Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell
1969 US
Dir:Melvin Frank
Stars:Gina Lollobrigida, Peter Lawford,
Telly Savalas, Lee Grant
Left:Telly Savalas, Center:Gina Lollobrigida, Right:Peter Lawford
This hilarious movie is quite fun to watch. Especially La Lollo's ebullient character matches the resplendent
sunbeam in Italy where this film was shot. If you are a fan of her, I can guarantee that this movie will quite
sufficiently satisfy you even though this kind of movies could never be called a masterpiece. Anyway, here I explain
the plot briefly. The movie has Gina Lollobrigida as a cheerful Italian woman who has been swindling three American
ex-soldiers out of their money for 30 years. One day, they visits the village where La Lollo lives as the members
of an American army delegation. But, this is unfortunate for her, because she has been deliberately misinforming
each one of them that he is the father of a beautiful daughter, in order to take from every each one of them money
as the expenses for bringing up her. To make matters even worse, the daughter comes back to the village to see
her alleged father. Therefore, La Lollo must behave as tactfully as possible so that no one knows the truth. But,
of course, as the movie is a comedy, things certainly don't work in a convenient way for La Lollo. Thus, afterwards,
several funny situations arise although I'm not going to explain the plot any further in detail here lest it should
spoil the fun.
By the way, for me as a Japanese, there are several Italian actresses with
whom I feel are very difficult to sympathize such as Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren because of the remoteness of their
overall figure from the traditional Japanese aesthetic evaluation standard. But, Gina Lollobrigida, probably along
with Claudia Cardinale seems to be constituting the exception for it because of their much friendly and not so
excessive personality. Although she isn't, of course, exactly a downright comedienne, here we can verify her comedy
talent. In this point, I prefer this film to the comedy movies in which she appears with Rock Hudson. Because,
in those movies, since the main focus is placed on Rock Hudson, we can't savor her comedy sense so much, for her
cheerful Italian personality aren't fully developed on account of the fact she isn't the main character in those
movies. In contrast, in "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell", with all scenes being set up in some tiny Italian
village that has extremely bucolic atmosphere, she seems to be quite confortable in stretching her personality
to the fullest. Despite the fact she is neither deliverately making funny performances, nor delivering blatantly
funny lines, nevertheless she is funny, which surely suggests her natural talent as an excellent comedianne. Furthermore,
other players including Telly Savalas, Peter Lawford, Phil Silvers, Shelley Winters and Lee Grant are also good
and funny. Especially, the scene where three American ex-soldiers run about all over the village in confusion manipulated
by La Lollo would give everybody a real kick. And, the fact that all they are afraid of their own wives, and that
they must tactfully conceal from them their real intentions makes the situation even more complex and humorous.
In this way, this movie has many funny moments. And, as they are not the result of downright slapstick performances,
the movie looks very natural and likable and healty. Therefore, this movie is definitely for all the members of
your family including children. Finally, I would like to add that the scores composed by the Italian genius Riz
Ortolani are also hilarious and superb.
