Dear Vittorio Gassman, I am a huge fan of yours. I admired your wiry and menacing demeanor in Bitter Rice and some of your more comedic roles like in Il Sorpaso, The Great War and Big Deal in Madonna Street. Your performance in Scent of a Woman was very respectable. Though the beard sported by you took away some of the mischievousness of your face. The dubbing was also awful. The politically incorrect views of Captain Fausto were quite entertaining like comparing some Italian cities to Turkey. Fausto insulting the square passenger with the jasmine perfume on was also quite hilarious. "A man is either born as a poet or a porter" - very wise words indeed, Captain Fausto. His relentless picking on the uptight and the unsuspecting were very amusing. Fausto's attitudes are not too different from some of the characters in other Dino Risi movies. I'm a real bastard ..... A unique and immense bastard ..... I am an eleven of spades - these are some of Fausto's utterances about himself. Agostina Belli makes a rather late appearance in the film. She has a very beautiful face comparable to the likes of Lee Remick. But the film becomes quite tedious after she makes an entry because Fausto turns into a real grouch. The background score was quite memorable though I might not buy it or anything. The same is the case with the movie. There are many good bits. But I might not watch it again. Best Regards, Pimpin. (6/10)

Given this film’s reputation (which soared even higher in the face of the overblown yet bland 1992 Americanization), it’s surprising that it took me so long to catch up with it. Being perhaps the recently-deceased director’s best-known work (though two more – THE EASY LIFE [1962] and IN THE NAME OF THE Italian PEOPLE [1971] – are, at least, equally as good), I chose it as the film with which to conclude my 7-film tribute to him. Coincidentally, it happened on the very day which marked the eight anniversary from the passing of its leading man – the great Vittorio Gassman! The film (and its protagonist) deservedly received a number of accolades back in the day; it was also singled out to represent Italy in the Best Foreign-Language Film category at the 1975 Academy Awards ceremony where another nod went to the screenplay penned by Dino Risi and Ruggero Maccari. For the record, I’d watched Al Pacino’s Oscar triumph in the remake when it was new: I recall not being enthused with either the endless film (running 157 minutes against the original’s 100!) or the Method actor’s hammy performance. Anyway, for anyone not familiar with the later film, the plot concerns a young cadet being asked to accompany a blinded (yet proud and fun-loving) war veteran for a week; together, they go on a voyage (with the experienced man-about-town teaching the ropes to the rookie, who at first is displeased with the high-handed manners of his ‘charge’) – leading them to a girl, played by the luscious Agostina Belli, who’s devoted to Gassman. Earlier, the boy had discovered a photo of her among the blind man’s things (as well as a gun, whose purpose is revealed towards the end).Along the way, the cadet (nicely played by Alessandro Momo) is given the task of organizing the veteran’s entertainment and relaxation – which, given Gassman’s debauched values, takes him to the low-life sectors of the cities they visit (one of the prostitutes who renders service is played by, of all people, famous circus owner/ex-peplum starlet Moira Orfei!). By the time they finally reach Belli and her entourage of willing girls ‘waiting’ on another team of crippled officer and naïve cadet, Gassman has become oddly despondent and rejects the girl’s advances; as it turns out, he and his buddy had intended to commit suicide – with the latter ending up in hospital due to a gun wound, while Gassman eventually loses his nerve and retreats with Belli and Momo to a house in the country-side! I don’t recall the 1992 version well enough but, here, it seems that Momo’s role is relegated to the sidelines once Belli turns up; incidentally, I believe that the remake was far more chaste than this! Risi’s treatment of an undeniably original tale is somewhat low-key but nonetheless impressive – earthy yet insightful and thought-provoking, alternately funny and poignant – which is further graced with a simple but haunting melancholy score from Maestro Armando Trovajoli.

I came to this film expecting to see something transcendent. After all, the remake of Scent of a Woman with Al Pacino had been so wonderful. And I had never yet seen a Hollywood remake that even approached the original in quality. They are usually shattering disappointments.So I fully anticipated that Vittorio Gassman's version would far surpass Pacino's.But Surprise, Surprise. Finally. Who would have thought it. A Hollywood Remake that Ruled!!! Yay! It was not even a close contest, in my opinion. This film with Vittorio Gassman was for me flawed beyond redemption. I'm bewildered to read that it was even nominated for an Academy Award and has received other very prestigious awards.True, Gassman got the blind part of his role down. He had obviously done a lot of research and put in long rehearsals. And he had the potential to be great.The trouble was with the script. Gassman's character was a pig. An entertaining pig at times, an interesting pig at other times but never more than a full-fledged PIG.So while the film could engage you in the spectacle sense, it was really difficult to care about what happened to the characters or to root for them. The script just put them in a series of scenes, the common denominator being coarseness and then more coarseness.What was most offensive about this film were the scenes near the end in the Nepalese restaurant. Apparently Gassman had been friends with this family for many years -- since their daughters were children. So he was like a uncle figure.Then when this film catches up with them, the girls have grown into young ladies. And the Gassman character is shown treating them very disrespectfully (to put it mildly), exploiting them and preying on them.Except for the one he apparently loves. But why was it OK for him to exploit the other young girls? This predatory aspect of the film was so beyond offensive that it ruined the entire film and made it irredeemable and indefensible.Go see Al Pacino's Scent of a Woman instead. Pacino is brilliant. And the remake has heart and soul -- both of which are sorely absent from the original. The original has noisy drama but it is a hollow soulless drama.

Even as I was trying to keep still and finish the movie, I was asking myself: is there any reason to watch this, admittedly strong and fresh in its time, film after one has seen the Hollywood remake with Al Pacino? The answer to me is 'no'. Unless you are a film school student or a movie buff exploring the phenomenon of the long-lasting, though rarely happy, romance that Hollywood seems to have with remaking older/foreign movies, there is nothing there for you. If you are, however, looking for an example of a successful remake to bolster your faith in Hollywood after such failed covers as "Father's Day", then this is the original for one of the best ones.Never once will you be as captivated by the story or performance as you are in the Al Pacino movie. The subtitles are-- well, they are the subtitles. They cater to our snob appeal but hardly add to the viewing experience. The character of the baby-faced, cigarette smoking, women-coveting boy is one-dimensional and boring, complete with thoughts read out loud by the narrator. The colonel is impressive, but then so is Pacino.This, of course, only makes sense to an English-speaking viewer familiar with the remake. I tried hard to put myself in the shoes of a "Scent of a Woman" virgin in order to do this movie justice. I failed. If you have not seen the remake, I recommend watching this original first.Briefly about the plot. A young army cadet is assigned to a retired blind colonel, who needs assistance in his cross country trip. The colonel teaches the boy a few life's lessons, before reaching his final destination, the cheerful sunny Naples, where his dark goal awaits him. A beautiful young girl, in love with the colonel since she was a child, will do anything to prevent him from carrying out his plan. Main differences from the remake: missing is the boy's school life (and, naturally, problems), but a nice and almost believable love story is present. The ending -- well, it's different.