Volupté

Nick Stratton (Anthony Franciosa) has a 30 day furlough from the Army before deciding on re-enlisting. He returns home to San Francisco and falls for Giulietta Cameron (Gina Lollobrigida). His father Pete Stratton (Ernest Borgnine) is a self-made Greek immigrant construction tycoon. He is torn between his controlling father and his obsession with Giulietta who turns out to be a high class call girl.

I don't particularly like any of these characters and I don't have the joy of hating any of them either. Nick is annoying. Italian star Gina Lollobrigida is wasted on this melodramatic role. Ernest Borgnine is probably the most compelling actor in the cast. He and his son on the high beam is the most intense scene. The son is just too pathetic and I don't like the father either in this melodramatic mess.

I watched this movie because I'm a fan of Gina. The screenplay really sucks.

When you haven't seen a Gina Lollobrigida film in ten years her beauty really hits you in the face. She's also decked in glamorous, slinky gowns that show off her beautiful figure. Borgnine drives a gorgeous 1960 Chrysler New Yorker convertible in the film.

Those are the only good things I can say about this movie. It us absolutely pointless. It is also boring and annoying. Franciosa overacts, Borgnine just yells and Lollo acts like she's doing everyone a favor by just appearing in the film. Well, actually, she is.

You aren't given the time to care about the characters or get any insights into their motivations. Its just a lot of yelling.

It is hard to believe that this melodrama film was released three (3) years after the much more realistic and successful (1958) Cat On A hot Tin Roof. Over the top is an understatement. Gina Lollobrigida plays a hooker who falls in love with Anthony Franciosa who is an army veteran just returning to his hometown where his wealthy industrialist father Pete Stratton played by. Ernest Borgnine has laid out a lifelong plan for his war veteran son. Nick Stratton.

Nick obviously wants to find his own way in the world and his plan includes living life happily ever after with his hooker girlfriend,. Guilietta Cameron (Gina Lollobrigida). There's is a whirlwind romance filled with days living life to the fullest and evenings snuggled up in bed. Nick's fathers' attempts to break up his sons fruitless relationship with the hooker Guilietta cause turmoil not only between father and son but Pete Stratton's own relationship with his own wife and his only daughter also become strained.

The acting comes across more as a live stage performance with the cast giving their very best, but like many Broadway productions this MGM film production just didn't have much meat on the bone, as well as being dry and rather tasteless.

I give the film a bland 5 out of 10 IMDB rating.

In this lurid early 60's melodrama, Gina Lollobrigida plays a high-class call girl who meets Anthony Franciosca, the son of millionaire construction magnate Ernest Borgnine, a self-made Greek immigrant whose forceful personality and wealth dominates everyone around him. Franciosca has just gotten out of the service and is "finding himself". Franciosca is at first ignorant of Lollobrigida's calling in life, but soon gets wise and also learns that his father and seemingly half the male population in town has used her services.

This is a fairly big budget, lushly made film, set in what looked like possibly San Francisco (?) with a side trip to Acapulco. I'm kind of a sucker for films from this era, their look and style, so it was enjoyable enough though certainly nothing great. Borgnine gives the best performance, though even his character showed a lot of inconsistency - at times, he was quite likable then you wanted to beat him over the head. Gina is voluptuous and sexy, but Franciosca, playing the weakest character, could not overcome the deficiencies of the writing. The biggest problem with the film is the inherent double standard of the time, making the sexually free woman the victim who must pay for her "sins". I'm certainly happy that things have changed in that regard.