Primitive Love & Mondo Balordo

Starring:Boris Karloff, Ugo Fangareggi, Jayne Mansfield, Franco Franchi, Ciccio Ingrassia, Mickey Hargitay, Carlo Kechler, Lucia Modugno, Alfonso Sarlo, Eugenio Galadini, Riccardo Cucciolla
Director: Roberto Bianchi Montero, Luigi Scattini
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Description

This rarely seen classic is available for the first time on DVD! The Greek myth of Daphnis and Chloe is told through the tale of the sexual awakening of two adolescents in a Greek tribe.

Customer Reviews:

an enigmatic, disturbing film.......2007-06-17

This film is a mixed of realism and myth. There are hints of Daphnis and Chloe, but this is not their story at all.

A naive and good young boy (played by a blonde boy of about eleven) travels with a group of sheepherders. At one of their stops, he wanders off and finds a mysterious young girl of about 13 or 14. He falls in love with her, but she plays hard to get and sets tasks for him to do in order to win her. At one point, she teases him wearing a loose garment off one shoulder. There are several shots in which her young breasts are visible, but the twilight is dim. At the end (spoiler coming), an older boy of his group sees the girl, throws her to the ground and rapes her. She screams and resists at first, then throws herself into it. The boy is totally disallusioned, and we see him walking off into the sea dragging the albatross that has been a bond between him and the girl throughout the movie.

That's really it. You make of it what you will, but few people will be able to watch this movie and not have strong mixed feelings of one kind or another.

Average customer rating:

The Fall of Jayne Mansfield
Beware the Trailers!
primitive love/mondo balordo
Jayne!
Oh, Jayne!

Primitive Love & Mondo Balordo
Starring: Boris Karloff , Ugo Fangareggi , Jayne Mansfield , Franco Franchi , and Ciccio Ingrassia
Director: Roberto Bianchi Montero , and Luigi Scattini
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Classics | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Cult Movies | Genres | DVD | Video

( P ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00005QBZ2
Release Date: 2001-11-27

Description

Yes, Jayne strips and Boris lisps in this Mondo Drive-In Double Feature actually filmed in the bizarre corners of this weird, wacky world! "Primitive Love" (1964, 77 min.) - Jayne Mansfield, that eminent anthropologist herself, is out to prove that men prefer Primitive Love. The madness continues with "Mondo Balordo" (1967, 87 min.) as narrator Boris Karloff demonstrates that "nothing invented by the human mind can be as macabre, grotesque, and thrilling as the behavior of people in so-called real life," and we witness a global freak show encompassing transvestites, lesbians, Japanese bondage, the "reincarnation of Rudolph Valentino," and 27-inch-tall zoot suit-clad Franz Drago singing "I Ain't Got No Body!" Two jaw-dropping "shock-you-mentaries" proving once again that our planet is just one big loony bin!Mondo Trailers for "Primitive Love," "Mondo Balordo," "Ecco," "It's a Sick Sick Sick World," "The Mating Urge," "Mondo Freudo," "Mondo Oscenita," "Mondo Pazzo," "Secret Africa," "Women of Pleasure" and "Women Of The World;" 2 Short Subject Oddities: Spend A Wild Night at the Interlude, and Gawk at the Big Haired Beauty Pageant; "Let's Go to the Drive-In!" - An interactive feature allowing uninterrupted playback of almost three hours worth of mondo drive-in madness; Classic Drive-In Intermission Shorts; Gallery of Mondo Movie Exploitation Art with Radio-Spot Rarities

Customer Reviews:

The Fall of Jayne Mansfield.......2007-05-17

I had been seeking this movie for quite a while.
The people behind ''Something Weird Video'' really believe in the notion of ''Give'em what they want'' but also the concept of ''value for money''.This combo is not as attractive as the one with ''The Wild,Wild World of Jayne Mansfield+The Labyrinth of Sex'' and that is why I give it 4 stars instead of 5.
If you forget the awful wig Jayne is wearing (was the budget so low that they could not even afford a hairdresser ?),her body looks really good,and you laugh with her,not at her when she carries on with her intricate dance numbers.Poor Mickey Hargitay has a small role,that makes you want to watch ''The Loves of Hercules'' where you could at least see his outstanding physique.The two italian actors doing a really cheap imitation of Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis duo,would get arrested if behaving in public in their peculiar and creepy fashion.
The second part ''Mondo Balardo'' has to be the cheapest ''Mondo Cane''-inspired movie.It is still interesting in a ''what the hay ?''type of reaction.
Conclusion:Get that DVD,and show it to your non-Jayne Mansfield admirers friends,if you want to make sure that they will never spend another video-night at your place.However if you are a Jayne Mansfield,watch it as a guilty little pleasure...))

Beware the Trailers!.......2004-01-04

Both "Primitive Love" and "Mondo Balordo" are tamer examples of the "mondo" movies that were popular during the 1960s, beginning with the success of "Mondo Cane" (best known, perhaps, for the song "More," which received an Academy Award nomination). Mondo movies were pseudo-documentaries that purported to reveal shocking, exotic rituals around the world, but, in reality, concentrated their subject matter on third-world countries in Africa and Asia (where said subjects couldn't complain too much and were probably desperate for money, if they received any at all). By any stretch of the imagination, much of the footage would today be appallingly racist.

"Primitive Love" is an inept Italian sex farce starring Jayne Mansfield (already past her prime and obviously desperate for movie work) that includes some footage of so-called "primitve love" rituals from around the world. Some of these "rituals" include graphic documentary footage of the slaughtering and disembowling of animals that featured so prominently in the mondo-movie genre. Animal-rights activists would have a field day with these movies if they ever became popular again. What is inadvertantly hilarious about this movie is definitely not the antics of the two co-stars (a bargain basement Italian version of Martin and Lewis), but Jayne's voiceover narration. It may be the only time in cinema history where you are afforded the chance to hear a blonde bombshell sex goddess seriously conversing on Marxist economic theory!!!

"Mondo Balordo" may have been one of the last gasps of the exhausted mondo-movie genre upon its release, and it features a narrative voiceover by Boris Karloff. It's an incoherent mess of a movie, with random footage spliced together that promises insights into exotic rituals from around the world, but looks more like a package-tour travelogue through a very boring hell.

The real problem with this DVD release, however, is the attachaed trailers for other mondo movies. Here, you get the full, noxious variety of how degrading these movies became over the course of time in an effort to provide more shocking and disturbing thrills to jaded 1960s audiences. Easily the most offensive is a trailer for the mondo-movie "Secret Africa," which features typical National Geographic footage of bare-chested African women that may have been shocking 35-40 years ago, but now seems nothing less than degradingly racist. But more offensive is the inclusion of footage of a baby being held down and, in bloody close-up, ritually scarred as it screams in pain. Also included are close-ups of disfigured victims of the then raging war in Angola. This is appalling, graphic and inexcusable.

Because of the content of the attached trailers, this DVD is unfit for viewing -- certainly by minors and advisedly by any adult with a sensitivity for human misery, suffering and degradation. I would rate this no stars at all if given the chance.

primitive love/mondo balordo.......2004-01-01

lousy foreign film pass on this one

Jayne!.......2002-01-24

Another fine release here from Something Weird Video. PRIMITIVE LOVE features Jayne Mansfield (who totally eclipses Marilyn whatsername in every possible way in my personal book of Cool), while the 2nd feature MONDO BALORDO is narrated by a venerable Boris Karloff. Both are fairly tame, but enjoyable, 60's mondo-fests. Jayne's dance/strip segments are priceless and alone are worth the price of admission.

There are also a bunch of extras on the DVD, including trailers for other mondo movies and two short-shorts. My one minor complaint is that the cover's listing of the extras uses the kinda misleading title "Let's Go To The Drive In!" - An interactive feature allowing uninterrupted playback of almost three hours of mondo drive in madness". This is really just a way to play the disc through without using the menus. Nothing new if you've already gone through everything. No big deal, though.

Now if only SWV would release THE WILD WORLD OF JAYNE MANSFIELD...

Oh, Jayne!.......2002-01-23

Not quite as deleriously goofy as Jayne's post-mortem masterpiece "The Wild Wild World of Jayne Mansfield" (Hint: PLEASE! Something Weird put that one out on DVD!!!), but sure to thrill fans of Jayne and her bizarre exploitation phase, the best of her career. One scene, which might just be the dictionary definition of "camp", has Jaynie hula-dancing in a fake jungle set with a black wig to the strains of an Annette Funicello record! The plot, such as it is, involves Jayne's quest for academic acceptance of her anthropological theories in an uncaring world. She demonstrates her ideas with the usual array of "mondo" film clips in her hotel room. Shameless mugging ensues from Franco and Ciccio, two Italian comics who are delightfully surreal in their sheer UN-funniness as they try to get a peek at Jayne and her shocking footage. Jayne also does a tame (no real nudity) but sexy striptease which turns a guy into a werewolf. Jayne's husband Mickey Hargitay has an unusual, challenging role in that he appears in several scenes but has the same line in each. Although I don't know a word of Italian, the weirdly catchy theme song got stuck in my head for days.
The second feature, Mondo Balordo is also a lot of fun but Boris Karloff only narrates and doesn't appear in the film. It's a typical "Mondo" movie not especially more or less shocking than Mondo Cane, but like all of these movies, has a handful of great scenes. More fun are the trailers for other mondo movies that trim the filler and show the best gore and debauchery moments, for those of us with attention deficit disorder.
Both movies look great on the DVD when compared to VHS copies, though DVD purists might be annoyed by some flickering color fading in "Primitive Love", but it's certainly the best you will ever see a rare title like this that isn't curated like some studio "classics".

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