Virna Lisi Movies

Patterning himself after the American gangster John Dillinger, the criminal (Robert Hossein) is tracked by the inspector (Charles Aznavour), a former childhood friend. Plenty of gunplay and psychology is used to trap the killer. His only tender moments are spent with his girlfriend Stella (Virna Lisi). Dillinger is cornered by the police and kills several innocent victims in a crowd during the shootout. The mob decides to take things into their own hands as they approach the doomed man with a noose when he runs out of bullets. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Childhood sweethearts Jolanda (Virna Lisi) and Franco (George Segal) meet once again after a separation of nearly 15 years. The two immediately rekindle the romance on an adult level. Franco is a dedicated physician working hard to have a successful career and longtime security, while Jolanda is a free-spirited woman who embraces radical causes and lives from day to day. Comedy ensues when this odd couple experiences life from each other's point of view. Jolanda releases animals from a research hospital in protest over their capture. Franco is always chasing the fast-moving Jolanda around in order to extricate her from the consequences of her many activities in this convulsively funny romantic comedy. The exasperated Franco is torn between the love for Jolanda and the stoic professionalism of his medical career. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A mid-1960s TV documentary special (and a New Yorker cartoon before that) was the inspiration for If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium. The film is a likeable satire of "packaged" European tours, where the nonplused tourists are expected to rush from one landmark to another in a breathless 18 days. Ian McShane stars as the amorous tour guide, with Suzanne Pleshette as the American department store buyer he falls for; their romance ends when Pleshette decides that the supposedly worldly McShane is too immature for her. An all-star cast, including Murray Hamilton, Peggy Cass, Pamela Britton, Marty Ingels, John Cassavetes and Vittorio De Sica, pops up in comic cameo roles. Our favorite bit: an American and German tourist, simultaneously regaling their respective wives with wildly divergent accounts of the same wartime confrontation. If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium was reworked in 1987 as a made-for-TV movie, cleverly title If It's Tuesday, It Still Must be Belgium. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A British engineer tries to convince the Mafia to allow an oil refinery on some prime waterfront real estate in Sicily. Proby (Peter McEnery) talks to the mob bosses about the project, but disagreements in the Mafia soon surface. One faction wants the refinery, the other a beachfront resort. Comedy ensues when Proby falls for the beautiful daughter of a mafioso, leading to a family argument. Rosa (Virna Lisi) is engaged to a mobster and causes a stir when she professes her love for the persistent Proby. The mob fights over which direction to choose for the property, as Proby and Rosa fall in love in this romantic comedy adventure. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Apparently in the Italy of the 1920s, the only way to keep your home out of the maws of the tax collector was to steal and cheat from everyone in sight -- and the dupes you'd swindle wouldn't know the difference since all their attentions would be focused upon cheating you. That little bit of homespun philosophy is the only conclusion to be drawn from Arabella, a broad sex-farce enlivened with British comic Terry-Thomas appearing in a quartet of roles, and the sexy Virna Lisi as the title character, who is compelled into chicanery in order to prevent her mother's home from being taken away by the tax man. To raise funds, Arabella rooks money from Terry-Thomas, in various fake beard incarnations as a general, a duke, a hotel manger, and an insurance agent. But while she is busy conning the four Thomases, she steps on the toes of an equally tricky burglar (James Fox) and two young lovers -- Giancarlo Giannini and Melina Vukotic. Arabella ultimately becomes attracted to the burglar. Now she must hold her base animal urges in abeyance and concentrate on squeezing more cash out of the Terry-Thomases. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Yet another entry in a long series of 1960s Italian sex comedies, this one has some clever moments in its study of four beautiful women (Ursula Andress, Marisa Mell, Virna Lisi, and Claudine Auger) who cheat on their husbands to relieve their marital discontent. Jean-Pierre Cassel also stars in this typical anthology written by Ruggero Maccari and Ettore Scola. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Made in Italy is a multistoried film, set...in Italy, of course. An all-star cast appears in brief seriocomic vignettes about rich and poor, tourist and native. Director Nanni Loy exhibits the realistic and somewhat earthy technique he'd used on his earlier documentaries, with heavy emphasis on ironic punch lines. Filmed in 1965 by a Franco/Italian production team, Made in Italy received the best possible exposure upon its 1967 American release when clips were showcased on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Best bit: The "give to the poor" poster in an impoverished Italian mountain village. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the words of Hamlet, there's a plentiful lack of wit in Not with My Wife, You Don't! Korean war vet Tony Curtis is living in London, blissfully married (so he thinks) to Virna Lisi. In strolls old air force buddy George C. Scott, who has a history of stealing Curtis' ladies away from him. Unable to woo Lisi by fair means, Scott resorts to foul; he exercises his prerogative as Curtis' superior officer, shipping him out to a faraway post. George C. Scott may have been right to refuse his Oscar for Patton; he doesn't look like much of an award-winner in Not With My Wife, You Don't! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A young writer goes to a summer resort in wintertime to be alone and contemplate his moral dilemma in this thrilling and suspenseful psychological drama. He goes to visit Tilde (Virna Lisi), a young woman with whom he had a brief sexual relationship. To his horror, the writer learns that she has been killed by having her throat slashed, and her body was thrown into the lake. He finds no one willing to talk about the crime, and he uncovers the medical examiner's report that lists the promiscuous victim as being a virgin. When the wife of the hotel-owner is found dead, the writer urges for an in-depth investigation of the unsolved crimes. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Four different facets of love Italian-style provide the basis of this episodic film. The vignettes are "The Phone," about a woman so busy talking on the phone that she fails to notice that her husband is having sex with a neighbor; "Treatise on Eugenics," the chronicle of a Swedish girl's search for the perfect sire; "The Soup," about a wife's attempts to get rid of her husband's corpse; and "Monsignor Cupid," which follows the attempts of a concierge to seduce a handsome young man. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

George Axelrod's script for How to Murder Your Wife isn't politically correct in the least, but you're likely to get a charge out of it -- provided you are of the male persuasion, that is. Jack Lemmon stars as Stanley Ford, a successful cartoonist and a confirmed bachelor who shares a lavish apartment with his misogynistic manservant, Charles (Terry-Thomas). While attending a friend's bachelor party, Stanley falls head over heels in love with the gorgeous bikini-clad girl (Virna Lisi) who pops out of a cake. He impulsively marries her, but thinks better of it the next day. Alas, Stanleycan't get a divorce because his bride is an Italian Catholic (this is 1966). Dicier still, she is a "domestic goddess," lovingly plying her hubby with rich Italian food until Stanley's once-athletic physique is as bloated as the dirigible Hindenberg. Stanley's descent into husbandhood is reflected in his work: his popular adventure comic strip "Bash Brannigan" metamorphoses into a Blondie-like "idiot husband" daily. As a catharsis, Stanley vicariously "kills" his lovely wife by having Bash Brannigan murder his missus. Stanley's wife sees the finished strip on his desk and runs tearfully out of his life (at least temporarily). The publication of the strip, coupled with his wife's disappearance, results in Lemmon being put on trial for murder. We won't tell you how things turn out; suffice it to say that most feminists will be outraged, while most husbands will laugh immoderately. Eddie Mayehoff and Claire Trevor provide sparkling support as Lemmon's bombastic editor and his dragon-like wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide