La sage-femme, le curé et le bon Dieu

Great scenery and great girls! Pity Angie comes in about 3rd in the "glamour stakes"! It is a light-hearted romp though and is mildly entertaining. Chevalier does his usual bit in his usual style-talking to himself,the audience,his jeep,his god and his congregation,with a big cheesy grin(the old ,"I'm glad I'm not young anymore"routine. Oh golly,I've got to write more lines!How about,Angie's love interest,the titled "heavy" of the film,tortured by the memory of his wife's execution by the Nazis,has little more than a walk on,walk off role.I guess he is there to ensure a happy ending. Angie doesn't do to bad,from village midwife to grand dame in the château-in less than a year.Beats having the stuffing knocked out of you by a demented Michael Caine!

I saw this movie in the early sixties, and it was hysterical. Unfortunately, this movie has never been made for VHS or DVD. I wish they would put it out on VHS or DVD as it is a very funny movie about an American girl who goes to a Sicilian village and becomes the scandal of the town because all the women are sure that she is plotting to be with their husbands. Father Antonio is the town priest who is very funny. Jessica, the American girl, rides around on a motorbike which is very scandalous for a their small village. If they ever put this movie out on VHS or DVD be sure to see it if you have Sicilian or Italian ancestry, or if you just want to laugh a lot.

The basic plot line is that Jessica (Angie Dickinson), who is new in a small Italian village, and is working as a midwife, frightens the town's women. They fear she will steal their husbands, as she is presented as being amazingly alluring to all the men. The main problem with this premise, at least from a man's point of view, is that Silva Koscina, who plays one of the wives, is far more attractive, both facially and overall physically, than Angie Dickinson. (Perhaps the Italian men were mesmerized by Ms. Dickinson's blonde hair.) The women are presented as getting together and planning to deny their husbands sex, in order to prevent pregnancies and therefore drive the midwife out of town. The plots of comedies are expected to be kind of dumb, but this one really takes the cake: they deny both their husbands and themselves any sex, because they are jealous of a new woman? How many women do you know who would react that way? Three stars out of ten, and while I'm at it, Maurice Chevalier really can't sing, can he?

Jessica is an American lady (Angie Dickenson) who has inexplicably come to a small Italian town to be their midwife. What is a super-hot American doing there?! And what is the town to do? All the men spend all their time lusting after her and the women spend all their time complaining that their men are lusting after sweet Jessica. The town priest (inexplicably played by the French actor, Maurice Chevalier) tries to get everyone to accept Jessica--but it looks like it's an impossible task.

"Jessica" is a comedy that never really hits the mark--and its script clearly could have used a lot more work before it was filmed. As a comedy, it was supposed to be funny but it wasn't. Sadly, it was just pretty dull and it isn't particularly charming. As a result, the film just drags despite nice scenery.

An attractive young blonde woman (Angie Dickinson), who is a midwife, arrives for work in a Sicilian village and the men ogle over her. This action alienates the local women. As a group, they decide to forgo sex with their men. Without sex, they get even with their husbands. Also, without sex there are no babies. Without babies, there is no need for a midwife. The village priest, Father Antonio (nicely played by Maurice Chavalier), aware of what is happening, has his hands full. The irony is that some of the women are just about Ms. Dickinson's equal (like Sylva Koscina and Rosanna Rory). The last scene is a howl! Harmless fluff!