Colomba

Based on a Prosper Mérimée novella, often transferred to the screen, it is one a pretty mediocre adaptation by Emile Couzinet , king of the French corny cinema.

Corsica is the true star ,they insist, after a long blah blah which reminds us of the true facts which inspired the writer ( who was faithful in his telling of the facts , except for the main character ,who was actually a fifty-one matron).

Directing is flat ,playing very poor: Catherine Danet does not possess any charisma, and it's impossible to believe that girl is craving for vengeance ;her character was cheapened and watered-down and the final scene of the novella , in which her look almost kills a dying old man (the father whose sons were killed) ,and the threatening last line ("she has the evil eye" ) is replaced by a song as the ship sails away.

Because there's plenty of bel canto in this story,which is downright irrelevant ; the actor playing Orso , Colomba's brother ,who must avenge their father's death is a bel cantist, José Lucciani who's got a good voice praising the wonders of the Mediterranean sea and of the maquis ,but who cannot act : he's better at singing "Ave Maria" in the church than at portraying a man who on the mainland has learned another justice ,and thus cannot bring himself to fullfil his sister 's ominous plan.