It's very rare that any of these Euro-Crime films carry much emotional weight but this one does and I'm ashamed to admit it made me shed a tear, and I'm not leading up to a punch line like 'of laughter!'. Director Carnimeo and actress Edwige Fenech play this one absolutely dead straight...even the ditzy model from The Case of the Bloody Iris is here, and she's deadly serious too!
Edwige plays Anna, a cashier in small town Italy who is bored and wants to see more of the world. Enter Guido, a total jerk who also happens to be a mafia boss. He's hiding out in the town while things cool off in Milan as he's switched allegiance from gangster Zucco to gangster Richard Conte, and both Guido and Anna hit it off right away, even though on the second date Guido slaps her around a bit. That should be fair warning right there for Edwige, but the lure of money makes her head off to Milan with Guido.
Guido at first showers Anna with cash but before you know it he's talking her into smuggling drugs into Switzerland and she's witnessing Guido murder a turncoat working for Zucco. As usual in these films Richard Conte is the voice of reason and says to Guido that it was probably a bad idea gunning someone down in front of Anna, and probably forcing her into prostitution was a bad idea too and for some reason Anna gets pregnant and wants to keep the baby despire Guido's beatings. Zucco is still lurking around too so when Guido gets busted Anna runs off to Rome to have her kid and forget about Guido, and maybe Guido should have listened to Conte's advice about leaving her be....
Although Edwige gets to show here that she's much more than a pretty face (and body), what with the torment in her eyes and the despair when her kid gets sick, the one thing she can't do is look like she's just given birth! She looks like she's stepped off the catwalk in Milan and picked up a random child. Despite her poor choices, we can't help but root for Anna as she meets Mr Hunky Doctor, whilst knowing as she does that happiness is fleeting. I did laugh however when she dumped the doctor, then phoned him to say that he'd left his scarf at her house and that she can bring it over the next day, which then cuts to the doctor driving to her house at about 100mph.
It's first comes the love, then comes the heavy stuff. We do get to see Edwige without her make up (and she looks even better! What's happening?) but this film kicks your soul in the ass for the last fifteen minutes, and probably is Edwige (and Guiliano Carnimeo's) best film. Don't sit down expecting a laugh though. As usual with Carnimeo, the film looks great too. This is no cheesy film.
