When Men Carried Clubs and Women Played Ding-Dong (1971)

Original title: Quando gli Uomini Armarono la Clava e... con le Donne Fecero din-don

Director: Bruno Corbucci

Writers: Fabio Pittorru, Masssimo Felisatti, Bruno Corbucci

Composer: Giancarlo Chiaramello

Starring: Antonio Sabato, Aldo Giuffre, Vittorio Caprioli, Nadia Cassini, Howard Ross, Elio Pandolfi, Lucretia Love, Pia Giancaro, Gisela Hahn

More info: IMDb

Tagline: a new name for an old game...

My rating: Prehistoric cave-stud Ari wins lovely virgin Listra in a pig-catching contest, but their attempts at "Ding-Dong" keep getting interrupted by idiot battles between his tribe, The Cave Dwellers, and their neighbors, The Lake Dwellers. Annoyed that hubby would rather make war than Ding-Dong, Listra organizes the women of both tribes to go on strike and "abstain Ding-Dong" until the men stop fighting.

My rating: 4/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Ah, the Italian cinema.  Back in the 60s and 70s they'd make anything and make it so many times that they'd exhaust a genre completely before moving on to the next "big thing".  The comedy is base level just like you'd expect and there are times when it's mildly amusing.  The trailer tells you everything you need to know in case the title didn't do that all on its own.  It's silly as shit but there are some things that elevate this more than say something in the same genre from Roger Corman.  The Italians bring a certain playfulness to the picture that helps.  And then you also get their European sensibilities...that's just code for boobs!
 

Female nudity is scattered around until the end that's just enough to keep you watching even if you aren't laughing.  The women ARE FUCKING HOT!  Usually in these caveman pictures they're all attractive except for the older ones (the grandma types).  Corbucci (who co-wrote DJANGO (1966), by the way)) & Co. said "Fuck that shit!  It's all smokin' hot & tan broads in this picture!" and we're better for it.  The dudes have dark tans, too, but there are few good looking ones.  Sabato has a nice build but he's sportin' some wacky ass caveman/mongoloid hair.  If you've watched the trailer, and you should seriously see how dorky this picture is in a nutshell, then you've heard the catchy and goofy as shit theme song.  The print I watched was anamorphic widescreen but it was dirty and the colors were a little dark.  It was in a lot better shape than I woul'dve expected something like this to be in.  It's a reasonably shot flick with a decent enough pacing but the comedy is about as dumb as it can get.  Fortunately, if there's one thing I've learned about Italian movies it's that their women LOVED to get naked!  Aristophanes would be so proud.