Marriage Italian Style (1964)

Sometimes when you watch Sophia Loren's Hollywood efforts, she can look a bit unnatural - forced, even. Put her in front of Vittorio De Sica and pair her with Marcello Mastroianni, though, and she is in her element - and that makes for a really enjoyable comedy drama here. It's all set in Naples after the end of WWII when the wealthy "Don Domenico" alights on the seventeen year old, down at heel, hooker "Filumena" and over the years she becomes his mistress whom he supports comfortably. His eyes are set on a younger women for marriage and when "Filumena" discovers this she plays the ultimate of tricks on her beau forcing him to marry her instead. It's a short lived victory, however, when it transpires that her motives were less than honourable and that she has three children only one of whom is his! She won't tell him whom, he is desperate to know - will it end in tears of joy or disaster? It does take a little bit of time for us to get up to speed, but once we are in a higher gear this is a wittily written and funny story that sort of becomes a battle of the sexes - a battle of wits, certainly! Mastroianni and Loren have chemistry a-plenty between them and you can't help but have sympathy for his poor old sidekick "Alfredo" (Aldo Puglisi) too, as the romantic mayhem ensues in quite a stylish fashion. It's really well worth a watch, this - two stars at the top of their game and some fine location photography and rickety old cars!