La maîtresse secrète

This film typifies the white telephone dramas against which the post-war neo-realist films represent a reaction. Alida Valli shows potential, although she isn't helped by the stilted script. The film's depiction of the sole black character is the most interesting thing about it. Whilst it establishes that he is stupid and like a child (he allows himself to be tied to a tree by a small boy, then screams for help) and "back home" he used to eat people, the hero of the story states that "he is a lot less black than some of those (high society) people". Hardly risque stuff though, and the caricatural racism is typical of the Mussolini regime. 5/10.