In this charming romantic period piece directed by Peter Ustinov, Sophia Loren starts the movie off completely unrecognizable from her usual 1960s glamorous appearance. She's elderly with a padded matronly figure, wrinkles, white hair, and stooped posture. Her voice is wobbly and she barely recognizes her own family. When asked to tell the story of her life, she treats us all to a gigantic flashback.
A poor girl rises to the top in very unlikely circumstances. A laundress in a brothel, she meets Paul Newman when he's running away from the scene of the crime. He's just planted a bomb in a bank, and he seeks refuge by pretending his alibi was at the brothel. Since he's cute, she agrees to cover for him. The movie will have you think they fall in love, but if you're paying attention you'll see that she falls in love with him and he treats her like garbage. All he cares about is his anarchist rebellion and occasional bombs and assassinations. When Sophia meets David Niven, an extremely wealthy and powerful man, she tries to steal from him so she can pass the jewels onto her lover.
Why does she keep holding a torch for Paul Newman? The Niv is handsome, classy, a legitimate member of society, wealthy, forgiving, generous, and loves her. Paul is a scoundrel, a criminal, and cruel. Just as an example: The Niv gives Sophia an exquisite necklace, she lets Paul pawn it, The Niv finds out about it and brings it back from the pawnbroker to give to her for a second time, and Paul rips it off her neck and throws it to a homeless woman. How horrible is that? Adding insult to injury, the homeless woman is so shocked, she dies on the spot.
I love the comic touches of Peter Ustinov, and I can only imagine how much funnier the overall film would have been had he written the screenplay, too. Sophia is beautiful in the movie, and her comic timing is great. But why does Paul have to be so rotten? The Niv is sheer perfection, so how is there any contest? Watch the movie to see if you agree. You'll get to see some beautiful costumes and enjoy a couple of twists in the plot.
