Handlung

From love in the streets of Paris to death on the African plain, the acclaimed MONDO CANE masters turn their unflinching eye on all the things never before known - and never before shown - about WOMEN OF THE WORLD.

"The camera strips woman right down to her skin," proclaimed the ads,"...lays bare the secrets of her mind and body!" Using outtakes from MONDO CANE as their foundation, Directors Gualtiero Jacopetti, Paolo Cavara and Franco Prosperi created this leering yet lyrical study of women's roles in the international culture of the bizarre. Here is the female of the species as mothers, murderers, warriors and whores, respected as high-powered executives and objectified as bodacious bombshells, grasping for eternal beauty and even engaging in "unnatural friendships." From love in the streets of Paris to death on the African plain, the MONDO masters turn their unflinching eye on all the things never before known - and never before shown - about WOMEN OF THE WORLD.

The movie opens with a card "To Belinda Lee who throughout this long journey accompanied and helped us with love" on a freeze-frame and ten seconds of silence.

The movie consists of sketches linked together by a tongue-in-cheek text that overlaps from a segment to the next:

Rome, Italy - military parade where the soldiers eyes are attracted to the women's cleavages on the side;

Israel - women training for their military service in the Defense Forces;

Iwa Island (Papua New Guinea) - former Scottish Colonel Rudyard Hopkins [Roger Hopkins, in the English narration], has his own army of 84 wives, and 52 children;

Gulf of Carpentaria (Australia) - on April 12, 1962, men perform a rite over a dying siren (dugong) in an island without women...

Paris, France - on July 14, commemorating the liberation of Paris, couples dancing and kissing in the streets;

Ravenna, Italy - Women line up to kiss the marble lips of the tomb statue of Guidarello Guidarelli on the anniversary of his death;

Stockholm, Sweden - Erika Tomberg, the first woman priest ordained in the Church of Sweden, presides mass in a small, all women community;

Paris, France - women dancing in a lesbian club, while men are dancing in a gay club and watching transvestite entertainment;

Papua New Guinea - men relax and apply elaborate makeup while the women work hard;

Island of Levant, France - full nude people in a nudist beach where full nudity is not allowed;

Taiwan (China) - girls in the beach wear see-through outfits and paper umbrellas to avoid skin burns;

New Guinea (Australian territory) - women paint their bodies white, craving for the beauty of the ancient white nuns that visited the island centuries ago;

Sant'Orsola, Italy - women weepers at the funeral rites of a carabinieri;

Tahiti (French territory) - butterflies, flowers, and women Hula dancers for fun or to entertain tourists or US soldiers on leave... and the "children of the dance", of unknown fathers;

Cannes, France - pretty women and would be starlets on the beach, and posing for the cameras;

Los Angeles, California - Eva Barrett sells newspapers on Hollywood Boulevard waiting for a film casting, while others work as petrol station attendants, fast-food attendants at drive-ins, and various marketing promotions;

New York, USA - young women pose with few clothes for paying members of a camera club;

Tokyo, Japan - sex shows on street ads, sexual education in schools, cocktail making and table manners;

Tokyo, Japan - women submit to surgery to get a western look to their eyes, and others have their breasts injected with paraffin oil to enhance their size;

Los Angeles, California - a factory produces plastic female breasts;

Malaysia - men perform a ritual of birth, while their women are giving birth to a baby;

Hamburg, Germany - prostitution on the windows in the Red Zone;

Stockholm, Sweden - a large students' home where lodgers do everything with their windows open;

Sweden - women hitchhike for rides across the land... and end up as unmarried mothers of blonde babies;

Italy - a marriage ceremony... and funeral headstones of young women killed out of jealousy;

Sydney, Australia - at Waterloo, the Sporting Widows Association engage in a game of lawn bowling, all women dressing in white;

California - on the coast, lovers watch the sun set across the Pacific Ocean;

Hawaii, USA - a Tree House for 2 is part of a tourist tour;

Las Vegas, Nevada - at the Twin Lakes Lodge there are cowboy games all day, and whisky drinking all night, and in town, marriage licenses can be bought for US$15... day and night;

Las Vegas, Nevada - at 8 a.m., the Golden Nugget gambling hall and the Fremont hotel casino are empty, but the local court room is busy with new applicants for divorce;

Japan - women dive topless for pearls and marine algae but the men get the best part of the price, doing nothing;

Washington D.C., USA - Elizabeth Rudel Smith, 40, is the current woman Treasurer of the United States [1961-1962];

Singapore - The trade union of the female night entertainers is presided... by a man;

Kowloon, Hong Kong (UK colony) - women police officers direct their attention at the street prostitutes, some with their children at work, and a night raid on sampan brothels;

Maasai Mara, Kenya [Angong Reserve, in the Italian text] - two catholic nuns in a jeep, past zebras and wildebeests, giraffes and lions, gazelles and a flock of birds, and do the rest of the way on foot to go baptize a Masai;

Maasai Mara, Kenya - white women do a fashion show among the Masai to promote essential things like colorful clothes and makeup from France;

Borneo - body tattoos are enforced on young female children, to keep up the traditional ideal of beauty;

Europe - young white women submit to painful dermabrasion in a specialized clinic, to get more smooth and youthful skin;

Africa [Morocco?] - Bedouin women use camel dung and water as a facial beauty cream;

New Zealand - the Maori perform a Haka dance for tourists, and a miracle baby is born after five months of marriage;

Geneva, Switzerland [not named] - a specialized clinic teaches pregnant women a method of painless childbirth, but a natural and painful birth is shown;

Morocco - in a military reserve on the dunes, women trespassers run between falling artillery shells to grab the scrap metal they will later sell for a few cents, while their children wait in fear their return home;

Europe - the euthanasia case of Suzanne Vandeput (who killed her daughter) is contrasted by a pair of cases of parents who opted to let live their children with the side effects of Thalidomide on their babies;

Lourdes, France - women pilgrims pray and scream at God for their children with mental and physical deficiencies