< Una Virgen para Calígula

• Ajita Wilson ? if so then uncredited, plays a black woman dancing at the bacchanal (stock footage from Bacanales romanas, possibly a double?)
• Alicia Orozco plays Clava, the slave (non-sex role)
• Andrea Albani plays Virgitta (softcore only)
• Carla Dey uncredited, plays a participant in bacchanal (softcore only); outtakes from Bacanales romanas (face not seen)
• Concha Valero plays Lela the Sybil / voice of High Priestess (non-sex role)
• May Moreno as May O'Sullivan, plays Vestal (softcore only)
• Olga Rodriguez plays Bunny (non-sex role)
• Patricia Cauzard uncredited, plays the Egyptian stud's partner (stock footage from Bacanales romanas)
• Raquel Evans plays High Priestess / woman at bacchanal (softcore only; latter role in outtakes from Bacanales romanas)

Males –

• Jordi Batalla plays Clavo, the slave
• Unidentified actor (perhaps the guy credited as Jean Paul Perrier in Depravación) plays Egyptian stud
• Joaquín Gómez, as Quin Gómes, plays Caligula, non-sex
• Conrado Tortosa, as “Pipper”, plays Veteranus, non-sex
• Unidentified actors play the non-sex roles of a Courier, an Orator and a Wounded Guard

Plot Synopsis –

The effeminate, flamboyant and zoophiliac Caligula “Cali” has become despondent ever since his horse and lover (played by a real horse, with dubbed dialogue) has left him for a Spanish mare, and he now seeks consolation in the company of his pet rabbit (played by actress Olga Rodríguez). The situation changes when a motorcycled courier announces that the Roman legions have won in Germania, and that the Emperor’s adviser, the lecherous Centurion Veteranus, will be bringing the virginal princess Virgitta as a prisoner. Since virginity has now become non-existent in Rome, even among Vestals, “Cali” excitedly arranges for her to be ritually deflowered. In reality, however, the princess’s virginity is fictitious, and fearing punishment from Caligula, she turns to her newly found friends to have her virginity “restored”.

Some remarks –

Una Virgen para Calígula is ostensibly a by-product of the same director’s immediately preceding Bacanales romanas, re-using much of the same cast, featuring the same lead character of the Centurion Veteranus (once again played by “Pipper”), and making extensive re-use of music (both library cues and themes by Jaime A. Puig), sets, costumes, locations and footage from the earlier film. As in Bacanales romanas, stock footage from other films (some of it already present in the first film) is used for scenes involving crowds and battles.

Use is also made of what appear to be outtakes from Bacanales romanas. The opening montage features what are ostensibly alternate takes of bacchanal scenes from the earlier film, with the result that an uncredited Carla Dey is briefly glimpsed -although her face is not seen - as is Raquel Evans, the latter clearly recognisable but not playing the same character as in Una Virgen para Calígula and wearing the same costume and wig as in Bacanales romanas. This film’s final set-up is also repeated in the montage sequence, which means that the black woman seen from afar may be an uncredited Ajita Wilson, unless a cost-saving double was used in the original film for long shots.

Una Virgen para Calígula opened theatrically in Spain as a softcore film, although additional hardcore scenes were added on to export prints. The hardcore scenes, not atypically in this film, are clearly derived from the same material devised for the export version of Bacanales romanas, featuring the same unidentified actor wearing a klaft (Ancient Egyptian head garment) and his partner, a frequent actress in Spanish erotica, usually uncredited but occasionally listed as “Jean Paul Perrier” & “Patricia Cauzard” respectively (but one can’t be categorical in the male’s case). Neither of these two characters appears in the rest of the film, and their scenes have no visible connection to the rest of the narrative. This additional footage was retained for the film’s VHS release (July 1983) in Spain, but without any indication of this on the cover. In view of the filmmakers’ decision to include hardcore scenes, it is remarkable that the rest of the film – despite the censorship “S” classification that was characteristic of softcore in Spain – is basically a comedy, and so mild in content as to barely qualify as softcore, with plentiful female nudity but comparatively little sexual activity, and no controversial sex, the implied bestial relationship with a horse only alluded to in the dialogue.

Nzoog Wahlrfhehen (3/10/08)