Seduced and Abandoned – (1964; b/w, Italian, subtitles) Commedia all‘Italiana (director Pietro Germi style) A comedy of manners with exaggerated melodrama involves Don Vincenzo Ascalone’s 16-year-old daughter Agnese (Stefania Sandrelli) and her older sister Matilde’s finance, Peppino Califano (Aldo Puglisi). One afternoon Peppino seduces Agnese during a siesta. Agnese confesses her sin to the priest. Agnese’s mother discovers a scrap from a letter Agnese was writing to Peppino but tore up, mentioning their lust. A medical test provides Vincenzo (Saro Urzi) with the proof of his daughter’s pregnancy.

Peppino flees; Vincenzo sends his son Antonio (Lando Buzzanca) after the coward with instructions (through a lawyer) to give Peppino an ultimatum: marry Agnese or shoot him dead (in which case he can expect to spend five years in jail). Agnese, knowing of Antonio’s mission, tells the police. Peppino is charged with rape and corruption of a minor. Freed on bail he stages (with the knowledge of the Ascalones) a kidnapping of Agnese. If she agrees then to marry him, it will be better than amnesty – all will be forgiven, legally and otherwise. But it’s not so simple as that because Agnese will not be easily duped. Meanwhile Vincenzo has arranged for the bankrupt Baron, who was about to hang himself, to meet Matilde. “It’s always a question of honor,” the police sergeant, who despises his posting in Sicily, explains to his assistant.

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Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
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