Product Reviews
Jules Dassin, blacklisted during the McCarthy era, directs this routine, ostensibly romantic tale that really courts an underlying theme of the misuse of power. Based on a popular French novel and set in a small Mediterranean town, the story involves a small group of men and the woman several of them desire. The men gather around in the local tavern each evening to play a rather vicious game called "The Law." One man is chosen to dictate to the others, and they have to do what he says, no matter how humiliating. Marietta (Gina Lollobrigida) is the gorgeous servant of Don Cesare (Pierre Brasseur), desired by Francesco, the son of a crime boss (Yves Montand), and by her brother-in-law. She herself has fallen in love with Enrico (Marcello Mastroianni), a poor engineer. Determined to get a dowry and thereby be able to marry Enrico, Marietta turns the tables on the men who play "The Law." ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
Product Notes
Pigeons and vagabonds populate the town square of Porto Manacore, the seedy Italian fishing village perched above the Adriatic where passion and power are equally corrupt. Overlooking the immoral hoi polloi from his baroque apartment on high is the town's wealthy patriarch Don Cesare (Pierre Brasseur, anticipating Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone). Lusted after by the men of the town is his gorgeous housekeeper, Mariette (Gina Lollobrigida), the resident whipping girl to the Don's other female caretakers. When the handsome yet broke Milanese engineer Enrico Tosso (Marcello Mastroianni) comes to town, Mariette concocts a daring scheme to marry him. But the devilish Matteo Brigante (Yves Montand), local brute and admirer of Mariette, connives to shut Enrico out by using "The Law," a vicious drinking game and humiliating power play, as his weapon of choice. Piquing censors at the time of its initial release, Dassin's film is a sexy, lurid, occasionally campy romp amongst the lowly and the exalted, the suave and the callow, and the otherwise contradictory inhabitants of the gorgeously photographed Mediterranean.