Is love the only ingredient needed to enable a young couple to be married? Through most of this motion picture the answer seems to be no, as Antonio and Carmela are in love and yet the odds are against them getting married. This is the simple plot line which focuses in on the two very well developed characters and their fight to be accepted together. The strong personality and overwhelming free spirit of Carmela, excellently portrayed by Maria Fiore has to be one of the most interesting female characters in film history. The story starts out with Antonio having served time as a soldier and returning home to his financially challenged mother and sisters. Almost at once Carmela is on the scene flirting with Antonio. His main concern, though, is securing a job. The rest of the film switches back and forth between Antonio and Carmela and his trials and tribulations with both his short term employment ventures and the problems arising with young love. Their situation isn't helped with Carmela's brother and father being against their proposed marriage. Village life is very well explored in this movie that has a very broad appeal. Mack Sennett felt that a fast pace was the key ingredient to a good movie and Two Pennyworth of Hope moves along at the speed of light. The VCR timer and other sources give this a running time of 95 minutes. Technically speaking the movie isn't in b&w as a red film stock was used as a source for this VHS video version. The white subtitles need to be encased in black as about 10% are impossible to read.
