I was really curious to see how Raffaello Matarazzo - who is better known for his melodramatic efforts - would fare in the field of light-hearted romantic comedy and was more than pleasantly surprised. CERASELLA, shot in 1959 on location in Vietri sul Mare on the Amalfi Coast, offers the viewer a summer-fresh comedy for the heart and an extremely amusing story, which critics consider to be related to the Musicarello. Since the musical part is rather small, it is more about the similar content, I guess.
Mario Girotti aka Terence Hill is Bruno and he meets Cerasella (Claudia Mori), who is sweet as a cherry and sour as a lemon as the locals say. Claudia Mori embodies this role in her film debut in an extremely lovable way and one doesn't notice that she was barely 15 years old at the time of shooting. She is really good and can maintain dominance alongside Terence Hill, who has been 20 already. In 1964 Claudia Mori would marry actor/singer Adriano Celentano. The two are still together nowadays and she was also cast in some of his films.
The story is typical for Matarazzo, stubborn fathers and egotistical mothers are of course just as important as the obligatory sexual harassment. But that doesn't detract from the lightheartedness, a tightrope walk that Matarazzo does excellently. The film is cast well and of course there is some some singing in such a summer film. In addition to the score of singer and multiple San Remo winner Fausto Cigliano, there are four songs that consist of Neapolitan melodies. The lyrics of those have sometimes been slightly modified. In addition to the title song, a humorous defamatory song on marriage stands out in particular.
Roberto Pariante acted as assistant director, the camera work was done by veteran Václav Vích. CERASELLA was the most beautiful film from Terence Hill's early work that I have seen so far. Definitely worth seeing.
