A Lei dos Crápulas

The director Jules Dassin was able to draw well the reality of a small village in Southern Italy, where the existing rules were applied with a double standard. The priest was very much concerned with the attitude of Marietta (Gina Lollobrigida), but not with other situations affecting the town. The game called "la legge" (the law) was not an entertainment instead it was a weapon of intimidation. It appears to be as the behavior of strong animals showing their powers over weak ones. This is an old film, which could be useful to be shown in Italy again. Dassin was able to show various details and characters of the life in the village: the patriarch (Pierre Brasseur), the "pidgeon" (Yves Montand), the man of well-doing (Mastroianni), plus the lady of the family or la Donna(Melina Mercouri) and Marietta, likely to be a kind of spoiled Cinderella. All these ingredients put coherently in an interesting plot made the film attractive to be seen and not only once.

In this heavy Jules Dassin drama, you're treated to an Italian landscape, an Italian-sounding plot, and two popular Italian actors...speaking French. This feels like an Italian movie, but it's in French, so if you like old European dramas, you're going to love this one.

The residents of a poor fishing village are controlled by the powerful Yves Montand. He's menacing, wealthy, and has enough influence to get what he wants by any measure. In the evenings, he plays a drinking game called "The Law" with the men of the town. Whoever is boss for the evening gets to say insulting things to anyone and force the players to humiliate themselves. While this game is the title of the movie, it's more of a symbolic title rather than being the main focus of the plot. Yves may make "The Law" in the evenings, but he also runs the town during the daytime.

I've never been impressed by Yves Montand, but I've only ever seen him in movies where he was forced to speak English. Evidently, the language barrier greatly impeded his acting ability, because in La legge he was fantastic. I didn't even know it was him until halfway through the movie when I remembered who was in the opening credits. He was incredibly frightening, and it was clear he had a love of power and great hopes and dreams for his family. Great villains are not just evil, but they show the audience their motivation. Bravo, and please accept my apology, M. Montand.

The concurrent plot in The Law is Gina Lollobrigida's own power over the men in the town, similar to Yves's control. She can drive a man to madness because her tight dresses and sensual movements make him half-crazed, but in her great power, none of the men who desire her ever force themselves on her. She may not be a frightening force in the town, but she has just as much power. While Yves has his mind set on seducing Gina, she has her heart set on marrying Marcello Mastroianni. This is a pretty racy movie for its time, with love scenes that undoubtedly made Will Hays of the Production Code blush. There's violence, incestuous themes, infidelity, and enough tight dresses to make you forget all about Sophia Loren. Seriously, folks. Gina is so beautiful and distracting in this movie, it's a wonder any other Italian actress ever became popular. And she speaks three languages! Marcello's French accent is also very good, so if you want to see these talented linguists, you'll be in for an extremely entertaining and steamy movie night.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to sexual content and violence, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. A couple of minutes before the end, after Melina Mercouri asks for a drink, there's an abrupt camera spin and it will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

I really enjoyed watching The Law. The storyline was great, and I loved the occasional tidbits that were so unexpectedly hilarious. The theme about who was really considered "the law" and the person with all the power was extremely entertaining. Gina Lollabrigida (Marietta) was fantastic! I loved her character's attitude. She knew what she wanted, and she knew how to get what she wanted. The many different plots and characters were all very enjoyable and interesting. And in the end, it is very clear who the person is that has all the power in the city.

I absolutely loved the movie and was highly entertained! I'm so glad that it's finally being distributed for a wide release in the US! There's love, sex, power, drama, and death! with the occasional hilarity and musical number. What more could you ask for in a movie?

This could have been a great movie, but it is almost unbelievable the way in which Dassin looked at Southern (I repeat: SOUTHERN) Italy in the Fifties of 1900. I was a boy, I did not live there, but in that South I spent my holidays. The best holidays I ever had, due surely to my (then) splendid age and to my (then) splendid country.

A young woman dressed like Gina Lollobrigida could never be seen in those years walking the streets of a southern Italian village.

The magnificent place where the movie was partly made is Peschici (Gargano, Puglia). The name Manacore, in fact, was later used for a very elegant and costly touristic place. I spent several holidays there in the Sixties, and (let alone the Fifties!) never saw a woman dressed that way. And, as far as I remember, they did not go to the beach albeit wearing a diving apparatus (complete of snorkel).

And the music in the local festivals (dedicated to saints, with parades, priests, candles and so on) was very different, almost always neapolitan.

Mrs Mercouri and Ives Montand are surely not at their best (to be kind), but we really re- discover a woman which was at most considered a pin-up, and on the contrary was really a great actress: Gina Lollobrigida.

Brasseur is OK, very human and credible. Marcello Mastroianni as usual shows how one can be a great actor with the minimum of mannerisms (or not at all).

A movie which unfortunately aged very badly.

In the Italian fishing village of Porto Manacore, the men gather in the local tavern in the night to play a game called "The Law", where one of them is selected as "The Boss" after an allotment and the others are humiliated by him. The real boss of the town is the powerful aristocrat Don Cesare (Pierre Brasseur), an old man in his last days but still in the command. The young and sexy small time crook Marietta (Gina Lollobrigida) is the servant of Don Cesare and sexually disputed by the hoodlum Matteo Brigante (Yves Montand), by her brother-in-law Tonio (Paolo Stoppa) and by the engineer Enrico Tosso (Marcello Mastroianni). Marietta wants to marry Enrico, but she is too poor and does not have a dowry. The local Inspector Attilio (Vittorio Caprioli) is an unfaithful husband and the naughty Giuseppina (Lidia Alfonsi) is his mistress. Donna Lucrezia (Melina Mercouri) is the judge's wife that has a crush on the lawyer student and Matteo's son Francesco (Raf Mattioli). When Marietta steals a large amount of a Swiss tourist, she sees the chance to marry Enrico, but the police are investigating the case.

"La Legge" is a minor movie that recalls a soap-opera of the great director Jules Dassin but it is still enjoyable and entertaining. The story takes place in a small fishing village in the South of Italy, where nothing happens but sex, infidelities and gossips. The real power is in the hands of an old aristocrat, and the dwellers dispute a despicable game of power where most of the participants are humiliated as a sort of compensation. Gina Lollobrigida is extremely sexy, her beauty is amazing and there are many erotic scenes considering that it is a movie released in 1959. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Lei dos Crápulas" ("The Law of the Debaucheries")