This has nothing to do with the fairy tale of the sleeping beauty, since this is rather a story of the opposite taking a rather sinister turn in its very serious argument of love. Carmela goes to town after having lost her father and home to be a serving girl in the house of a clerk and his very shrewish aunt, who controls the household with an iron fist of constant anger - an amazing performance, as she practically dominates the entire film and never takes it easy. Carmela is her extreme opposite, shy and quiet and all innocence knowing nothing about life, especially not in town, where she is extremely exposed and vulnerable. A young rogue Salvatore observes her delicate situation and rescues her a number of times. When the clerk abuses her at home she runs away to take refuge at a doubtful establishment kept by a formidable dinosaur, she doesn't understand what kind of establishment this is and allows herself to be decorated and exposed as a luxury lady of pleasure, until Salvatore comes to her rescue and forces the clerk and the family to marry her. The matron is pleased, but the wedding march becomes more like a funeral march, Carmela is totally at a loss, and this is the moment of truth in the film: you have never seen a wedding procession like this. The great festivity explodes in tragedy, and the end is devastating. Amedeo Nazzari plays Salvatore and does it exceedingly well, I don't think I have ever seen him better, while of course the prize goes to Luisa Ferida as the virgin who never should have been awakened to the grim reality of the world of men, while also Teresa Franchini as the formidable aunt deserves ample praise.
