In The Sign of The Lion (1976)

Happy Film / Smirk

MVD

R1 DVD

Another of Werner Hedman’s stories for “In The Sign Of …” series, this film features more slapstick and humour than erotica.

We start with two little old ladies who are trying to make a living writing romance novels. They get rejection after rejection, as romance novels are no longer in demand – the public wants something more spicy. Challenged by the village postman to write an erotic novel, they go back to their experiences as housemaids in the local castle in their much younger days. The Count was a lascivious old man but he was always good to his staff and we flash back to many of the moments that the old ladies remember fondly. The Count eventually dies but not before his housemaid, the ladies’ older sister, delivers a child. The ladies have brought up the boy, Tony, as their nephew and he is now an engineer working overseas.

Their new erotic novel looks like being a success, but such novels are not written by little old ladies. They use their nephew’s name and photo on the book as the writer, much to his surprise when he returns home unexpectedly. From here the farce mounts. The new Count doesn’t want his family name dragged through the mud and is convinced that the young man has written the book from a set of stolen diaries belonging to the old Count. The book’s publisher and a lady journalist won’t believe that a man could have written the book and insist on meeting the true writer, who they are sure is a woman. Tony goes along with his aunts’ wishes and we have the compulsory drag scene, revelations, etc as he falls in love with the journalist.

The Vice Squad is called in by the new Count to have the book declared pornographic and to have the author arrested for theft of the diaries, if indeed the true author can be found. In the end even the new Count’s identity as the heir is called into question – his father liked to play a game with the ladies and his friends called “Whose Thing Is This” and there is some doubt about who may have really impregnated his mother. It’s a piece of farce worthy of a Carry On plot but with more attractive women.

The Danes seemed to like their erotica with a good dose of comedy included. This film is a great example.

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