Directed by:
Armando Bo
Voluptuous Latin American bombshell Isabel Sarli, who started out as a model and beauty queen (she was Miss Argentina in 1955 and a Miss Universe semi-finalist later the same year) headlines this little exploitation romp from Argentina. A vision of heaving bosom, soft tummy, wide hips, piled-high black hair and thick fake eyelashes, it's easy to see why she became an in-demand sex film star in South America and also acquired a healthy fan following elsewhere. Sarli was discovered by director Bo in 1956 and immediately cast in a starring role in his Thunder in the Grass (1957), where she instantly made a name for herself by becoming the first actress in Argentine film history to appear fully nude on film. The notoriety of her nude swimming scene was such that it turned the otherwise unexceptional drama into a record-setting box office smash in much of South America. Many other controversial and then-critically-panned sexploitation films featuring ample nudity from the star would follow, with the duo perhaps hitting their peak in 1968 with Fuego, which was so racy it became the first film to be banned in its home country.
Many of Sarli's films were also popular in North America and throughout Europe and she reputedly turned down offers to work with major studios just to keep making these low-budget sex flicks with Bo, whom she was romantically involved with for decades. The duo kept on going until his death in 1981, with Sarli (then in her early 50s) deciding to throw in the towel at the same time. Before passing away in 2019 at the age of 89, she was at least able to see the cultural impact of her films and was even awarded the title of "Ambassador of Popular Culture" by Argentinian president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in 2012.
Unhappy trophy wife Ansise (Sarli), who'd been plucked from her Guarani Indian tribe and "cultured" years earlier, is desperate to have a child. And not just any kind of child will suffice. For some reason that's never explained (Nazi fetish?) she's fixated on having one with blonde hair and blue eyes. That proves an impossible task as she's married to wealthy, much-older lumberyard owner Leandro (Daniel de Alvarado) who may shower her with money, attention and gifts but hasn't yet been able to shower her with a pregnancy. Consults with an old psychic woman and a doctor both confirm her suspicions that it's likely her husband who's infertile (or, "useless" as they deem him), not her. The problem is then compounded when pressure put on the old chap to perform makes him unable to get an erection.
Leandro starts taking his frustrations out on his work crew and has his whip-wielding right hand thug Peralta (Miguel A. Olmos) tie up and lash an under-performer. This kind of brutality only further alienates Ansise, who starts to actively despise ("You are the scum of civilization!") her husband. For revenge, she runs off to a whorehouse and is hired by the madam after agreeing to service thirty to forty men a day during her 8 hour shifts. She doesn't even ask to get paid. She merely wants somebody - anybody - to knock her up. But Leandro gets wind about what she's doing and goes to retrieve her before she can even finish with her very first client. She's brought back home and becomes even wilder.
Leandro hires a young blonde man named Juan (Victor Bo, the director's real-life son) and, almost immediately, he and Ansise are hooking up, taking nude swims together under a waterfall and plotting to run away together. Ansise begins flaunting her infidelities in her husband's face to the point where he attempts to strangle her. After another of Ansise's patented nude swims, she lies down in a field and has visions of Indian rituals as lightning flashes. A horned, clawed, hairy demon then crawls on top of her and rapes her before disappearing. Or does it? Seeing how Ansise was already starting to lose her mind over the whole baby thing, we're not quite sure. Either way, local legend has it that a demon called Pombero is known to lurk in the area...
Ansise is haunted by visions of the demon, accompanied by psychedelic color flashes and a whistling sound as it proceeds to grope her, terrorize her and (seemingly) possess her body. Desperation finally leads her to the backwoods shack of dirty hermit Jacinto (C. Adolpho Chadler). She pleads for him to impregnate her but the demon chops him with a machete before he can. More murders follow. We're also provided with an explanation for why Leandro can't get it up for his sexy young wife. It ends up having nothing to do with his age and everything to do with him screwing his male assistant (!) instead... but only if he wears lipstick and sprays himself with women's perfume (?!?) beforehand.
As a movie movie, this is cheap, not very well made or shot and has some truly bizarre and off-putting editing choices, with lots of quick cuts and flashes of reused footage we've either already seen or are about to see along with grainy, sepia tinted archive footage from the director's earlier film India (1959) wedged in from time to time. As a horror movie, it has a few fun schlocky moments but it's never very exciting nor very interesting plot-wise. And if you're a feminist you might want to steer clear unless you're looking to laugh at a depiction of a woman with no discernible personality or driving force in her life outside of becoming a brood mare who'll screw any man in sight.
However, as a showcase for the female star's figure this is a resounding success. She has near-nonstop topless scenes, a full frontal nude scene, a few minor sex scenes (one featuring the director in an uncredited cameo as a brothel client) and, during those few times when she isn't naked, is showing maximum cleavage in short dresses or walking around in see-through nightgowns. If you're a fan of large breasted, curvy women, what Sarli brings to the table will certainly bewitch you even if the rest of the film doesn't.
To my knowledge, this Argentinian / Brazilian co-production has never been officially released to home video in any country. The only current outlets who carry it are bootleggers offering a video-sourced print on DVD-R, which comes with English subs and a fucked-up aspect ratio. While most film resources agree that this was made in 1969, they don't always agree on the release year. I've seen some go with 1969 and others claim it didn't make it to theaters until 1976.
★★
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