In 1977, producer Robert Stigwood and director John Badham hit it big with SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, a film that helped launch disco into the mainstream, made a superstar out of former sitcom star John Travolta, and spawned several cinematic imitators the world over. Inevitably, Italy also capitalized on this short-lived disco craze with a number of unique pictures, three of which have been released by Severin Films in this wonderful new collection, which not only celebrates the wackier side of Italian trash cinema, but also the disco era’s influential legacy.
Based on an original story co-written by director Claudio Giorgi and actor/screenwriter Luigi Montefiori (better known to most Eurotrash fanatics as George Eastman), AMERICAN FEVER (1978) adheres closely to the SNF template with a distinctly Italian spin that makes for a perfect starting point to Severin’s box set. First seen working at a gas station, Mircha Carven stars as Tony Ferrante, an aspiring actor with dreams of leaving Rome for America because “they give you a chance to be somebody.” But thanks to his two-timing opportunist agent and best friend Dino (Vincenzo Crocitti), the closest he ever gets to Hollywood is appearing in third-rate westerns as a stunt-double. In between, Tony spends his nights – and paycheck – at the local disco (“Get down and shake it out with American Fever!”) where he IS a bona fide star, but when he befriends Lisa (Zora Kerova, here credited as Zora Kéer, an alias she also used on the same year’s ESCAPE FROM WOMEN’S PRISON), he begins a rather stormy, on-and-off relationship with the hope that “things will work out.”
Receiving top billing here alongside Kerova, Mircha Carven generally filled minor supporting roles in Italian genre fare, before taking the lead in Sergio Garrone’s infamous video nasty SS EXPERIMENT LOVE CAMP (1976). Having also worked with director Giorgi - here using his customary Claudio De Molinis pseudonym - on the same year’s A MAN FOR SALE (1978), Carven gives a committed, naturalistic reinterpretation of Travolta’s now iconic character as an equally suave, but less rough-edged Tony Manero. Much like its source inspiration, the film includes several disco numbers including an alternate version of the “Brooklyn Shuffle” from SNF, this time choreographed to Charlie Cannon’s catchy “Passion Flower” disco track, but the film also offers several decidedly downbeat subplots as well, including a pessimistic depiction of the cutthroat film business (“Forget about your career in the movies!”). In their hope of getting one good break, Dino manages to arrange a meeting with Mr. Marchetti, a “fat cat” producer who offers Tony a contract to star in sex films. However, after contemptuously accepting the offer, Dino neglects to fork-over Tony’s cash in order to pay off a debt owed to a couple of smalltime reptilian hoods. Elsewhere, Tony arrives at the scene of Lisa’s attempted suicide and talks her out of jumping off a bridge, but despite her obvious psychological baggage, Tony nonetheless feels the irrepressible lure of this enigmatic woman whose character de-glamourizes the bar-crawling, one-night-stand lifestyle. Seldom having looked more radiant than she does here, Czech-born Kerova adds further gravitas to the film, which is nicely complemented by Carven’s affecting performance as the wannabe star whose ambition vacillates between gritty urban realism and naïve lapses of wish-fulfilment.
Scanned in 4K from the original camera negative, Severin Films’ new restoration of this lo-o-o-ng-unseen film is a real coup. Boasting excellent detail and strong colour reproduction, this is a really solid presentation, which is especially effective during many of the film’s darker, candy-coloured nightclub scenes. Audio options are offered in both English and Italian DTS-HD 2.0 mono (the latter with properly translated English subtitles), and both sound great ensuring all the music from the likes of La Bionda, Cannonball, and Spotlight sound clear, robust and appropriately flamboyant. And while it may not be important to some viewers, it’s always exciting to finally hear that elusive English track, one that features such reliable voice talent as Larry Dolgin (he dubs Mircha Carven), Pat Starke, Edward Mannix, and even Edmund Purdom. SDH subtitles are also included.
Originally pitched to Severin Films as a potential release by Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson, it should then come as no surprise that he provides an audio commentary alongside fellow film historian Howard S. Berger. Naturally, they begin with a brief history on the film’s relative obscurity after its screening at MIFED as READY, STEADY, GO, its brief theatrical run in various European countries, a detailed – and very helpful – history on ALL the music in the film, and just how good this new restoration looks. They go on to discuss the “cultural phenomenon” of SNF, and despite being a low-budget Italian film, they are surprised how Montefiori’s script accurately replicates the “tone and timber of SNF” which is not “inauthentic or silly,” and how it’s almost autobiographical in terms of the film business represented in the film. Of course, they also talk about Mircha Carven’s interesting career and the IMDB’s lack of citing his work on American television as Michael Carven, an appreciation of Zora Kerova, the longevity of disco and what constitutes a musical, and how this film has plenty of “coherency, integrity and verve.” Loaded with tons of pertinent info and thoughts related to the film and the era in which it was made, this is an outstanding listen, which will definitely give audiences a better appreciation of this oft-dismissed picture.
In All About the Music – The Birth of Disco and The Road to Italy’s AMERICAN FEVER (10m06s), film critic and author Alan Jones who recently penned Discomania for FAB Press, talks about the emergence of disco music and its “beginnings in the gay, Hispanic and black communities, especially in America.” He also discusses many of the pioneering songs and films that helped popularize disco the world over, and how the Italians were best known for “ripping off everything, left, right, and centre,” which eventually led them to make the present film. Created and cut together by legendary film trailer guru Miro Grisanti, the film’s amazing English-language export trailer (3m11s) is also included, which will compel you to watch the film all over again.
In what turns out to be a very different and somewhat frenzied meld of SNF and Randal Kleiser’s GREASE (1978), Michele Massimo Tarantini’s BRILLANTINA ROCK (1978, here re-titled GREASE ROCK) is most definitely cracked from an unmistakably Italian uovo (i.e., egg). One-time actor Monty Ray Garrison stars as Robbie, a disco dancing sensation with a John Travolta fixation who frequents the popular Gech-Gech discoteca with his motorcycle-ridin’ dance troupe and his best friend Sandra (Cecilia Buonocore). Upon taking part in numerous dance-offs with similar ‘gangs,’ he becomes infatuated with Cindy (future bit player Auretta Gay from Lucio Fulci’s ZOMBIE [1979]), an American who’s “stacked like the Tower of Pisa.” Like SNF, he attempts to persuade her to be his partner at an upcoming dance contest, but when his ‘greaser’ rival (Mauro Fritella) also begins to draw her gaze, they agree to a motorcycle race from Milano to Monza to claim the new girl…
Produced by Luciano Martino’s Dania Film and shot on location in Bergamo and Milano, this energetic and irresistibly daft confection was another attempt to extend the popularity of the disco craze, but Tarantini and scriptwriters Alessandro Capone and Giuseppe Pellegrino hedge their bets and provide audiences with a thinly-veiled pseudo-GREASE incarnation as well. Garrison seems to be having great fun in this good-natured romp, which unfolds like some contemporized American-era JD flick in ’70s Italy. With his hair greased back, cartoonish bomber-styled jacket and white pants, his unique look is further compounded whenever he jaunts through the city on his bright red, Russian-made sidecar motorcycle, which is adorned with artwork from GREASE and several photos of John Travolta. Similar to his outrageous fashion sense, it appears he and his friends live on “another planet” clearly establishing the film’s fantasy-like context, which is later reiterated when Sandra emphatically states, “This is a dream world for kids. You have to grow up sometime.” A brisk motorcycle chase (which could almost have come from a straight crime flick à la Lenzi) and a comedic street brawl add to the overall fun, which is further highlighted by a fantastic Gianfranco Reverberi pop soundtrack, which also mixes together several original cover songs including a re-mix of the Rolling Stones’ “[I Can’t Get No] Satisfaction.” In the end, GREASE ROCK is all very silly, but it’s the periphery love story that remains the film’s heartbeat as echoed in the opening and closing credits, which are scored to John Paul Young’s “Love Is in the Air”, one of the very best disco songs of the decade.
Once again scanned in 4K from the OCN, the results herein look fantastic with impressive film-like detail drawing further attention to all the vibrant costumes and nightclub interiors. English and Italian DTS-HD 2.0 mono audio tracks (the latter with properly translated English subtitles) are once again included and sound perfectly satisfactory, which allows Reverberi’s wonderful multi-layered score plenty of room to breathe. SDH subtitles are once again included.
Nathanial Thompson returns for another fact-filled audio commentary and is this time joined by author and film historian Eugenio Ercolani who adds a valuable Italian perspective to this unique endeavour. Right from the get go, Thompson regards the film as “one of the most representative of Italian disco movies of the late ’70s,” which, outside of a few obscure European VHS releases, pretty much “vanished without a trace” after its initial release. Of course, they extensively cover Tarantini’s career and his collaboration with Luciano Martino, the influence of Italian-American movie stars in Italian films, how SNF “touched a nerve in the Peninsula,” tons of info on the various songs heard throughout the picture as well as Reverberi’s score, a composer who was regarded as “quite a figure in Italian pop music.” Further discussions include the wholesome nature of these disco variations, Italo disco of the ’80s, how this picture was made during a “period in flux” within the Italian film industry, and plenty more besides. It goes without saying, this is another must listen. Other extras include Brillantina Is the Word(2m40s) with Alan Jones briefly discussing the film, which “offers a lot of touch points to SNF,” and the various songs used throughout. The lengthy English-language export trailer (4m11s) is also included, which promises “It’s the movie in which Monty Ray Garrison challenges the supremacy of John Travolta!”
Next up is Neri Parenti’s THE FACE WITH TWO LEFT FEET (1979), which stars John Travolta lookalike Giuseppe Spezia (credited on U.S. prints as Johnny Spezia) as Gianni, a humble – and a rather bumbling - cook at a hotel restaurant who is secretly enamoured with Ilona (future hard-porn star and politician Ilona Staller / a.k.a. Cicciolina), a DJ at the local discotheque appropriately named John’s Fever. When he finally gathers the gumption to talk to her, much to the annoyance of her boyfriend and club owner Raoul (BLACK EMANUELLE's Angelo Infanti), he is promptly kicked out. So, when his friends - who also work at the hotel – realize he has a resemblance to John Travolta, they embark on “Operation Travolta” to try and get him back in the club and score and date with Ilona. Although he’s got the looks, Gianni can’t dance to save his life…
Needless to say, the main attraction here is Spezia’s uncanny resemblance to Travolta and the film’s reverence for SNF (“I’ll be seeing John Travolta films the rest of my life!”). Featuring several wisecrack references to the trendsetting Travolta hit, the flimsiest of plots has Gianni/John try and win over Ilona, while the rest of the cast (which even includes Massimo Vanni, stuntman and future star of several Philippino-lensed films like Fulci’s ZOMBI 3 [1988], who, prior to this, had already proved his comic timing on a few Nico Giraldi films) go through their amiable comic sketches. Often involving aging hotel guests and the heavy-eyed night concierge (Enzo Cannavale), who is at the centre of all the cheap yuks, gags constantly pre-empt the general storyline, which climaxes with an extended slapstick slugfest at John’s Fever. Tied together with several Bee Gees-styled cues from reliable composer Paolo Vasile, and other insanely catchy tunes like “Disco Quando” by Tony Renis, THE FACE WITH TWO LEFT FEET is quite the novelty and great fun, especially if you’re in a sufficiently braindead frame of mind.
Although a very welcome release at the time, Code Red’s 2013 DVD was struck from a U.S. theatrical release print, which still looked quite good aside from the usual dirt and debris, but this version - which ran 88m52s and was distributed by producer Alfredo Leone – re-arranged and shortened the opening credits and eliminated a few other scenes. Thankfully, Severin’s new 4K restoration taken from the OCN restores the “complete” 100m26s version, which not only includes the film’s original opening credit sequence, but looks amazing to boot. Once again, DTS-HD 2.0 mono audio options in both English and Italian are included (the latter with English subtitles) and sound perfectly fine, and for those that require them, SDH subtitles are thoughtfully included.
Extras begin with another first-rate audio commentary with Thompson, Berger and Ercolani all of whom have plenty to say about this rather fascinating cinematic oddity. First, they discuss the film’s Italian title and its unique play on words in relation to Lina Wertmuller’s SWEPT AWAY (1974) before settling in and moving onto Parenti’s varied career as an AD (assistant director) and his work as a director. Of course, they touch on his numerous Christmas comedies (VACANZE DI NATALE [1995] comes to mind), which are regarded as “the lowest of the low of mainstream comedies” as well as Parenti’s dismissal of TFWTLF (“It’s a piece of shit!”) and how it nearly destroyed his future directing career. Once again, they cover the film’s music with extraordinary detail, it’s belated U.S. theatrical release in 1981, Giuseppe Spezia’s appearances on Italian TV as “the official John Travolta lookalike in Italy,” which got him the role in the film, tons of pertinent info of most of the cast with a focus on Ilona Staller and the appeal of her alter ego Cicciolina in Italy, a lengthy discussion on DP Alberto Spagnoli and veteran cutter Mario Morra, the rather hilarious closing shot, and much more on what Nathaniel Thompson regards as “world’s craziest John Travolta movie in history!” Great stuff all-around!
Other extras include The Show Is Over… John Travolto and the End of the “Disco” Film (8m58s) with Alan Jones comparing this “reasonably funny” film to early “musicarelli” like Lucio Fulci’s UNO STRANO TIPO (1959), how it captures the “real atmosphere of disco,” and the dying days of disco even though “it wasn’t over for the music.” Lastly, the rather unbelievable, spoiler-laden U.S. theatrical trailer (1m33s) and the English-language export trailer (3m43s) are also included as well as a greatly appreciated soundtrack CD, which is sure get plenty of play for anyone buying this fabulous must-have box set. Highly recommended!
