Italian Babes Of Yore (Ivy Video boxed set)
Picture: C+
Sound: C Extras: C- Films: B- each
Recently, we looked at a sad DVD copy of Valerio Zurlini’s
1960 drama Girl With A Suitcase starring Claudia Cardinale and Jacques
Perrin. It was a bad copy with bad
sound and unacceptable picture. The
Italian film also only had an English soundtrack. As we posted it for our readers to read, we discovered there was
a second version issued by company called Ivy Video and got a hold of them
immediately. Usually when we wish for a
better version of a film on DVD, we do not get it. Their version was not only a big improvement, but part of a
terrific boxed set called Italian Babes Of Yore.
As noted in the previous review, the story has to do with
a sexy and frank woman (Cardinale) who beings to fall for a man (Perrin) her
age, but when the relationship falls apart, she suddenly finds herself more
attracted to his younger brother. In
the Koch version, it looked like a promising film was in there somewhere, but
this copy really shows what was missing.
The 1.85 X 1 letterboxed image has much better composition and the
subtleties of the shadow and lighting that further how the triangle of sorts
develops. The film is not necessarily
Neo-Realist or Existentialist, but it is a solid piece of relation ship study
that works much of the time. Only a
Dolby Digital 2.0 Italian Mono version is offered here, but it is far better
and it looks like the English dub from the other DVD had actors reading from
this older copy. Cardinale is really
good and this is a nice alternative to her biggest artistic and commercial
success, Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In The West (1969, reviewed
elsewhere on this site). If the only
other alternate viewing you have had of her is from the original 1964 Blake
Edwards Pink Panther, you will want to see this.
If that was not enough, the box offers two other good
films. Too Bad She’s Bad (1955)
offers one of the less seen, but often amusing pairing of Sophia Loren and
Marcello Mastroianni (I guess they were always this good), with directing
legend Vittorio De Sica turning in another one of his funny character actor
appearances. This is actually the first
time they worked together and it is odd this film is not better known. Mastroianni is a taxi driver who gets
involved in everyone’s dysfunctional behavior, especially centered on a sexy
big mouth (Loren) or the title. Can she
be tamed? Can he handle her if she is
not? Are all these people crazy or just
Italian? These questions and more will
be answered when you see the film, which includes an amusing sequence with a
wire recorder. The ending is rather
politically incorrect by today’s standards, but it is also an Italian in-joke
we will let you figure out for yourself.
No wonder Loren and Mastroianni became a legendary screen pairing. The 1.85 X 1 image is not bad, with clean
and clear enough image quality, with the Dolby Digital 2.0 Italian Mono
subtitled in English.
Finally, there is another legend of the screen, Gina
Lollobrigida in her 1952 romp Wife For A Night. A poor Classical composer/musician (Armando
Franciolo) needs money badly and thinks he can get it out of a rich count (Gino
Cervi), but it will take more than clever conversation to get that gold. He hires another woman (Lollobrigida) to
pretend to be his wife while she sends his actual wife away! Though not funny non-stop, it is still
amusing and has some serious moments.
Billy Wilder essentially remade this as his 1964 comedy Kiss Me,
Stupid! with Dean Martin, Ray Walston, Kim Novak, John Fiedler and Mel
Blanc. I have a feeling when I sit to
watch that version again, it will make more sense, now that I have seen the
original. While Wilder’s film was shot
in 2.35 x 1 Panavision scope, this is a black and white 1.33 X 1 film, but the
image quality is equal to the previous letterboxed films in the set and the
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is yet again Italian only.
The only technical complaints we can make is that all the
prints are a bit aged, but in good shape for their age. However, the white subtitles are of the
older kind that fades into the background when the seen is too bright. It would have still been nice to see the
letterboxed films in anamorphic transfers, but they still look film-like enough
despite that. All three prints have
their artifacts, scratches and dirt here and there; while a few pops were on
the sound briefly on all three films from the optical sound sources off the
print, so do not play them too loud.
Otherwise, the presentations and quality of the films, in content and
playback, were consistently the same throughout. This extended to the extras, which include a symphony music short
and animated short on each disc. The
Rome Symphony Orchestra performs Mendlessohn’s Saltarello Ballet and
Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra Symphony on Suitcase (which also has the
animated Land Boom send up of buying real estate), Cimarosa’s Secret
Marriage and Schubert’s Rosamund on Too Bad (which has the
animated love story The Slob Story which features a blob in love!), and
Rossini’s Barber Of Seville and Beethoven’s Prometheus Overture
on Wife (which also has the amusing animated Report On Love,
which mixes animation and some live action in dealing with the findings of the
Kinsey Report On Sex!). Italian
Babes Of Yore is a fun set that offers laughs and a look at a vital cinema
that was equal to what Hollywood was doing at the time. It also breaks the Neo-Realist stereotype of
what Italian films were after World War II.
More of these films deserve to be rediscovered and seen again.
- Nicholas Sheffo
