In her autobiography ,"ich ,Romy" ,the actress wrote that ,unlike many of her fifties movies, she had good memories of this film, which allowed her to get rid of her costume melodramas (for a while).
Today ,"Scampolo" retains a certain freshness;it looks like a travel brochure, it's full of finer feelings, but the film is pleasant,and the cinematography is luminous.
And Romy is gorgeous , one has only eyes for her ;leaving her empress Sissi far behind, she plays an orphan (Scampolo means :left-overs ) who 's got no more family and earns his life by guiding tourists through the beautiful Ischia island ,an occasionally helping the laundress to deliver her clothes .With her white blouse and her red dress, she looks "Italian" (the whole cast is German ) and her guide act challenges arithmetic but wins the tourists over.She displays plenty of go , defending the hungry young brats who stole a melon or telling the mayor his home truths ; an outspoken ingenue who falls for an architect with no lira to his name but with new concepts in town planning .The love affair is conventional but the burnt adress is a good trick.
