ITALIAN STALLION – A Look Back at Sylvester Stallone’s 1970 Sex Film

In 1970, six years before he ran up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to Bill Conti’s anthem in ROCKY, Sylvester Stallone claims he was living in a bus shelter and needed money. So like many hungry actors he agreed to star and appear nude in a sex film and was paid $200 for two days work.  The resulting film was a 60-minute drama with a $5000 budget titled PARTY AT KITTY AND STUD’S.

So what does the audience get for Stallone’s $200 gig? Basically, it is a standard-issue early 70s skin flick but it’s the type of arty skin flick popular at the time, two years before hardcore features like DEEP THROAT broke through to the masses. A ‘sex’ film at that time meant lots of nudity and simulated intercourse. Hard-core penetration footage could be found in shorts and ‘loops’ but features at this time usually just featured a lot of naked hairy bodies rolling around (this was no doubt best for Stallone’s later career – has anyone ever gone on to a successful mainstream Hollywood career after appearing in a hardcore film?) There’s a lot of narration and filler between the naughty bits of PARTY AT KITTY AND STUD’S. We’re introduced to Sly as Stud running across a snow-covered kid’s playground. This goes on and on with him hurdling fences and falling down. He gets flashed by a fur coat-wearing beauty before making his way to the Manhattan apartment he share with Kitty (Henrietta Holm who, if assuming that’s her real name, seemed to have vanished after this) where they shower together, have sex in the tub, and recite painful dialog (Stud: “Be careful. You bit me last time.” Kitty: “I’ll be velvet-mouthed on your shank of love!”). Stallone also flexes his muscles in the mirror and punches his hand through a window (kitty licks off the blood) The film ends with an orgy that goes on forever and the naked cast dancing in a circl

Aside from exposing his limp weenie, Sylvester Stallone really doesn’t have a lot to be embarrassed about concerning PARTY AT KITTY AND STUD’S. He looks fit in and you detect the early presence and charisma that would define his later career. He does a lot of full nudity but his blank disinterest and mumbling reminded me of a slightly more charming Joe Dallesandro in the films he was making for Andy Warhol at the time (TRASH, HEAT and FLESH). The film is also a bit nasty and misogynistic as Stud slaps Kitty around and beats her with a belt while she moans (though he barely seems to be hitting her despite her shrieks of pain). It does not appear that PARTY AT KITTY AND STUD’S was ever released to theaters and would have likely been forgotten. Jump ahead six years to 1976 and ROCKY has just won three Academy Awards and, with over $225 million in the bank, is the year’s highest-grosser. Someone had the bright idea to dust off PARTY AT KITTY AND STUD’S, and to cash in on Stallone’s sudden rise to fame, they retitled it THE ITALIAN STALLION (In Germany is was retitled BOCKY,  a play on the German word “Bock” (“billy goat”), denoting a horny/lecherous person ).They added some music that bears an uncanny resemblance to Conti’s ROCKY score, and dubbed in some new dialog for Kitty where she says “Someday he’ll be known as the Italian Stallion.” (to which Sly’s thoughtful response is “Let’s get high!”). The rights to this film were last seen on ebay in November 2010, where they sold for $500,000 and the movie is out there on DVD if you’re curious. Yes, it is a silly movie that’s more absurd than erotic, but fans of Stallone and 70s soft-X may get a kick out this cheery curio. Lucky St. Louis-area Stallone fans will have the chance to see a 20-minute condensed version of ITALIAN STALLION at Super-8 SEX Movie Madness November 6^th at The Way Out Club. This is the monthly film festival (now in its fourth year!) where I show edited version of movies (average length: 15 minutes) on old-school Super-8 Sound film. The other films I’ll be showing November 6^th to fit this month’s theme are the Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood’s 1957 cross-dressing classic GLEN OR GLENDA, THE SWINGING STEWARDESSES (1974), Sylvia Kristel in EMMANULLE, the 1974 lesbian vampire classic VAMPYRES, and an eye-popping ‘70s SEXPLOITATION Trailer Reel. The “family friendly’ films we’ll be showing November 6th (though The Way Out is a 21+ club anyway) are: The Little Rascals in BORED WITH EDUCATION, William Shatner vs an army of killer tarantulas in KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS, JOHNNY SOCKO AND HIS FLYING ROBOT, jack Nicholson in CHINATOWN, John Wayne in HELLFIGHTERS, Lon Chaney in THE WOLFMAN’S CURE, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, and Lily Tomlin in THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WOMAN.
The Facebook invite can be found HERE

http://www.facebook.com/events/176187412505774/?ref=ts&fref=ts