Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

Today’s theme: Lina Romay

According to Letterboxd, Lina is the most-watched actor in my history, having appeared in more than one hundred movies, trailed only by Christopher Lee, John Carradine and Dick Miller. Well, Carla Mancini is gaining, even if you never see her in the movies she’s in.

Directed by Carlos Aured (House of Psychotic Women, The Mummy’s Revenge) and Sergio Bergonzelli (Blood Delirium) — maybe or maybe not… — and written by Aured, this has a gang that is either pulling off crimes or having sex with one another. Then they decide to kidnap a millionaire’s daughter, Patty Hearst-style. They are Liza (Ajita Wilson, an American-born transgender actress who is also in Macumba Sexual and Sadomania, amongst other films), Ruth (Romay), Tania (Hemy Basalo, also known as Eva Palmer; she’s in Night of Open Sex), Antonio (José Ferro, Macumba Sexual) and Clark (Ricardo Díaz, El fontanero, su mujer, y otras cosas de meter,  Cut-Throats 9), their leader. The virginal rich girl is Muriel (Kati Ballari, who appears in only one other movie,  La vendedora de ropa), and she could be more perverted than all of them.

Speaking of crime…

Two versions were released: an R-rated and an uncensored hardcore version with explicit sex scenes. At one point, the hardcore version wasn’t legal in Spain, where it was made, so it was distributed in countries where it was allowed. Some of the actors who participated in the hardcore sex scenes signed contracts assuring them that the version would never make it to Spain, where it might harm their careers. Obviously, Lina didn’t care.

Aured claimed that he filmed the sex scenes with the help of a professional hardcore actor, as not many men could stay hard when the cameras rolled.

After the law was liberalized, there was an explosion of Clasificada S films, which the softcore version was released as. The Italians got the hardcore. Strange, somewhat, that Aured, who did four movies with Paul Naschy, was making adult films.

The Italian version has a more ironic tone to the voiceover, while the Spanish one claims this is a true story and tries to tie it to Charles Manson. There’s also a square-up at the end, trying to ask how society can make such horrible people, said just minutes after we’ve watched all of them make love, sometimes for real, depending on the cut.

The end is kind of an apocalypse, but not as sleazy or end-of-the-world as you would hope. Then again, a chance to see Lina not being directed by Jess and, as always, her smile makes me happy.

You can get this from Mondo Macabro.