Le Feu aux fesses

This is a run-of-the-mill Bavarian sex comedy from the first half of the 1970s. In other words, it is brainless fun with lots of female nudity, set in some village (Vögelbrunn - literally "birds' fountain" or "birds' well", but 'vögeln' also has sexual connotations) in rural Bavaria. The plot has the village elders attempting to upgrade the village to 'Marktgemeinde' status - which for some unexplained reason would resolve their financial difficulties. To achieve this they need to increase the number of village inhabitants, and I don't have to explain to you their favourite strategy for overcoming this deficit.

The film is in many ways uneven. The script remains underdeveloped and has barely moved on from the days when it (presumably) first saw light on a beer-mat. Various styles of comedy have been thrown together that barely fit, especially Jürgen Feindt's hyperactive Spaletti seems to have wandered in from a different movie, and Talamonti and Röglin make an unconvincing comedy double act á la Pat & Patachon. Somewhere in the middle Harlander and Deutschmann perform the 'Dampfnudel' song - for no reason whatsoever except to stretch this picture to feature film length.

The younger women provide the required nudity but little else - only Ms Conti has a substantial role as the village office secretary. Given this, it is a bit peculiar why the film makers then bothered to cast these roles with well-experienced genre players that could act as well as shed their clothes. The only other significant female part shows Elisabeth Volkmann as the chairwoman of the newly established morality society. Seeing this TV celebrity being chased in the nude through the snow-covered village is probably the major reason for most people to watch this film.