Carlo Ponti Movies
Italian mega-producer Carlo Ponti's resumé reads not only like a checklist of the golden highlights of postwar European cinema, but as a testament to the creative vision of a maverick -- a filmmaking revolutionary defiantly unafraid to take enormous career risks. In the final analysis, Ponti's consistency in gracing the pinnacle of success and breaking new filmic ground time and again -- in Italy, Great Britain, and Hollywood -- is virtually unprecedented in moviedom. Born December 11, 1913, in the hamlet of Magenta, Italy, on the outskirts of Milan, Ponti studied law as a young man and launched his own practice as an attorney before entering filmmaking with the Mario Soldati-directed period epic Piccolo Mondo Antico in 1940, starring Alida Valli. That picture's twin commercial and critical triumphs enabled Ponti not simply to continue his production-oriented work, but to ride the crest of Italian neorealism by collaborating with the top helmers in Italy as the '40s progressed, including Luigi Zampa (Vivere in Pace [1947], Cuori Senza Frontiere [1949]), Alberto Lattuada (Il Mulino del Po [1949]), Renato Castellani (Mio Figlio Professore [1946]), and Pietro Germi (Gioventu Perduta [1947]).In 1950, Ponti teamed with another brilliant mind on the south European filmscape, Dino de Laurentiis. During their seven-year partnership, the men extended their influence beyond the Mediterranean with a series of massively budgeted international co-productions, the most famous of which was King Vidor's Italian-American joint venture War and Peace (1956), an adaptation of the Tolstoy novel starring Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, and Mel Ferrer. Regional (Italian) co-productions of Ponti and de Laurentiis during the '50s included Alberto Lattuada's 1951 Anna, Roberto Rossellini's Europa '51 (1952), and Federico Fellini's La Strada (1954) -- not exactly the first film to launch Fellini onto the international scene (the still-influential Variety Lights, The White Sheik, and I Vitelloni preceded it), but a hallmark of international cinema nonetheless, and one of its director's most vital works, winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film.
This idea -- that of seeking out, nurturing, and cultivating exciting cinematic talent, both new and established -- became something of a hallmark of Ponti's career, evident in his decision to shepherd then-neophytes Martin Ritt (Black Orchid [1958]), Sidney Lumet (That Kind of Woman [1959]), and especially Jean-Luc Godard (A Woman Is a Woman [1961]) through production and distribution channels. (The ongoing involvement with Godard made Ponti one of the few producers in history to aggressively shape both Italian neorealism and the French New Wave.) Additional credits during the 1960s include George Cukor's Heller in Pink Tights (1960), David Lean's Doctor Zhivago (1965), and Milos Forman's The Firemen's Ball (1967).
The Ponti-produced Blow-Up (1966) and Zabriskie Point (1970) -- both directed by Michelangelo Antonioni -- and especially Paul Morrissey's ultraviolent twin horror features Blood for Dracula and Flesh for Frankenstein (1973), represented massive risks from the standpoint of content, but paid off critically and commercially, becoming runaway sleeper hits.
Meanwhile, alongside Ponti's career accomplishments, his personal life crescendoed. In 1950, he purportedly served as a 37-year-old judge for a beauty contest and fell for one of its contestants, the luminous Sophia Loren -- at that time, only a 15-year-old girl named Sofia Lazarro. In 1956, 22-year-old Loren wed Ponti in Mexico, and their marriage lasted over four decades, until Ponti's death. It survived repetitive tabloid interference, Ponti's alleged adulteries, and rumors of Loren's feelings for other men. They had two children together, symphony conductor Carlo Jr. and director Edoardo, in addition to two children from Ponti's first marriage. During the early years of their union, Ponti prepped the then-ingenue for international stardom, and hit a watershed moment in the pursuit of that goal when Loren won the 1961 Best Actress Oscar for Two Women, directed by Vittorio De Sica. Ponti's production-oriented work lasted through the end of the 1970s, but after 1976's elephantine disaster opus The Cassandra Crossing and 1977's well-received Una Giornata Particolare, he largely retired. In later years, Ponti and Loren moved to Switzerland together. Ponti died of pulmonary complications in Geneva, Switzerland, on January 9, 2007 -- merely three weeks after celebrating his 93rd birthday. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 1963
Jean-Luc Godard directed this brutal and purposefully harsh satire (adapted from a play by Benjamino Joppolo) which explores the grim folly of war. Ulysses (Marino Masé) and Michel Ange (Albert Juross) are a pair of thickheaded peasants living in a nameless country who receive a visit from a pair of military recruiters informing them the king wants a favor of them. Impressed that the king regards them as friends, Ulysses and Michel Ange join the army and set out to see the world's battlefields, having been told they can claim any spoils as their own and live a lawless life on the nation's behalf. Ulysses and Michel Ange often write their equally dim girlfriends, Venus (Geneviève Galéa) and Cleopatre (Catherine Riberio), with tales of the places they've seen and the people they've killed, but when the soldiers return home, their women discover the riches they were promised are not quite what they imagined. Filmed and recorded in a deliberately harsh and murky style, Les Carabiniers (aka The Riflemen and The Soldiers) features a brief appearance from Barbet Schroeder, years before he would become an acclaimed director, as a car salesman. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marino Masé, Albert Juross, (more)
Contempt is the story of the end of a marriage. Camille (Brigitte Bardot) falls out of love with her husband Paul (Michel Piccoli) while he is rewriting the screenplay Odyssey by American producer Jeremiah Prokosch (Jack Palance). Just as the director of Prokosch's film, Fritz Lang, says that The Odyssey is the story of individuals confronting their situations in a real world, Le Mépris itself is an examination of the position of the filmmaker in the commercial cinema. Godard himself was facing this situation in the production of Le Mépris. Italian producer Carlo Ponti had given him the biggest budget of his career, and he found himself working with a star of Bardot's magnitude for the first time. ~ Louis Schwartz, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, (more)
- 1963
This black comedy is based on the dastardly deeds of French serial killer Henri-Desire Landru, who wined, dined, scammed, and dismembered over 10 women during WW I. He obtained his victims by placing ads in the Personals section of the paper. He then chose wealthy dowagers in their fifties. First he would woo them to his villa. Then he would con them into forking over their fortunes. Finally he would kill them, chop them up, and immolate the pieces. He is finally captured after he is recognized by the sister of one of the victims. Landru swears that he is not a psychotic killer, that he only did it so he could continue to support his family in the bourgeoisie style that they were accustomed to. During his trial, Landru refused to plead for himself one way or the other; he showed no remorse at all. He was guillotined on February 25, 1922. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Denner, Danielle Darrieux, (more)
- 1963
Like The Elephant Man, The Ape Woman (original Italian title: La Donna Scimmia) is based on the real-life exploitation of a deformed human being. Ugo Tognazzi stars as a charming ne'er-do-well who happens upon young Annie Girardot, who outside of the fact that she is covered with hair from head to foot is a normal woman with normal desires and dreams. Tognazzi inveigles her into the European carnival sideshow circuit as "The Ape Woman", securing her cooperation by making love to her. She dies in childbirth; though overcome by grief, Tognazzi has not lost his cheapjack showman's touch, and he mummifies the bodies of both mother and daughter and continues to tour with them! The Ape Woman was inspired by the true story of 19th century Mexican "freak" Julia Pastrana, whose career was also covered in brief fashion by a half-hour episode of TV's Alfred Hitchcock Presents. While the original Italian version of The Ape Woman retains the cynical, faithful-to-the-facts denouement, the French version substitutes a happy ending in which the woman and her baby survive. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ugo Tognazzi, Annie Girardot, (more)
- 1963
Vittorio De Sica's version of a play by Jean-Paul Sartre stars Frederic March as Albrecht von Gerlach, the owner of one of Germany's biggest industrial firms. Albrecht calls for his son Werner (Robert Wagner), a lawyer who is married to an actress, Johanna (Sophia Loren). The aging Albrecht wants Werner to take over the family business, but Werner is not interested, as he knows that the company helped to build the Nazi war machine that caused the deaths of millions of people. Werner, however, was not first in the line of succession; his older brother Franz (Maximilian Schell) was running the company for his father during the war, and as a result he was cited for war crimes and executed. Or so everyone believes. In fact, Franz was able to escape the gallows, and he lives in the basement of the family's Altona estate, watched over by his sister Leni (Francoise Prevost). Franz has gone mad, and he believes Leni when she tells him that Germany never recovered from its defeat in the war and that poverty has layed waste to the nation. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Maximilian Schell, (more)
Each of the episodes in the three-part Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Ieri, Oggi E Domani) stars Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. In "Adelina-Naples," Loren and Mastroianni are married, and Loren is in trouble with the law. Each time the authorities close in, Loren eludes capture by revealing a swollen belly; back in 1964, Italian law forbade the arrest of a pregnant woman until six months after the child's birth. In "Anna," Loren is married to a wealthy industrialist and has an affair with Mastroianni. So obsessed is she with material possessions that she's willing to walk out on Mastroianni when he smashes her sports car. And in "Mara," high-priced prostitute Loren attracts the attention of a young seminary student, but refuses to seduce him -- then takes a vow of chastity, aggravating her regular customer (Mastroianni). While the first episode is the funniest, it was the last episode which received the most press-coverage, thanks to Loren's "striptease" scene, revealing La Loren in skimpy bra and panties (a bit parodied by the stars in Robert Altman's otherwise-dreadful Prêt-à-Porter). Though the title Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow has absolutely no relation to the film at hand, it is a far more appealing cognomen than the film's British release title, She Got What She Asked For. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, (more)
Confusion and wrong assumptions are the cause of tragedy in this stylish gangster noir by director Jean-Pierre Melville. Maurice (Serge Reggiani) and Silien (Jean-Paul Belmondo) are friends going way back, and both have had a shady past. Silien wants to leave his illegal activities behind him -- but would he actually be in league with the police, as an informer? That is what Maurice suspects after he kills a fence who is responsible for the murder of one of his friends and then takes some jewels as an extra bonus. Doubts assail Maurice as well as others until it is finally decided that something has to be done about Silien. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Serge Reggiani, (more)
- 1963
An early melodrama from director Damiano Damiani, this overheated coming-of-age story concerns a neglected teenager (Vanni De Maigret) living on an island in the Bay of Naples. Arturo's widowed father (Reginald Kernan) shows up one day with an attractive new wife (Kay Meersman), and leaves them together when he goes off on one of his frequent trips. Alone with his beautiful stepmother and his nascent desires, Arturo falls deeply in love. As viewers of Damiani's overwrought Amityville II: The Possession can probably guess, Elsa Morante's bittersweet romantic novel is left by the wayside in favor of almost comical heavy-breathing and repressed sexuality. Damiani's heavy-handed direction makes such similar films as Luna and Spanking the Monkey look relatively restrained by comparison, and only a relatively restrained performance by Meersman keeps the film from degenerating into abject farce. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kay Meersman, Vanni de Maigret, (more)
Released in the US by 20th Century-Fox, Boccaccio '70 is a compendium of short subjects directed by three of Italy's top filmmakers. Each story is written in the style of the famed Italian essayist Boccaccio, albeit told in contemporary terms. First up is "The Raffle", written by Cesare Zavattini and directed by Vittorio De Sica: Sophia Loren (wife of Boccaccio '70 producer Carlo Ponti) plays the sexy operator of a shooting gallery, who offers herself as first prize to the best shot. In "The Job", written by Suso Cecchi D'Amico and directed by Luchino Visconti, Romy Schneider carries a torch for her philandering boss Tomas Milian. The final segment is "The Temptation of Dr. Antonio", directed by Federico Fellini and scripted by Fellini, Ennio Flaiano and Tullio Pinelli; in this one, Anita Ekberg is an image on a poster who comes to life for the benefit of a drooling middle-aged professor (Peppino De Filippo). A fourth episode, "Renzo and Luciana", directed by Mario Monicelli, was cut from U.S. release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Luigi Giuliani, (more)
- 1962
In this French drama, a struggling writer is taken in by a successful author and his wife who allow him to use their Bavarian chateau so he can write his stories about Germany. The young writer is a bitter man, jealous of the couple's happiness. He decides he will destroy it, so when the older writer goes off on a business trip, the young man tries to seduce his wife. She rejects him. The conniving young man then learns that she has a lover. He ends up taking a picture of the couple illicitly holding hands. The older man returns and the younger one confronts him with the damning photos. The husband flies into a jealous rage and stabs his wife; he then calls the cops. The young writer suddenly feels great guilt, but despite his attempts to publicly take responsibility for the crime, no one listens, no one cares. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacques Charrier, Stéphane Audran, (more)
Jacques Demy's auspicious debut -- "a musical without music" set in the port city of Nantes -- stars Anouk Aimée as the title character, a cabaret singer awaiting the return of Michel (Jacques Hardin), her long-absent lover and the father of her child. Michel went to America seven years ago and promised to return when he became rich. In Michel's absence, Lola is being courted by her childhood friend Roland (Marc Michel) and American sailor Frankie (Allan Scott). At some point, it seems that Lola will settle down with one of them, but her heart still belongs to Michel. The film is dedicated to Max Ophüls and the film title obviously alludes to Ophüls' Lola Montes as well as to the heroine of Josef Von Sternberg's The Blue Angel. Marc Michel makes a reference to his unrequited love towards Lola when he reappears in Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anouk Aimée, Marc Michel, (more)
- 1961
Jean-Paul Belmondo portrays Leon Morin, an altruistic priest who believes that any sin can be expunged by a good dose of faith. Emmanuelle Riva plays a wayward woman who long ago decided that the easiest way was the best. Belmondo makes it his mission to steer Riva onto the right path. Given the censorial climate of 1961, it isn't surprising that the picture was shorn of 22 minutes for its American release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Emmanuelle Riva, (more)
- 1961
In this French drama, a woman preparing to take her vows to become a nun must write a letter describing her past indiscretions. She goes to a priest to confess that she had killed her former lover when she discovered that he had been sleeping with her mother. Her enraged mother gave her two options: she could become a nun, or go to prison. She chose the former, but when the convent refuses to take her, everything falls apart. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Director Jean-Luc Godard's deceptively blithe tribute to the musical comedy features Anna Karina as an exotic dancer who decides that it is time for her to have a child. When her lover refuses to commit to the decision, she turns her romantic attentions to his best friend. This being a Godard film, the straightforward story serves as a framework for improvisation and stylistic experimentation, allowing for odd interludes and unexpected images. Rather than the sometimes alienating, dense intellectualism of later Godard works, Une femme est une femme offers aesthetic pleasure through luxurious visuals and a charming musical score by Michel Legrand. Against this bright backdrop, Karina proves particularly fetching, capturing the film's frolicsome mood in an unforced manner. While not one of Godard's most groundbreaking or influential films, Une femme est une femme is one of his most appealing and pleasurable efforts. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, (more)
The talents of the cast and director George Cukor (A Star Is Born, My Fair Lady), combine to bring off this otherwise routine Western based on a Louis L'Amour novel. Sophia Loren is Angela Rossini, a woman who seems to create the situations she gets into, and Anthony Quinn is the strong, silent but soft-hearted Tom Healy. Rather than playing it straight, Cukor opts for satire and effective comedy in taking "The Great Healy Dramatic and Concert Co.," with its two-wagon loads of thespians and their gear, and turning it into a fun romp. As the troupe carries on with their performances heading through Wyoming, they are fighting for their economic survival and, as often as not, running like the devil from the law. There is a likeable villain in the piece, Mabry (Steve Forrest), a zany woman who has "sacrificed" her own dubious stage career for that of her daughter (Eileen Heckart), a so-called Shakespearean actor (Edmund Love), a banker with menacing undertones (Ramon Novarro), and a really hysterical Indian attack. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Anthony Quinn, (more)
Based on the Ferenc Molnar play Olympia, A Breath of Scandal serves as an elegant vehicle for a ravishing Sophia Loren. The star plays Princess Olympia, who despite her station in life cannot resist the urge to satisfy her sexual appetites. Exiled to the countryside, Olympia falls in love with American millionaire Charlie Foster (John Gavin). Meanwhile, a marriage of state is arranged between the princess and Prince Ruprecht of Prussia (Carlo Hintermann). Jealous rival Countess Lina (Angela Lansbury) endangers this union by threatening to tell all about Olympia and Foster. A cute, continental plot twist brings this harmless confection to a close. Maurice Chevalier dispenses his usual all-knowing glances and sly smiles as Olympia's understanding father. A Breath of Scandal was directed by Michael Curtiz, who uncharacteristically allows the pace to lag at crucial junctures. Scriptwriter Sidney Howard was credited with the script posthumously, some 21 years after his death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Maurice Chevalier, (more)
Normally, an actor or actress in a foreign-language film was not the ideal candidate for an Academy Award, inasmuch as his or her English-language "performance" was often dubbed in by an anonymous third party. Such was not the case of Sophia Loren in Two Women (La Ciociara), who did her own English dubbing. Adapted by director Vittorio De Sica and Cesare Zavattini from the novel by Alberto Moravia, Two Women is the semi-neorealist account of widow Cesira (Loren) and her teenaged daughter, Rosetta (Eleanora Brown), as they struggle to survive in war-ravaged Italy. A conventional romantic triangle between mother, daughter, and Michele (Jean-Paul Belmondo), is barely under way when the war rears its ugly head once more. Seeking shelter in a bombed-out church, Cesira and Rosetta are attacked and raped -- a horrifying sequence, capped by a freeze-frame close-up of Rosetta, her face a taut mask of terror (this image was enough to prompt a virulent "anti-smut" editorial in The Saturday Evening Post). Once they've recovered from this appalling experience, mother and daughter are offered a ride back to Rome by friendly truck driver Florindo (Renato Salvatori). Though Cesira had hoped to keep her daughter from compromising herself as a means of survival, she is crushed to discover that Rosetta has given herself to the truck driver in exchange for a pair of stockings. When Cesira and Rosetta finally reconcile, it is a grievous occasion, mourning the death of their mutual love, Michele. A last-minute replacement for Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren brought hitherto untapped depths of emotion to her performance in Two Women; she later stated that she was utilizing "sensory recall," dredging up memories of her own wartime experiences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Eleanora Brown, (more)
- 1959
That Kind of Woman stars Sophia Loren as an Italian girl, Kay, who enjoys a brief wartime romance with American paratrooper Red (Tab Hunter). But Kay is already the property of a suave millionaire (George Sanders) known only as "The Man." When next we see her, Kay is living Hollywood's concept of the life of a kept woman: luxurious apartment, limitless wardrobe, and an ever-so-slightly repentant facial expression. When Red reenters her life, she forsakes her wanton lifestyle -- only to lose her newfound love to enemy bullets. Essentially a remake of the World War I war-horse The Shopworn Angel, That Kind of Woman relies solely on Sophia Loren for its emotional punch; Tab Hunter is, after all, Tab Hunter. Watch for fleeting appearances by John Fiedler as a GI and Bea Arthur as a WAC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Tab Hunter, (more)
The title is Black Orchid, but the leading lady is a rose--florist Rose Bianco, played by Sophia Loren. Newly widowed, Rose holds herself responsible for the death of her husband, a well-known gangster. Anthony Quinn plays a widower who falls in love with Rose, much to the dismay of his daughter (Ina Balin), who fears that Quinn will be destroyed as thoroughly as Rose's first husband. All ends happily after Rose and her new beau align to find her unhappy runaway son (Jimmy Baird). Black Orchid tries too hard to be a "slice of life;" perhaps it might have fared better with a cast of unknowns, but then who'd go to see it? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Anthony Quinn, (more)
- 1957
Sonia (Sylva Koscina) is quite a woman, if not perhaps the "Female Three Times" of the title. The captain of a Soviet female basketball team, Sonia joins her teammates on a goodwill visit to Rome. Here she is captivated by the sights, sounds and sensual pleasures of the Eternal City. When Sonia falls for a handsome Roman, it takes a veritable battalion of Russian commissars to bring her back to the Glorious Motherland. Unfortunaetly for the Soviet cause, the commissars, in true Ninotchka fashion, likewise succumb to the allure of Rome. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sylva Koscina
- 1956
In this heartwarming drama, the life of an Italian rice farmer involved in an unhappy marriage is chronicled. One day, he notices a familiar looking migrant in his field. Upon following the girl, he discovers that she is his illegitimate daughter. To quietly make up for his past indiscretion, he begins giving the girl many gifts, but he does not tell her who he is. Later the girl falls for an auto mechanic who gets jealous of her secret father's attention to her. This causes the father to tell the mechanic the truth; the fix it man then decides to engineer a reunion. He then goes on to save the girl from getting raped by her father's deadbeat nephew. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elsa Martinelli, Folco Lulli, (more)
- 1956
In keeping with the film's title, most of the characters in Le Diciotenni are 18 years old. The story takes place in a girl's finishing school, populated entirely by knockout beauties. One of the girls (Marisa Allasio) faces expulsion because her father has been known to consort with criminals. Even so, the film maintains a lighthearted tone throughout, especially when it deals with affairs of the heart. Le Dicioetteni is a remake of a successful early-1940s film of the same name, which in turn was adapted from a popular stage comedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marisa Allasio, Ave Ninchi, (more)
Pietro Germi is both star and director of Il Ferroviere. Germi plays Andrea, a railroad engineer with a large and troublesome family. Faced with a choice between supporting his fellow workers in a strike and keeping his family fed, Andrea opts for the latter. Branded a scab by his former cohorts, he is likewise given the cold shoulder by his wife and children. Drowning his disappointment in liquor, Andrea is saved from self-destruction when his youngest son decides to forgive and forget. Il Ferroviere was released in the U.S. as The Railroad Man and Man of Iron. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pietro Germi, Luisa della Noce, (more)
War and Peace is a commendable attempt to boil down Tolstoy's long, difficult novel into 208 minutes' screen time. In recreating the the social and personal upheavals attending Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia, $6 million was shelled out by coproducers Carlo Ponti, Dino de Laurentiis and Paramount Pictures. Some of the panoramic battle sequences are so expertly handled by second-unit director Mario Soldati that they appear to be Technicolor-and-Vistavision newsreel footage of the actual events. Still, the film falters dramatically, principally because of a lumpy script and King Vidor's surprisingly lustreless direction. In addition, the casting is wildly consistent: for example, while Audrey Hepburn is flawless as Natasha, Henry Fonda is far too "Yankeefied" as the introspective Pierre. Proving too long and unwieldy for most audiences, War and Peace died at the box office; far more successful was the epic, scrupulously faithful 1968 version, filmed in the Soviet Union. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, (more)
- 1955
A rich man's attempts to steal away a poor man's wife set the stage for this comic farce, set in Naples in 1860. Luca is a simple but honest man married who runs a mill and his married to Carmela (Sophia Loren), a strikingly beautiful woman. Carmela's face and figure attracts the eye of the Governor (Vittorio De Sica), a Spanish nobleman who has been appointed ruler of Naples. Determined to have Carmela as his own, the Governor has Luca arrested on false charges, and sets out to seduce her while her husband is behind bars. When Carmella resists, the Governor plays his trump card -- he is willing to free Luca, but only under the condition that she sleeps with him first. Carmella is appalled, but dreams up a way to use the situation to her advantage; she slips the Governor a mickey, and after he's asleep, she makes haste to the prison, carrying the Governor's pardon of her husband. However, Carmella arrives to discover a surprise -- Luca has already escaped from the jail. When Luca makes his way home, he discovers the Governor, still fast asleep, and is convinced he's already seduced Carmella; enraged, he sets off to the Governor's mansion, determined to get revenge with the Spaniard's wife. Bella Mugnaia was based on a novel previously filmed as Il Cappello a tre punte in 1934. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Vittorio De Sica, (more)
