Bambina

A handsome Italian businessman is trying to procure some land and some financing for a project from a wealthy contessa (Irene Papas). He sleeps with the woman and thinks he has sealed the deal, but then she insists that he marry her demented teenage daughter (Teresa Anne Savoy). He hatches an elaborate scheme to get out of the marriage: he is going to have the girl kidnapped and raped so he can claim she is not a virgin and have the marriage annulled (did I mention this is a COMEDY?!).

This is pretty disturbing stuff frankly, but not because of the kidnapping and rape scheme (which pretty quickly goes awry). It may not seem to exactly be every middle-aged man's worst nightmare to have to marry a sexy teenager--and the then eighteen-year-old Savoy was definitely a sexy teenager. However, her character literally has the mentality of a two year old throughout most of the movie--she sucks on the protagonist's thumb and cries when he takes it away, she giggles and squirms while he gives her a bath, etc. Of course, she doesn't consistently act infantile--at times she seems seductive or even nymphomaniacal, and he eventually falls for her. If you take this purely as an absurdist comedy, it's pretty harmless I guess. But if it's meant to be erotic, it's pretty damn disturbing unless you have some weird thing for female "adult babies". (I mean if you like your wife or girlfriend to act like an 18-year-old schoolgirl, that's a little kinky. If you're actually dating an 18 year old, well, that's certainly not illegal. But if you have an eighteen-year-old girlfriend and you like her to pretend like she's two, I'd say you have some serious problems. . .)

Savoy went on to star in a couple Tinto Brass films, "Salon Kitty" and "Caligula", where she had just as many nude scenes, but did NOT act like a two year old. Alberto Lattuado, like a lot of French and Italian directors of that era it seems, is a bit of a "Humbert Humbert"--besides this, he directed "Dulce Enganni" where Catherine Spaak plays a schoolgirl involved with an older man and "Stay the Way You Are" where Marcello Masroanni plays a man who has an affair with sexy university student Nastassia Kinski, who may actually be his daughter. He was actually a pretty classy director though, and his movies are usually funnier and a lot less disturbing than they sound on paper. I don't a know about THIS particular one though. . .

This film has a similar premise as Yorgos Lanthimos's Poor Things. I have a feeling that Lanthimos had seen this and consciously or unconsciously incorporated it into his work. Irene Papas's performance is majestic and there is a lot more to this film that you would not get if you just went by the one star reviews. I personally find this period in Lattuada's work and related 1970s Italian cinema quite interesting and rewarding. These films are not at all like the cheap exploitation films that are celebrated by film buffs, MUBI and the BFI. A great deal of good work has gone into this and the editing and the action is very tight.

A ridiculous romance between a con man and a mentally retarded teenager who behaves like a baby! That was the idea chosen by Italian director Alberto Lattuada to launch the beautiful English Teresa Ann Savoy in the cinema. The director could not have chosen a worse idea! The plot of the film, vulgar and unconvincing, is very disturbing, contrasting with the tender and sweet beauty of Teresa. It is possible to interpret the bizarre relationship between Saverio and Clotilde almost as an apology for pedophilia! In addition, the film still features grotesque scenes involving feces and urine!

The movie was a great success at the time of its release, but today, it is almost completely forgotten. It is likely that such ostracism is due to the controversial nature of the story.

What a pity that the gorgeous and charming Teresa has debuted in the big screen in such an infamous way. And, to make things worse, she was hired to act in other bizarre productions after that!