Alina (Koch/English-dub version)
Picture: C-
Sound: C- Extra: D Film: C-
Gina Lollobrigida is a star you hear much more about than
see and her films have not been widely available at any one time, but she was a
huge screen sensation in her time and Alina (1950) s a melodramatic
potboiler melodrama that does not really go anywhere. Not that we should judge any film on a badly dubbed English
version, but the film is ultimately riding on Lollobrigida’s star and the screenplay
is lame in any language.
Director Giorgio Pastina has cinematographer Tonino Delli
Colli to work with, and it is his camerawork that helps to save this from being
a total disaster. Delli Colli later
lensed the Spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone and knows how to shoot Lollobrigida. It is just that this film drags and is
rather predictable. Being such a print,
the full frame black & white image and Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono version of
the original theatrical mono sound is not great, but maybe this will encourage
someone to issue an Italian sound print.
The story of a woman substituting for her ill criminal
husband in a group of thieves is mixed at best and this is not the most
politically correct film. I do not know
if it works better in its Italian version and we can assume that an Italian
version might have a different cut, so take the rating on this film ONLY for
the English-dub we have here. The DVD
also has no extras, except information about other Koch DVDs.
- Nicholas Sheffo
