Two free-spirited girls - Lia (Gloria Guida) and Tina (Lili Carati) - meet on a beach during a hippie Love-In. They decide to hit the road and hitchhike to Rome, in search of a famous commune where they can bask in the atmosphere of peace, free [sexual] love and happiness promised by the late 1960s. But the commune has long since fallen from an idealistic utopia to a soul-crushing purgatory, rampant with absurd political posturing, thievery, empty spiritual philosophies, prostitution, fleecing scams and drug abuse.
PLEASE NOTE: The rest of this description contains major spoilers. Fernando Di Leo's movie - with its naughty humor and abundance of nudity - plays like a whimsical sex comedy laced with a hint of impending tragedy. But nothing will prepare the viewer from the unflinchingly brutal ending where both girls are beaten, tortured, raped and murdered. The last sequence is one of the most disturbing in exploitation cinema.

When American distributors saw the film, they demanded that it be re-edited into something more accessible, In reality, the resulting English version was severely juxtaposed with scenes no longer following the same order. Some music was changed [to disco], sex scenes were shortened, the notorious lesbian encounter between Guida and Carati went missing as did the entire opening beach Love-In sequence [with full frontal male and female shots]. But the big difference is the ending. The shocking original ending is gone. Both versions of the film are included in this DVD package.

Fernando Di Leo was generally considered the best of the European Crime directors, elevating the Italian gangster film to an art form (see MILANO CALIBER NINE). But besides mastering that genre, he is known for the quintessential horror sleaze BEAST KILLS IN COLD BLOOD with Klaus Kinski, a disturbing Lolita story SEDUCTION and his home-invasion thriller MADNESS (Vacanze per un Massacro). Fernando was also a prolific scriptwriter throughout the '70s and '80s, responsible for numerous Spaghetti Westerns (FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and DJANGO) and a variety of horror films (ORGIES OF FRANKENSTEIN) and crime movies (LIVE LIKE A COP, DIE LIKE A MAN). Mr Di Leo retired in 1985; he died from a stroke in December 2003 at age 71.

Gloria Guida was Miss Teenage Italy 1973. She parlayed that notoriety into box-office gold. After her 1974 debut film, Silvio Amadio's sex romp THE MINOR [La Minorenne], she delivered 25 more movies within ten years, these include the giallo SO YOUNG SO LOVELY SO VICIOUS (also for Mr Amadio), Mario Imperoli's BLUE JEANS and YOUNG GIRL [Ragazzina]. As Gloria approached age 30, she chose to make fewer films. In 1991, she married singer/actor Johnny Dorelli [IL MOSTRO]. They have one child and remain married today.

Her co-star here, Lilli Carati (born Ileana Caravati in 1956) was a popular model and star when she made this film. Afterwards, Lilli's life took a downward turn due to heroin addiction. In 1981, she suffered from an overdose, passing out during an interview on the Italian Broadcasting network. Later that year, she had a car accident, causing fractures to her patella and shoulder. Miss Carati took a three year work hiatus but returned in a series of films (for Joe D'Amato) including THE ALCOVE, THE LOOK OF DESIRE, and THE PLEASURE. In the late '80s, she briefly turned to Hardcore (XXX) before retiring in 1990. Lilli Carati died from brain cancer at age 58 in October 2014.