There is plenty of star-power in this 1964 Academy Award winning film in the Best Foreign Film category. Directed by Vittorio De Sica (Shoeshine, The Bicycle Thief, and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis), it also boasts two of the greatest Italian performers of their era – Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. This is an entertaining film with fine performances by the two leads, but in no wise the equal of the great De Sica films listed above. This film was produced during De Sica’s crowd-pleasing phase. It does succeed in pleasing but not a whole lot more.

The Story: In point of fact there are three stories to this film as it is actually a trilogy of short-stories each featuring Loren and Mastroianni. There is not a lot of substance in any of the stories, but there is good humor and consistently excellent performances from both leads, although I’d give the chief kudos to Mastroianni over Loren. This film is basically designed to showcase the talent, handsome faces, and attractive physiques of both of the major stars. De Sica teamed with long-time screenwriter and ally Cesare Zavattini to produce this little gem.

The first story is entitled “Adelina of Naples” and was apparently loosely based on a real story, although “enhanced” for dramatic interest and humorous impact. It is based on a quaint Italian law (apparently a similar one also exists or existed in England) that protected women from being jailed while pregnant or up to six months after the birth of the child. Adelina (Sophia Loren) is the principal source of income for her family, selling cigarettes on the black market and otherwise scamming debt collectors. She discovers that she cannot presently be jailed because “she has the belly” (i.e., she’s pregnant). The hitch, however is that a few months after each birth the police show up and she must either produce a doctor’s certificate indicating that she is again pregnant or be carted off to jail. Adelina’s husband, Carmine (Mastroianni), who is often out-of-work is enough of a trooper to get the job down in a timely manner to keep Adelina out of jail. One, two, three . . . six, seven, eight kids and the years pass safely by. Trouble begins when after the eighth, poor old Carmine, who is having trouble sleeping at night because of the noise from the neighboring shoe factory, is no longer the efficient stud that he once was. Adelina, however, will broach no excuses and almost resorts to a roll in the hay with Carmine’s best friend. Finally, however, she settles for faithfulness and jail time. Poor Carmine, wracked with guilt by his impotence, works day and night to collect donations to reduce Adelina’s jail time while also exhorting every government and church official who will listen to come to Adelina’s aid with a pardon. Adelina not only finally gets her pardon but, more importantly from an Italian perspective, the time apart has rekindled Carmine’s fire, ensuring that number nine will not be long overdue. Loren was enough of a sex-goddess in 1963 that many a male viewer could readily fantasize about the prospect of exhausting oneself, as did poor Carmine, on her lap.

The second segment, entitled “Anna of Milan”, has very little plot to it but challenges the two stars with another variety of role. In it, Loren is Anna, a filthy rich, spoiled, upper-class woman with a Rolls Royce and an industrialist husband who is constantly overseas, leaving her ample time to swing free. For her latest fling, she has picked a handsome bourgeois writer named Renzo (Mastroianni). The principal joke in this segment is that Anna drives her top-of-the-line Rolls like a demon, rear-ending one car after another, blasting her horn at slow-pokes, and hurling epithets at modernists and pedestrians alike – all the while rambling on about how she could give up her money at any time and not miss it at all. Poor Renzo is torn between contempt for Anna’s blatant arrogance and his hopes of bedding her down. Anna insists that Renzo take a turn behind the wheel, but the combination of too much car and too much woman does him in – he crashes the car into the side of the road in order to avoid hitting a boy selling flowers. Anna is irate, especially when it appears that the Rolls may catch fire, demanding that Renzo use his coat jacket, rather than her fur, to smother the flames. She flags down a passing motorist – driving a Lancia and thus likely someone closer to her own social class. She leaves Renzo to “watch the car” and rides off with her new escort. Renzo decides to buy the flowers from the boy and when the stock market quotes suddenly begin blaring over the radio of the Rolls, he decides he’s had enough of the filthy rich and wanders aimlessly off into the sunset.

The third segment is called “Mara of Rome.” Here Mastroianni is Rusconi, a man of means – the son of an industrialist from Bologna. Lauren is Mara, a call-girl who caters to upper echelon clients. Mastroianni is nuts about Mara and depends on her for his daily fix that typically includes some playful fetish activities, such as Mara dressing as a young girl. Next door to Mara’s home and place of business is a snooty older couple and their grandson who is soon to begin training for the priesthood at a seminary. His interests seem more centered, however, of his buxom neighbor. His grandmother is appalled to even have such a neighbor and all the more so by her grandson’s fascination. She threatens to begin a petition to have Mara evicted. The principal joke in this segment is that Rusconi, despite laying down his good cash, is just not getting any satisfaction. One interruption after another stands between him and a good romp with Mara. Mostly, the interruptions center on the turmoil occurring next door because the grandson imagination has foolishly turned toward the idea of a life with Mara. Mara has to impose the truth of her circumstances on his consciousness and even poor Rusconi has to be called upon as a peacemaker. At last, the grandson boards the bus for the seminary and with tranquility restored, Rusconi is finally hopeful of his just deserts. Mara obliges by performing a tantalizing striptease that elicits a truly marvelous series of lustful expressions by Mastroianni and a wolf’s howl. Just as Rusconi is beside himself with anticipation of the main course, Mara suddenly recalls, to Rusconi's utter consternation, that she had sworn a holy oath, as part of her effort to resolve the problem next door, to abstain from sex for a week.

Production Values: There were two profound weaknesses in the version of this film (VHS) that I own. One is that the English dubbing is simply awful. Although both Loren and Mastroianni spoke more than passable English as well as their native language, the dubbing is provided by American performers and is a major detraction. Then secondly, the coloration in this tape is the worst I have encountered in as long as I can remember. The reds are far stronger than the other colors. I had to adjust the tint and color settings of my television from their normal settings just to render the film tolerable. According to the “Details” portions of the Epinions database listing for this film, there appear to have been English subtitled versions of this film available at one time. In reviewing what is offered by the vendors associated with Epinions, I found no presently available alternatives other than the dubbed VHS version, which is available either by itself or as part of a two-film boxed set with another De Sica-directed movie starring Loren, Two Women. I find no evidence of there ever having been a DVD version of this film. My recommendation to readers at present would be to hold out for a future DVD release or forgo this film altogether.

On the positive side for this film are the beautiful Italian settings – in Naples, Milan, and Rome respectively. You really can’t do a lot better than that. The shot-composition is superb but the coloration problems mentioned above detract. Mostly it is the fine performances that warrant viewer interest.

Bottom-Line: I'm giving this film just three stars but I imagine that someday, with a better quality print and English subtitles in place of the terrible dubbing, this film could be easily worth four stars. The stories are humorous and heart-warming and the performances worthy of two talented and appealing stars. I’ll admit that I have about as much propensity to slobber over gorgeous female movie stars as the next guy, but Sophia Loren is not particularly close to the top of my list of objects of lust. Certainly, she a beautiful woman by any reasonable standard, but I guess she’s just a bit too brassy and temperamental for a wimpy guy like me! Nevertheless, I appreciate her talent as an actress and this film vehicle allows her to give excellent expression to that talent. Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow was filmed in Italian and is available in America in a dubbed English version. The running time is 120 minutes.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age