Inga
Alternative Cinema // 1967 // 80 Minutes // Not Rated
The Indelicate Balance
Alternative Cinema // 1969 // 88 Minutes // Rated R
The Seduction Of Inga
Alternative Cinema // 1969 // 80 Minutes // Rated R
Reviewed by Judge Daryl Loomis // August 8th, 2012
The submission! The proposition! The threat!
Joe Sarno (Laura's Toys) isn't a name that gets thrown around very much these days; I don't really know if it ever did. But in those wild and woolly days of grindhouse filmmaking, he was the classiest director on the block, taking the charm and decidedly non-American comfort with nudity and bringing to his native shores. Inga was Sarno's early masterpiece; whether it, its sequel, or the other movie presented on Joe Sarno's Inga Collection is any good is the big question, but I'm just glad to see the all together on this three-disc set from Retro Seduction Cinema.
Inga
Following her mother's death, young Inga (Marie
Liljedahl, Eugenie) moves in with her Aunt Greta (Monica
Strömmerstedt), a beautiful but wicked woman with plans for her niece. She
wants to hook Inga up with the old perv who lives next door for some reason, but
Inga's charms make every man crazy and soon, naive and virginal though she may
be, she has the pick of the town's male population, and wouldn't you know, the
old guy isn't on her radar.
The Seduction of Inga
That great guy Inga ran away with
in the first movie didn't turn out to be such a peach. After leaving her alone
and broke in the big city, she longs for a new man to love and, once again, she
has plenty of options. This time, both her boss and a neighboring guitar player
look pretty attractive, but even she's surprised when she winds up falling for
Greta (Inger Sundh, Dagmar's Hot Pants, Inc), the daughter of her
boss.
The Indelicate Balance
At their mother's estate, a young
couple begins to figure out that their marriage just isn't working. When the
family's prodigal son, an artist, comes home for a visit, he sparks the emotions
and libidos of the entire family, breaking relationships apart and sending
people into the most unlikely arms.
The three movies in Joe Sarno's Inga Collection represent some of the best work of the director's career. He has films with a whole lot more sex in them, sure, but these three movies, his two most famous and one nearly lost, are definitely the strongest that I've seen out of the multitude of movies he made. Now, I suppose that touting the "best" of Joe Sarno won't ring as that exciting for a lot of people, but aficionados of softcore cinema aren't really going to find better.
At the time, Sweden had captured America's imagination with their looser attitudes toward nudity and sex. The release of I Am Curious (Yellow) gave American audiences a much more natural and organic look at sexuality that they weren't getting from the nudist volleyball players that they would skulk into the grindhouse to see. Sarno took advantage of this fascination better than anybody and, though many certainly made more money at it than he did, he was called the "Ingmar Bergman of 42nd Street" for a reason.
Sarno was much more concerned with faces and situations than he was with gyrating bodies and this really is no better displayed than in Inga. Marie Liljedahl is absolutely stunning in the title role and, though her talents were somewhat marginal and she didn't last very long in the business, her youthful charm and beauty make the star more than memorable. The story is a quiet family tale with some sex thrown in. It doesn't make a ton of sense, and Aunt Greta trying to pimp out her niece to some guy is pretty creepy, but it remains an innocent piece of entertainment. Also of interest, the theme song for this film and, unfortunately, the next one, is one of the earliest recordings by the band who would be ABBA. If you like ABBA, maybe this will thrill you; I have no way to judge what sounds basically like murder to me.
The Seduction of Inga doesn't dwell on what happened to the title character, she just tells us in narration that she's older now and wants her old love back. It takes Inga out of the country and into the city for another set of frisky adventures. This one is far less interesting than the original. There is a little more sex than Inga, but neither the camerawork nor acting are close to as good. Liljedahl shows a little more talent, but this was also her final film and it's easy to tell that her heart really wasn't in it.
The real seller is the third film, The Indelicate Balance, a thought lost, never really screened, piece of Sarno's filmography. Like Inga, it was filmed in Sweden with almost all rookies on the screen and produced a strange and fairly enjoyable film. Nobody in the cast has much other work and, while there's an MPAA rating and a copyright on the print, there's no evidence that the film was ever actually screened. It's quite a bit better than most of his work and features public domain recordings of concertos by Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev, giving the film a very ominous feel that is totally entertaining. It's a real lesson on the power of music in cinema.
Retro Seduction's three DVD presentation of Joe Sarno's Inga Collection is about as good as one could hope for a trio of softcore films. The prints, all 1.33:1 transfers, haven't received careful restorations, but they all, or at least the two that had been previously released, look better than they did before. There is some damage to the prints, more with The Indelicate Balance than the other two, but they are all acceptable. The sound is similar, with a minimum of background noise and fairly clear dialog, but they're basic mono mixes without anything dynamic about them.
The extras are very strong, and will be what sells the collection to fans. Technically, The Indelicate Balance is listed as an extra, but that's really only because it has nothing to do with the Inga character. It, along with Inga feature commentary tracks, Inga with Sarno and his longtime wife and collaborator, Peggy Steffans-Sarno and The Indelicate Balance with Steffans-Sarno and historian Gary Hudgens. Both are very good; they have great memories for these films. The Inga disc also features an interview with Lilijedahl and a collection of outtakes and trailers. The Seduction of Inga features a solid twenty minute featurette, an interview, and another cut of that damned Abba song. Aside from the commentary track, the only extra on the final disc is an alternate cut of The Seduction of Inga featuring extra sex.
Joe Sarno's Inga Collection is a very good set, one that will please any fan of the softcore genre. They are some of the most nicely filmed in the history of the style. With the wealth of extras, this is definitely one for the collection.
Case dismissed.
Review content copyright © 2012 Daryl Loomis; Site layout and review format copyright © 1998 - 2013 HipClick Designs LLC
Scales of Justice, Inga
Video: 84
Audio: 80
Extras: 45
Acting: 78
Story: 77
Judgment: 80
Perp Profile, Inga
Video Formats:
* Full Frame
Audio Formats:
* Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono (English)
* Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono (Swedish)
Subtitles:
* English
Running Time: 80 Minutes
Release Year: 1967
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Distinguishing Marks, Inga
* Commentary
* Interview
Scales of Justice, The Indelicate Balance
Video: 76
Audio: 78
Extras: 45
Acting: 79
Story: 77
Judgment: 79
Perp Profile, The Indelicate Balance
Video Formats:
* Full Frame
Audio Formats:
* Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono (English)
Subtitles:
* None
Running Time: 88 Minutes
Release Year: 1969
MPAA Rating: Rated R
Distinguishing Marks, The Indelicate Balance
* Commentary
Scales of Justice, The Seduction Of Inga
Video: 83
Audio: 80
Extras: 25
Acting: 75
Story: 72
Judgment: 74
Perp Profile, The Seduction Of Inga
Video Formats:
* Full Frame
Audio Formats:
* Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono (English)
Subtitles:
* None
Running Time: 80 Minutes
Release Year: 1969
MPAA Rating: Rated R
Distinguishing Marks, The Seduction Of Inga
* Alternate Cut
* Featurette
* Interview
* Isolated Score
Accomplices
* IMDb: Inga
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0061833/combined
* IMDb: The Seduction of Inga
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0067508/combined
* IMDb: The Indelicate Balance
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0063133/combined