Benny, der Pechvogel (1978)

Benny, der Pechvogel: Directed by Stanley A. Long. With Christopher Neil, Arthur Mullard, Anna Quayle, Stephen Lewis. Randy plumber, Sid South, enjoys a profession which offers him ample opportunity to bed sexy housewives.

“As you might guess from the title, this movie is about the adventures of a plumberu0026#39;s assistant. In real life itu0026#39;s not exactly a profession where youu0026#39;d expect a lot of hot sex action, but, of course, it is in movies like this. Aside from the vaguely sexy, plumbing-related hijinks though, thereu0026#39;s a genuine plot where our hero u0026quot;Sid Southu0026quot; (Christopher Neil)owes serious gambling debts to a pair of hulking loan sharks, and gets mixed up with a recently-paroled convict (after he fixes the, um, plumbing of the manu0026#39;s wife)in trying to retrieve a golden toilet seat (or rather a toilet seat with stolen gold concealed in it). Thereu0026#39;s nothing wrong, of course, with a sex comedy having a plot per se, but this unfortunately is not a very funny one.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThese u0026quot;Adventures ofu0026quot; films are naturally a cheap knock-off of the then-popular u0026quot;Confessions ofu0026quot; series of sex comedies with Robin Askwith. The whole series is a couple steps down from the genuinely entertaining u0026quot;Confessions ofu0026quot; series, but this film is also another step or two down from the first film in the series u0026quot;Adventures of a Taxi Driveru0026quot;. Itu0026#39;s a conceit in these films that blue-collar slobs somehow get more sex action than rock stars. The problem is that Neil often acts like a whiny, spoiled rock star and quickly loses the every-man sympathy of the audience. In the opening scene, for instance, he wakes up in his grungy, vermin-infested flat with a pretty nice-looking girl (evidently a one-night stand), who unaccountably considers him to be some kind of catch. But he kicks her to the curb like heu0026#39;s Rod Stewart (actually he leaves her bare-assed naked on the curb after his motorbike rips her dress off).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNeil has zero charisma in his role, but most of the female characters donu0026#39;t really have roles at all. Theyu0026#39;re all pretty cute, but they put in little more than undraped cameos. Suzy Mandel, for instance, was such an appealing actress that she sometimes appeared on the posters of movies she wasnu0026#39;t even in (like the French film u0026quot;Pussy Talku0026quot;). Later, she went to the US and ended up in a big-budget XXX film,but they actually let her use a body double for the XXX scenes. Anyway, sheu0026#39;s pretty much wasted as one of a quartet of u0026quot;tennis girlsu0026quot; who catch the protagonist after he decides to use the ladiesu0026#39; shower for no real reason while on a job (in real-life heu0026#39;d probably be reported as a sex pervert, but of course thatu0026#39;s not what happens here. . .). The only characters I liked were the male character actors like the two loan sharks and u0026quot;Sidu0026#39;su0026quot; boss. Their lower-class Brit accents were often virtually unintelligible, but they were at least funny.”