LAS VEGAS - Arrow Productions and its newly revived sister company Bryanston Distributors have reissued The Italian Stallion, a recut version of the 1970 softcore film The Party at Kitty and Studs designed to capitalize on the performance of a young and hungry Sylvester Stallone. The movie will be shown in 25 theatrical venues nationwide in association with Landmark Theaters.
Stallone does not perform any hardcore scenes in the movie, which was filmed in New York at the tail-end of the '60s and re-released in 1976 to cash in on the success of Rocky. Supervised by femme porn director Gail Palmer, the Italian Stallion version of the movie was re-dubbed with added dialogue, re-scored and re-edited to include unrelated hardcore scenes.
Opportunistic producers similarly tampered with Stallone's early '70s dramatic film No Place to Hide, which was recut and reissued on video as Rebel after the actor became a Hollywood star.
According to Arrow's Robert Interlandi, "new prints [of The Italian Stallion] have been struck from the recently discovered internegatives which had gone missing almost 30 years ago."
"Stallone sure goes the distance in the bedroom. I guess he really wanted the Rocky movie to be made so bad that he made his bones in this one for $200," said Interlandi. "He even wore similar Rocky outfits in this movie."
The Italian Stallion stands as an early example of celebrity-porn exploitation - but fans are likely to be disappointed if they expect to see graphic sex. A source close to Stallone told AVN that given all the fuss over the movie, the actor said he "wishes he had done hardcore scenes in retrospect."
The Italian Stallion debuts in New York on Sept. 14 at the Landmark Sunshine. A full release schedule will be released shortly.
