Alina, a Transviada

This is great subject matter for a film.

There are a troop of 4 smugglers who carry the cocaine over the border from Italy to France via the Alps. They need to navigate the route with local knowledge and make sure that they outwit the border police in order to deliver the stash to the man who runs a gambling house - Juan de Landa (Lucien). De Landa has a wife, Doris Dowling (Maria), who sings at his club but is carrying on with de Landa's manager Amedeo Nazzari (Giovanni) behind de Landa's back. Nazzari finds out about the drug runnings and falls in love with one of the smugglers - Gina Lollobrigida (Alina). Meanwhile, Dowling gets jealous...

The film has great scenery - the Alps - and a different setting for the topic of drug smuggling. Unfortunately, not enough happens in terms of action, but the film is still worth the time.

I would like to declare my interest in the different ways that cocaine can be smuggled across borders and this film sets it out straight, ie, the people involved are not bad people. They just need to make a living. Well, the baddie smuggler Otello Toso (Marco) is bad. However, he is not bad because of the drug-carrying that he does, but more due to his self-entitlement to control women, in this case Gina. You hear the 'rape music' kicking in for one particular scene. Thankfully, he doesn't come out on top during this episode. Toso by name and 'tosser' by nature.

Did film studios have music libraries with various headings for certain situations, eg, "rape music"? I bet they did.

As for cocaine smuggling, more use needs to be made of these mountainous borders for this beneficial service. Ooops .... how silly of me ..... that is exactly what is happening all over the world - ha ha.

One of Gina Lollobrigida's first parts , she is cast as a virtuous honest wife, who goes out of her way to bring medicine to her sick (and not very handsome) husband .

"Alina" is a good mixture of melodrama and film noir;it pits the luxury world of the people of the French ski resort ,who practise Winter sports and who spends their night gambling in a shady place ,against the poverty of Italians of a village who cross the border in the cold at night to smuggle powder (cocaine); the boss of the gambling club is part of the ring and exploits them shamelessly.

Good scenes : the involuntary strip tease of Alina , with peeping tom Marco behind the pane (check the poster) ; the fire in her hovel ; the final confrontation of the boss and his unfaithful wife.

Lollobrigida is eye candy ,and although cast against type, manages quite well in her part of a destitute girl,forced to replace her sick hubby in his smuggling business;Amadeo Nazarri , a habitué of Italian melodrama, is true to form .

There are two villains in this film, and one of them is a woman. She finally reveals herself as the true queen of spades in her cards after having been cheating all her life, but she is startlingly beautiful, especially in her first scenes as a singer at a high skiing resort for rich tourists in the French Alps, who spend their nights around the roulette while she entertains them by seductive singing, but she can't fool her fat rich husband, the owner of the resort, all the way.

The other lady is a very young Gina Lollobrigida, who is married to an old smuggler who is at the end of his tether, trying to turn a blind eye to it by medicine and liquor, not a good combination; but Gina really cares for him and loves him and replaces him in the smuggling gang, who are not all decent fellows.

It's actually a gripping drama off relationships and hardships in the smuggling business, contrasted against the luxury life of the lavish tourists, who have no idea of the drama that goes on around them. Amedeo Nazzari, employed by the owner to keep watch of the games, has one foot in both businesses and gets involved with the problems of the smugglers, especially when these become acute because of lack of discipline. The cinematography is excellent like also the music, the direction is efficient with never a dull moment in a flow of action that constantly keeps changing to higher gear. Above all, it's a great film of the western Alps, the scenery is magnificent, and the human drama is a good match for it.

Gina Lollobrigida came from the city, and eventually got married to Lauro Gazzolo. The women didn't like her in the small village on the border with France. There, the principal occupation seems to be smuggling, and Gazzolo was one of the smugglers. But he has fallen ill, and Signorina Llolobrigida has taken his place this once. They've reached the end of their run, an osteria run by Juan de Landa. The gambling is run by Amadeo Nazzari, a discontented, self-exiled Italian who's carrying on an affair with De Landa's wife, Doris Dowling. There's a spark between Nazzari and signorina Lollobrigida, but nothing happens save kindness, which enrages Miss Dowling.

There are lots of sparks in this handsomely cast movie about the seamier side of Italian life, with Signorina Lollabrigida playing a very unglamorous role, leaving the scenes to Gazzolo and Miss Dowling. It's good acting, but it's a workaday film, well shot by cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli under the direction of Giorgio Pastina.