This Italian poster was made for the softcore flick Porno proibito, aka The Italian Stallion, which was Sylvester Stallone’s youthful—and probably financially desperate—foray into erotic cinema. It’s a plotless mess that actually got an X rating when released because of its explicit nudity, including Sly’s twig and berries, and various women’s honeypots. But there’s no real sex—just a lot of rubbing, squirming, and boob sucking. The film had no Italian premiere date, but this poster shows that it played in Italy’s cinemas sometime during the 1970s. The movie was too obscure and terrible to earn a foreign release when it was made in 1970, so our guess is it rose from obscurity after Stallone had made his mark with 1974’s The Lords of Flatbush and 1975’s Death Race 2000. It could even be post-Rocky. In fact, that seems likely. Stallone performed under his own name in the film, but on the promo is referred to as Italian Stallion—indicating a high level of fame. So let’s say 1976 or 1977 for its Italian debut until someone pops up with better information. Sly probably wishes all the prints of the film had been incinerated, but don’t feel sorry for him. The embarrassment of displaying his welterweight dick to all the world was surely mitigated by the money, mansions, and moviegoers’ adoration he later earned. We hope.
