Les cinq dernières minutes

It's the perfect apartment in the center of Rome, with a balcony that overlooks the Vatican. Linda Darnell and her friend Sophie Desmarets want it for their dress business. At the same time they are there, Vittorio De Sica and his friend Peppino De Filippo are looking it over for De Sica's apartment. De Sica and Miss Darnell each insist they will have the apartment, so they compromise by getting married, with the understanding that if Miss Darnell falls deeply in love, she can just walk away. But De Sica loves his wife jealously, and puts the kibosh on any affair; that is, until she sneaks away to meet up with Rossano Brazzi at his apartment.

It's a charming movie derived from a stage play by Aldo De Benedetti. Miss Darnell is lovely in her chic outfit. Although her dialogue seems dubbed, she carries off the role well. The movie, however, belongs to De Sica, at his most charming, cordial, a bit nutty, and very feeling in the scenes where he thinks he is being cuckolded. It's basically a two-set play, opened up with the vista from their apartment, a sequence on a lake, and the wonky elevator that turns out to have a small but vital role. With Nadia Gray and a small but hilarious role by Gianrico Tedeschi as a very annoying post-modern pianist/composer.

Airy comedy of a man a woman and the lengths they'll go to for a really great apartment! Located in the center of Rome with amazing views both want it and strike the compromise of marrying each other platonically to get it. The woman still hopes for true love and the man agrees to step aside should that special someone come along but he is secretly smitten with her and surreptitiously makes her various suitors look like fools. All goes well until he comes up against Rosanno Brazzi and finds him a tough challenge to overcome.

Linda, as ravishing as she ever was, and the dashing De Sica make a very handsome couple and share a refreshing spiky chemistry adding an extra bit of snap to the proceedings. Frothy and you can see where it's headed from a mile away but the stars, and Linda's New Look wardrobe, make it a very engaging diversion.