The Lonely Woman

Whoever gave this it's U.S. title "The Lonely Woman" should do time. Gina Lollobrigida plays a rich, lonely woman but it's only a minor part that doesn't go anywhere.

The same can be said for all the parts, as well as the movie in general. From what I could gather it's about a young male model-cum-hustler juggling "relationships" (such as they're portrayed) with three women while looking for the big score, a rich girl who will keep him afloat for life. But no relationship is developed, no background examined, no motivation explained. He just bounces from woman to woman like a pinball and ends up marrying an emotionally stunted girl who plays with dolls. And we don't even see her until the final act.

This is a textbook case of "first-draft" cinema, a director who was interested more in shooting than in getting a story straight. That it was shot in Spain in 1972 and released in 1976 may have had to do with Franco's strict censorship - no stupidity allowed!

The only interesting bits are two cases of casting: Lollobrigida was perfect in her part as a beautiful, middle-aged, wealthy, sad wife looking for a fling as an aspirin against the boredom. If nothing else, she certainly knows how to weild a camera.

The other was Susan Hampshire, having fun cast completely against her usual type: she usually plays Her Ladyship of A By-Gone Era but here she played a hang-loose modern girl who paints forged Picassos and swears like a sailor (I counted two "fucks", one "shmuck" and one "prick.") Maybe this was Her Ladyship's 1972 descendant.

In both cases they performed like the veteran troopers, but one can only imagine the horrors they had in mind for their agents when they realized just how rotten this script turned out to be. Now THAT'S acting!