Sunday, March 31, 2019

AROUND THE WORLD WITH FANNY HILL (1974) ** ½


In director Mac Ahlberg’s sequel to 1968’s Fanny Hill, Fanny (Shirley Corrigan, taking over for Diana Kjaer) becomes unhappy in her marriage and wants a divorce from her commercial director husband Roger (Peter Bonke).  She gets her girlfriend Monica (Gaby Fuchs) to seduce Roger, so she can catch him in the act.  Together, they take the alimony and fund a trip to Hollywood.  They visit the Chinese Theater (playing The Long Goodbye) and Fanny sets her sights on getting it on with a famous actor.  She winds up being discovered, gets a big acting role, and goes from Hong Kong to Venice with the movie crew.  Along the way, Fanny wonders if she didn’t make a mistake by dumping Roger.

Around the World with Fanny Hill is a typically uneven Swedish sex comedy.  It has the same basic set-ups as most bedroom farces.  (Like the scene where Fanny tries to catch Roger in bed with Monica, unaware he’s already in bed with someone else.)  Even though the locations change, Fanny’s shenanigans get repetitive after a while.  Many of her sexual misadventures stop short of being laugh-out-loud funny, but the scene where Fanny poses as a man to seduce a bisexual marquis is quite amusing.  Too bad it ends abruptly just when it was picking up steam.

The third act kicks off with a big swinging orgy that offers up plenty of free love and nudity, although it’s not exactly hot or anything.  This is followed by a fast-motion comedy scene of Fanny trying to catch various officials in compromising positions that’s not very funny.  In fact, this the whole sequence probably could’ve been cut altogether and saved us all about ten minutes.  

Corrigan is fun to watch.  She spends a lot of time winding up naked and being found in compromising positions.  Her efforts keep you involved even when the tired comedy sputters out.  We also get to see the ever-enchanting Christina (Thriller:  A Cruel Picture) Lindberg popping up in a bit part as one of Bonke’s models.

Ahlberg went on to be the cinematographer for everyone from Charles Band to John Landis.  

AKA:  Around the World with Sex.

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