Vittorio de Sica is retiring from the Caribinieri, returning to Sorrento to become head of the Police Department. He comes equipped with an elderly governess, a brother who is a priest, and a great variety of uniforms, all with white gloves. What he lacks is a place to live. His family apartment has been occupied since the War by Sophia Loren, a widowed fishwife. She has a boyfriend with whom she fights a lot. This does not, of course, prevent her from coming on to de Sica, who easily loses his head over women -- it's Loren, who wouldn't? -- to keep the apartment and get her boyfriend a job with the police. The boyfriend objects to her methods. Meanwhile, de Sica is staying at the home of Lea Padovani, a highly religious and insanely repressed woman, as a favor to the priest.
I have the feeling that the movie's length of 110 minutes, although long for a comedy, is trimmed. Miss Padovani's sequences seem rather abrupt and Miss Loren, while startlingly beautiful, gives a performance that is rather harsh and monotonous; it's true she was only 20 when she made this, but she soon showed herself a capable farceur and actress of considerably greater range. Perhaps the producer and director simply lacked confidence in her abilities.
Despite these misgivings, this is a good comedy, mostly because of de Sica, who plays his well-written role of a mature and intelligent man who becomes a gibbering poet at the sight of a beautiful woman, with the beautiful freedom of a true clown.
