Starring - Phillippe Leroy (Covert Action, Beyond Good and Evil), Dagmar Lassander (Devil Fish, Black Emanuelle 2), and Lorenza Guerrieri (Sex of the Witch, Frankenstein: Italian Style)
Release Date - 1969
Genre - Thriller
Tagline - "Dominance. Submission"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)
Rating (out of 5):
My Mondo Macabro marathon is still in full swing. After watching School of Death and Sukkubus I wanted to continue through their new releases and decided to go with The Laughing Woman. The film, which is also known as The Frightened Woman or Femina Ridens, is another Mondo Macabro release that I've never seen before and was curious about. I expected a late 60s sexploitation film with a giallo feel but that is not what was before me at all. Like always, I want to thank CAV and Mondo Macabro for sending this one over.
The film follows a disturbed doctor who has a meeting with a young woman who believes that women have been repressed. She is vocal about men becoming sterile instead of women which goes against the doctor's misogyny. He drugs her and takes her to his secluded sex dungeon where he subjects her to various sex games, torture, and more. However, the longer he subjects her to this treatment the more in love with her he falls until she finally wins his affection which is what she wanted to do from the very beginning.
The Laughing Woman was not what I was expecting. It's not necessarily a bad film but I found it to be a little underwhelming and moving at snail's pace. There was aspects of the film that I did enjoy but at the end of the day this was one that I just didn't care for. The acting in this one is fun. I loved Leroy and Lassander's characters. They were absolutely fantastic and worked so well together. Lassander's character is a gorgeous feminist who finds herself at the mercy of Leroy's sexual masochistic Dr. Sayer. The supporting cast is only on screen for a few moments and easily forgettable but our two leads are the star of the show. The story for this one is a bit unique and difficult to properly market. It's not a sexploitation film nor it is really a film deserving of The Frightened Woman title. The Laughing Woman does fit the film a little better if you stick with it through the ending but it's a strange movie to say the least. It does center around sexual perversions, fetishes, and gender norms but it's not as sleazy as other films being released at the same time. Nudity, sexual sounds but that's the extent of it. It is a bit more tasteful and artistic but the film suffers from pacing issues, pointless dialogue, and odd cinematography that looks great but only bogs down the film. Honestly, I do like the idea behind the story but it could have been done a little better and with a much darker tone. Finally, don't expect to see any blood and gore. If you toss it in expecting nudity you will find some but the film is not as raunchy or sleazy as some of the other films released from Mondo Macabro. Overall, The Laughing Woman was not for me. I liked the idea behind the story and the cast but it was very underwhelming. I was more focused on the clock than the film which is often a bad thing. If the film was a little darker or sexier then it would have held my attention. The blu from MM looks great but there is so many other titles from them I would recommend before this one.
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