L'amour à l'italienne

Prudence Bell (Suzanne Pleshette) travels to Italy to discover adventure and finds Don Porter (Troy Donahue) and love. As they explore the areas around Rome, viewers are treated to some idyllic scenery. Their relationship has its ups and downs, especially when Don's former flame, played by Angie Dickinson, reenters his life.

Through it all, the song "Al di la" is featured, and the film's grade deserves two bumps just for that. It may be the perfect accompaniment to a love story set in Italy. Even Al Hirt, who appears as a surprisingly engaging trumpeter in the film, plays a jazz rendition.

This itinerant love story with a peripatetic plot loses focus on occasion, but it always come back to Prudence, where it belongs. Pleshette's beautiful quirkiness feels grounded in true love. No surprise, then, that Pleshette and Donahue would marry later.

An uncreative ending deserves the loss of one grade point. But it is difficult to be very disappointed in a film that features so much beauty.