La ragazza con la pistola

A typically fanciful late-sixties Italian sex comedy with a Hammond organ score and obviously post-synced dialogue in which director Mario Monicelli bounds along in hot pursuit with a zoom lens of Monica Vitti (wearing a variety of wigs and vulger sixties outfits, including a shiny black PVC coat buttoned up to the throat) as she scampers from Sicily through exotic British locations like Edinburgh, Sheffield, Bath, Elephant & Castle and finally Brighton, encountering a quirky succession of British men (Anthony Booth, Stanley Baker, Corin Redgrave) along the way.

Britain as seen through Carlo Di Palma's lens seems a cold, wintry place; none more wintry than poor old Sheffield, disposed of as usual as a hideous concrete jungle (the location scouts again ignoring it's many parks and the Yorkshire Dales within easy reach).

The first 15 minutes of this are just classic, with Vitti being 'kidnapped' - and a little too ready for seduction, even as she moans "I am cold as marble, you are kissing a dead woman!" The rest of the film has several fine comedic sequences, with Vitti ready to call out every 'putana'who does not meet her strict moral code as she searches for the man who betrayed her. I gave it 8 stars as I had such a good time watching it!

As my review needs more lines, I can mention that La Vitti won a few awards for her performance, and that the film itself was nominated for Best Foreign Film. So while the costumes and concepts make this something of a period piece, don't think it is not make worthy of viewing. Very enjoyable!

This comedy features perhaps the most Italian acting performance ever, in the form of Monica Vitti acting extremely Italian at all times and delivering her English lines in an accent so heavy, its often an incomprehensible sweet sound (I watched it in English dub). In it she is the girl with a pistol who chases a no good lover from her home in Sicily to the UK. Her Latin exotic nature is merely emphasised further as she goes to Edinburgh(!), Sheffield(!), Bath(!) and Brighton(!), as well as London. I have to admit, it was something of a novelty to see screen goddess Vitti kicking about in Waverly Station and up the Royal Mile. The story is knockabout and silly and similarly casual in the story-telling department as Modesty Blaise, which was Vitti's first English language film, however, I do always enjoy a bit of Monica, I loved the scenes of 60's Edinburgh and appreciated the manic theme tune 'Girl With a Gun!'

After looking for a long time I was finally able to get a decent VHS copy of this movie which I had never seen.For me it completes my collection of all of Stanley Baker's theatrical movies.

Sicilian Monica Vitti is "wronged" by her boyfriend who then decamps from her to London.Monica gets a pistol and pursues him with revenge on her mind.

The movie is then a series of encounters with various characters who help her find then lose then find the debaucher.Stanley Baker, who turns up about halfway through the movie as a surgeon is her last connection. The denouement is a little twisty and provides a satisfactory ending.

This is an odd film in which to find Baker. He was a major star but he probably just did it for the money if he wasn't being offered more substantial roles. As a point of interest, the first full length biography of Baker is up for preorder at Amazon UK.

To answer dalesmobile's question, I have just seen the film on Talking Pictures TV tonight, and it may well be repeated on the same channel in the near future.

I enjoyed watching it, if only because of the amount of location shooting in the UK. I would like to know where the rugby match was filmed though.