Fantasma d'amore

I have not seen much of director Dino Risi's work but this film is clearly not one of his best efforts. The script doesn't seem very original either, based on a novel by Mino Milani which mixes romance and mystery with a bit of horror and gore. We have seen it all before: a man meets by chance an old lover and the relationship is rekindled. The hitch is that the woman could be dead and he is having an affair with a ghost. Is she or isn't she? The whole movie runs on that premise except for a subplot in which another woman is brutally murdered and her runaway nephew is the main suspect. This adds the possibility of a diabolical revenge to our reunited love birds.

The atmospheric color cinematography by veteran Tonino Delli Colli is adequate and there's some great music in the proceedings but if it were not for the magnificent Romy Schneider and the equally great Marcello Mastroianni all the mayhem would have been unbearable.

By the way, this review is based on a DVD released in Spain which lists length as 85 minutes approx.