The Battle of the Villa Fiorita

While this should have been a rousing success given the stars (Richard Todd none other in a support role) it is lamed by a hopeless script in which a selfish woman (O'Hara) runs off to have an affair pursued by her pretty awful kids. The lover has a daughter (Hussey) who for some reason joins in the plot to separate the lovers and falls in love with the boy. The whole thing is unpleasant and it is difficult to know who is worse, the kids or the adults, so when Hussey gets a (well deserved) spanking from her father you just want to boot his backside to wake him up to his own responsibilities. All together a complete waste of time.

I liked the movie mainly for the picturesque views of the lake,( Lake Como?) the surrounding area, and scenes of the villa itself. So much of the architectural style is remincient of the paintings done by Maxfield Parrish in the early part of the 20th century. You sort of have to look around the actors in the various scenes to get glimpses of ornate retaining walls, stairs and elaborate ballusters around and into the lake. There is an elegance about marble (or granite, or just old concrete?) stairs going down into the water. And old world gardens full of flowers. Itn reminds me of the book "Italian Villas and their Gardens" by Edith Wharton, 1907, Which was illustrated by Parrish. And yes, the children in the movie steal the show; All three have a much stronger determination to achieve their goals than do any of the adults. It's a good story line , dated for the sixties. And is'nt this Olivia Hussey's first feature film?

I saw this movie as a teenager when it came out. Typical of its time and genre. Two kids go alone across Europe to bring their mom, who has left dad for new man, back to dad. Great scenery. O K young teenager travel adventure fantasy. O'Hara and Brazzi OK but film stolen by kids. A young Olivia Hussey prior to her starting in Romeo and Juliet. The result of their attempt is in keeping with the morals of its time.

Watching The Battle Of The Villa Fiorita I was struck at how similar this was to another Maureen O'Hara film, The Parent Trap. This is a great example of how one can take the same plot situation and treat it either comically or quite seriously. In this case the comic treatment was far better.

Maureen O'Hara is a 40 something wife and mother who experiences a mid life crisis. While part of a welcoming committee for concert pianist Rossano Brazzi the two of them begin an affair that breaks up Maureen's home and hearth, the one she shares with husband Richard Todd and children Martin Stephens and Elizabeth Dear.

Todd's not happy, but willing to let things go. But the kids are determined one way or another that the Brazzi/O'Hara marriage will never take place. Curiously enough when they hitchhike to Italy they find a willing ally in Olivia Hussey who is Brazzi's daughter. Brazzi is a widower, still Hussey wants no one taking her mother's place.

The kids use all kinds of wiles and strategies to break their parents up. Nothing with any parent trap like cuteness, this film never would have been done for Disney. It ends with an uncertain future for all concerned.

If there's a message here it misses the mark considerably. If you think you'll be seeing Maureen O'Hara after reading the description in another Parent Trap than The Battle Of The Villa Fiorita will disappoint you greatly. It doesn't quite cut it as drama either.

Maureen O'Hara and Rossano Brazzi are glowing middle-agers in love whose romance is thwarted by their respective pre-teen children: his haughty Italian daughter and her stubborn, bratty British boy and girl. Stories of kids meddling in their parents' love lives are usually successful if played as comedy; here, the melodrama gets to be too much, with the adults continually exasperated and the kids unlikably victorious in their immature pranks. The familial arguments which arise are probably realistic, but here they dissipate interest in the movie, particularly since the love affair between the grown-ups is much more interesting than the finger-pointing. ** from ****