Having recently watched Amadio's lesbian drama ISLAND OF THE SWEDES (1969), I checked out another of his films but, alas, it turned out not to be erotic at all (he also made the giallo AMUCK! [1972] with Euro-Cult starlets Barbara Bouchet and Rosalba Neri, and which I may get to fairly soon).
Still, I found this to be fairly engaging for what it is: the budding romance on a remote island between young Italian widow Paola Pitagora (accompanied by her son) and mysterious foreigner Nino Segurini takes a hazardous turn when a couple of sinister-looking men arrive on the scene and it becomes apparent that they've come for Segurini and won't take no for an answer! The first half is pretty slow and rather uneventful as we're shown in flashback how the couple first met (they happen to be neighbors), the man's friendship with the woman's inquisitive offspring (who comes to consider the former as a surrogate father and calls him "Uncle") and also her slow realization that, in spite of how little she knows about his past, she has fallen in love with him. Eventually, it transpires that Segurini had fled East Germany in possession of a state secret (for which his sister had already given her life); this we see in another (rather quaint) flashback which is presented in monochrome.
The latter stages of the film generate some measure of suspense as Segurini attempts to elude his dogged pursuers - with Pitagora and son in between; in fact, he only gives himself up when they threaten the boy. The woman, however, doesn't stay put and, in a scene which might well have been inspired by a similar one in POINT BLANK (1967), she bumps her car repeatedly into that of the Germans just as they're about to board the ship that will take them (and her lover) off the island for good. Still, Segurini flees once again and even fakes his own death - but decides to keep away from his loved ones so as not to endanger their lives any longer!
Not a bad film overall, therefore, but it's also true that its raisons d'etre are Pitagora's excellent performance (I haven't seen her in that many films - but, hopefully, should be adding REVOLVER [1973] to these fairly soon - recalling above all her turns as a member of the dysfunctional family in FISTS IN THE POCKET [1965] and as the quietly seductive murderess of SENZA SAPERE NIENTE DI LEI [1969]) and an equally fine score by the ever-reliable Riz Ortolani. By the way, the film's long title translates to DESPERATELY LAST SUMMER; curiously, I couldn't determine whether this was ever released outside Italy - and yet, other than the title itself, all the credits on the print I watched were in English...!!
