In this lurid early 60's melodrama, Gina Lollobrigida plays a high-class call girl who meets Anthony Franciosca, the son of millionaire construction magnate Ernest Borgnine, a self-made Greek immigrant whose forceful personality and wealth dominates everyone around him. Franciosca has just gotten out of the service and is "finding himself". Franciosca is at first ignorant of Lollobrigida's calling in life, but soon gets wise and also learns that his father and seemingly half the male population in town has used her services.This is a fairly big budget, lushly made film, set in what looked like possibly San Francisco (?) with a side trip to Acapulco. I'm kind of a sucker for films from this era, their look and style, so it was enjoyable enough though certainly nothing great. Borgnine gives the best performance, though even his character showed a lot of inconsistency - at times, he was quite likable then you wanted to beat him over the head. Gina is voluptuous and sexy, but Franciosca, playing the weakest character, could not overcome the deficiencies of the writing. The biggest problem with the film is the inherent double standard of the time, making the sexually free woman the victim who must pay for her "sins". I'm certainly happy that things have changed in that regard.

The only thing I have against this film is that the character played by tony Franciosa is rather helpless for someone who has just spent several years in the army. I would have thought that he would have come out a better man, instead of this mousy character, but there you are.I thought the scene at the top of the skyscraper being built, where Tony Franciosa walks along a girder as though it were a tightrope, to get some money from his father was an incredible piece of acting by Franciosa, Borgnine, and the actors playing the spidermen. To me that was the outstanding scene in the whole film.The rest of the film is a watchable melodrama, although I don't think it will ever be regarded as one of the best films ever made.

Sick at home, I chose to watch this despite having no idea what this movie was about. Never heard of it before either.First off, Bourgnine really got into the role of a domineering Greek immigrant architect. He spends quite a bit of time yelling at everyone. His scenes with Franciosa are very good and provided me with a reason to watch the whole thing. Lollobrigida is good but the scenes between her and Franciosa are gooey.The plot is interesting as Lollobrigida's character is revealed to be a high-class hooker leading to Franciosa's character's very confused response and his confkict with his father who happens to be one of her clients. It could have been interesting but the movie opts for cheap moralizing at the end. I have seen the same ending in "bad girl tries to make good" movies from the 1930s.The title is also a cheap attempt to get the male audience to think they might glimpse Lolabrigida nude at some point. Never comes close although there's a wild dissolve / montage that has an erupting champagne bottle superimposed over Lollobrigida face as she's clearly on her back. Hmmm.You can skip it if it ever shows up again.

I caught this on TCM running movies with Mr. Bourgnine, and based on the votes wasn't expecting much; killing time on a business trip afternoon. Maybe I'm hot for Italian women(OK I am). Franciosa and Borgnine seemed very believable to me. All the main characters are very flawed in this one and thats what makes it so interesting. Major conflicts develop in this one and Julie (Gina) is a dagger in the heart. Interesting thing, the hotel detective sniffs the cigarette to see if its pot! All the characters are dealing with their head problems, maybe to the point that it looses credibility, but I really enjoyed this one nonetheless.