User reviews

The first 15 minutes of this are just classic, with Vitti being 'kidnapped' - and a little too ready for seduction, even as she moans "I am cold as marble, you are kissing a dead woman!" The rest of the film has several fine comedic sequences, with Vitti ready to call out every 'putana'who does not meet her strict moral code as she searches for the man who betrayed her. I gave it 8 stars as I had such a good time watching it!

As my review needs more lines, I can mention that La Vitti won a few awards for her performance, and that the film itself was nominated for Best Foreign Film. So while the costumes and concepts make this something of a period piece, don't think it is not make worthy of viewing. Very enjoyable!

There's a wonderful surreal character to Mario Monicelli's comedy La Ragazza con la Pistola (The Girl with a Gun), particularly in his fanciful depiction of the strict moral codes of life in a little Sicilian village which exiles a young woman for spending a night with a man. The remainder of the film as Assunta travels across Scotland and England in an effort to track down the terrified Vincenzo with a pistol in her handbag to restore her lost honour, is somewhat episodic and variable, but retains its colourful character and comic touch. Principally however, it's only able to remain as engaging as it does thanks to the irresistible presence of Monica Vitti.

The spectacular opening scenes are actually filmed not in Sicily, but Polignano in Puglia, the geometric structures of its white buildings perched on a crumbling rocky cliff face that seems to be on the verge of toppling into the sea. It does give the surrealism of life in the village an almost Kafkaesque edge that the director exploits marvellously. Despite strict segregation of the sexes and a tight guard, Assunta is abducted by men from Vincenzo's all-male dancing school. Assunat believes that Vincenzo has been watching her through her window, but Vincenzo tells them they got the wrong girl, that he was more interested in Assunta's larger-sized cousin Concetta. "Could be worse", Vincenzo reckons however, and doesn't see any reason why he should let the operation go to waste.

Vincenzo however gets more than he bargained for, as Assunta seems a little more experienced and not as retiring as he might have liked. Knowing that the potential consequence of spending the night with Assunta is marriage, Vincenzo packs his bags and flees the country. Assunta, abandoned, is greeted with wails and laments from the entire village, who come out in numbers to bemoan her lost honour. She is cast out from the town, but not without a pistol in her bag and an address in Scotland where Vincenzo might be found. The strict codes of Sicilian honour demand nothing less.

Vincenzo soon gets wind of Assunta being on his tail, and skips out of the Capri Italian restaurant in Edinburgh fairly quickly and flees across the length of England. Assunta, an avenging angel dressed in black - particularly fetching in sunglasses and black plastic Mac - is however never far behind, always on his tail. Along the way, Assunta meets various men who fall in love with her and experiences all the colour of England in the swinging sixties as well as the industrial greyness of Sheffield, and even ends up on an anti-Vietnam protest in London. La Ragazza con la Pistola eventually runs out of steam in Brighton, but there are plenty of moments of comedy and glamour along the way.

I had the honour to appear in this film posing as a ban the bomb demonstrator but I have never had the chance to see it. If anyone could point me in the right direction where I could get my hands on a copy or just see. It is be very grateful

This comedy features perhaps the most Italian acting performance ever, in the form of Monica Vitti acting extremely Italian at all times and delivering her English lines in an accent so heavy, its often an incomprehensible sweet sound (I watched it in English dub). In it she is the girl with a pistol who chases a no good lover from her home in Sicily to the UK. Her Latin exotic nature is merely emphasised further as she goes to Edinburgh(!), Sheffield(!), Bath(!) and Brighton(!), as well as London. I have to admit, it was something of a novelty to see screen goddess Vitti kicking about in Waverly Station and up the Royal Mile. The story is knockabout and silly and similarly casual in the story-telling department as Modesty Blaise, which was Vitti's first English language film, however, I do always enjoy a bit of Monica, I loved the scenes of 60's Edinburgh and appreciated the manic theme tune 'Girl With a Gun!'

We remember the great actress from Rome, who died a short time ago, and we see that she was one of the best actresses of her time. This movie is quite funny although nothing much. It is original because it shows a woman capable of doing things that only a horrible man can do.

A typically fanciful late-sixties Italian sex comedy with a Hammond organ score and obviously post-synced dialogue in which director Mario Monicelli bounds along in hot pursuit with a zoom lens of Monica Vitti (wearing a variety of wigs and vulger sixties outfits, including a shiny black PVC coat buttoned up to the throat) as she scampers from Sicily through exotic British locations like Edinburgh, Sheffield, Bath, Elephant & Castle and finally Brighton, encountering a quirky succession of British men (Anthony Booth, Stanley Baker, Corin Redgrave) along the way.

Britain as seen through Carlo Di Palma's lens seems a cold, wintry place; none more wintry than poor old Sheffield, disposed of as usual as a hideous concrete jungle (the location scouts again ignoring it's many parks and the Yorkshire Dales within easy reach).

Not a great film, but a wonderful snapshot of sixties England, outside of London for the most part. For Chris, a previous reviewer, the rugby pitch could well be Baths Recreation Ground.

As an italian I always loved this movie very much that was shot the year I was born. Like all of Monnicelli's films it's a fierce and biting satire of italian society despite the fact the film takes place enterely in UK. We are in the 1968 the years of the sexual revolution and feminist struglles. The director through comedy ,highligts the difference of a modern country like Great Britain and a conservative, catholic retrograde country like Italy, represented by Assunta and his blind desire to avenge the lost honor. It is actually a deeply feminist movie, that shows the evolution of a woman that, little by little becomes aware that she can be more that just a wife or a woman anchored in the absurd archetypes of the past. I can understand that for modern viewers, especially english speaking, the movie can be a bit silly or naive, but as always in the best italian comedy, the director though parody and laughter, points his fingers at the absurdities of a retrograde society that has not understood that everything is already changed. Last but not least Monica Vitti's beaty and skill take your breath away.

Is this a comedy, that's the question. After watching this film I suppose it is of sorts. Essentially Monica Vitti looking very glamorous in different British locations trying to kill the man who ruined her reputation in Sicily. Enjoyable for Vitti's comedy and small parts from Tony Booth and Stanley Baker.

To answer dalesmobile's question, I have just seen the film on Talking Pictures TV tonight, and it may well be repeated on the same channel in the near future.

I enjoyed watching it, if only because of the amount of location shooting in the UK. I would like to know where the rugby match was filmed though.

After looking for a long time I was finally able to get a decent VHS copy of this movie which I had never seen.For me it completes my collection of all of Stanley Baker's theatrical movies.

Sicilian Monica Vitti is "wronged" by her boyfriend who then decamps from her to London.Monica gets a pistol and pursues him with revenge on her mind.

The movie is then a series of encounters with various characters who help her find then lose then find the debaucher.Stanley Baker, who turns up about halfway through the movie as a surgeon is her last connection. The denouement is a little twisty and provides a satisfactory ending.

This is an odd film in which to find Baker. He was a major star but he probably just did it for the money if he wasn't being offered more substantial roles. As a point of interest, the first full length biography of Baker is up for preorder at Amazon UK.

In Sicily, Carlo Giuffrè has his friends kidnap the girl he wants, but they foul up and grab Monica Vitti instead. It's all one to him, so they have a torrid night of passion. But she kisses too well, so he flees to England. Now branded a wanton, she follows him to shoot him and reclaim her honor.

It's a fish-out-of-water comedy, with Miss Vitti utterly baffled by the casual attitude to sex shown by the British, where if a wife cheats on her husband, he tries to kill himself instead of her. She plays it well over the top as she runs into Stanley Baker, Corin Redgrave and othes, who view her with baffled amusement, The movie runs a bit long, but the Roman Vitti's burlesque of Sicilian women is funny throughout.

After being 'dishonoured' small town Sicilian girl Assunta (Monica Vitti) pursues the bounder responsible to Britain armed with a gun to restore her 'honour'. Giving new meaning to the words 'madly in love' director Mario Monicelli's 1968 film is a sex comedy of the subverting kind. Taking on issues of male hypocrisy, sexism, notions of honour and dishonour, and national stereotypes and cultural disjoint, and using a mix of farce and satire to tell it's tale of a fish out of water (psychologically as much as culturally and language wise), the film comes to the conclusion, seemingly, that so called 'honour' can be a deadly 'sin'. One of the more entertaining aspects for a British audience is all cinematographer Carlo Di Palma's colour cinematography of late 1960s Britain (almost like a tour of Britain). This includes Edinburgh and a mix up over kilts, Sheffield where Assunta meets Anthony Booth, Bath where she meets Corin Redgrave, London with student protests and a love affair with Stanley Baker, and then down to Brighton and off to Jersey. Writers Rodolfo Sonego and Luigi Magni have created a screenplay which although often contrived and rambling is still for the most part enjoyable, and has several laugh out loud moments, such as the hilarious visual juxtaposition (as Assunta arrives in Sheffield) of the cigarette ad hoarding in the field with the words 'The Best in Smoking', and the 'smoking' towers of Tinsley Power Station to the left, and a flock of black sheep underneath.

Non-brilliant comedy about cultural differences that confronts a Sicilian woman forced to go to the UK to kill a man who dishonored her. There are some good moments but for the most part this film is negligible.