcycle (featuring a big ol’ sticker of the logo from the movie Grease on the side, as well as gigantic rear-view mirrors with a picture of John Travolta emblazoned upon each… so you know it’s sweet as fuck) with his friends (sadly on regular motorcycles) and hanging out at a disco where his crew have dance-offs against their black black-clad rivals.
One such evening our charming hero meets and instantly falls in horny with a red-haired beauty from America’s Deep South who exits the disco before he can find out all her deets.
Eventually Robbie does indeed find her… and, if you opt for the English dub, her cartoon-level southern accent… and as it turns out she’s seemingly an incredibly wealthy socialite named Cindy (Auretta Gay, Fulci’s Zombie).
Robbie hopes to kindle a bit of a romance with Cindy… even though there are an ass load of rivals in his way… as well as convince her to be his partner in the impending big dance competition since they are magic on the floor together… unfortunately Rick (the leader of the above mentioned black clad-rivals) will do his best to fuck that up for our hero!
And how will Robbie’s regular dance partner, Sandra (Cecilia Buonocore) factor into all of this?
Along the way there’s a “fancy restaurant date” sequence where Robbie… clad in sweatpants and a sweatshirt adorned with the giant smiling face of Mickey Mouse fires olives out of his salad accompanied by gunshot noises and a soundtrack that would be at home in a Three Stooges short… it’s absolutely hilarious and insane in equal measure, so right on course for ol’ Grease Rock!
Additionally there is way more vehicular action here than you would expect…
Comprised of an incredibly game cast, lead by Monty Ray Garrison as our lovable roguish protagonist, genuinely (intentionally) hilarious moments, and a wonderfully eclectic soundtrack, Grease Rock does rock… in many ways!
For one thing, the dancing here is showy and way over-the-top in the most spectacular way you can imagine…super choreographed and syncopated… like a Broadway show’s idea of disco… and at times mixed with a hoedown… it’s dazzling!
The soundtrack to this film is unsurprisingly a batshit a collection of unhinged songs, some performed by an Italian approximation of the Bee Gees… additionally there’s a song about America… I don’t fuckin’ know… there’s a baffling, sax and bass-laden cover of Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones… oh, and John Paul Young’s Love is in the Air plays a few times (including over the opening credits)… it’s all as much of a fever dream as the rest of the film… and I didn’t even mention Daniel Danieli’s Honey for Bears… which is very popular in the universe Grease Rock resides in (and possibly only there)… hell, there’s just one song that’s vocal performance is nothing but weird-ass mouth noises…
Flat out, Grease Rock alone makes this set worth it!
To accompany Grease Rock we get another excellent audio commentary from a returning Thompson, this time joined by fellow Film Historian Eugenio Ercolani, another chat with Jones (this time concentrating on Grease Rock exclusively), and the film’s trailer.
Last up comes John Travolto… The Face with Two Left Feet (also from 1979)…
Gianni (Giuseppe Spezia) looks like… and here’s a sentence I never thought I’d be typing… an effeminate Gabe Kaplan and hangs out in the local John Travolta-themed disco pining away for the club’s DJ, the comely Ilona (Ilona Staller).
After embarrassing the shit out of himself on the dance floor, his chances with Ilona don’t look too fuckin’ rosey… but his wacky cadre of friends get the idea that Gianni could be the spitting image of the disco superstar after defacing a poster of ol’ T-Volt… and via a disco danced salon montage they do just that… and truth be told, my dude does look a fuck-ton like Saturday Night Fever-era Travolta… and he comes complete with a rip-off of Stayin’ Alive that plays whenever he makes the scene.
Will Gianni be able to learn all the right moves on the dance floor to win over his crush?
With The Face with Two Left Feet we go from Saturday Night Fever pastiche to parody and what we are left with is one of the most charming pictures contained in this release!
The narrative is equal parts Can’t Stop the Music (The Village People’s feature film that arrived just a tad too late on the scene) and the Johnny Yune/comedic Bruceploitation number, They Call Me Bruce?… our look-alike hero ends up stumbling from one sitch to the next with disco and comedy billowing around him like the waves of a ludicrous sea. It’s goofy, corny, hilarious and absolutely irresistible!
A HUGE reason for that is the enthusiastic cast comprised of familiar faces such as Nightmare City’s Sonia Viviani and Bruno Mattei regular Massimo Vanni (Zombi 3, Rats: Night of Terror)… and the core group of inseparable friends seem like old pals out to have as much fun as possible!
Special features for The Face with Two Left Feet include Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson, Eugenio Ercolani And Howard S. Berger teaming up for another round of facts and anecdotes, a return engagement for Jones (this time focusing on the end of Discoploitation), a duo of trailers for the picture (the rap featured in the U.S. trailer is particularly amazing), and the film’s soundtrack on a separate CD!
Energetic, fun, and captivating, the flicks contained in Disco Italiana are an absolute cinematic delight and a good time through and through, so your boogie infected backside should snatch this one up if you love the wild n’ weird world of Italian exploitation flicks!
