Agnese. No wonder the wedding ring would not go on her finger. Her fingers were swollen from enlarged tissues due to her pregnancy. Nowadays, Peppino could get her a stretch-band ring, albeit from the discount store, lol. Vincenzo. Reminds one of S. Berlusconi -- rotund, blow-hard, bragging, obnoxious, thinks he is handsome and charming. Baron. Goofy, bad hair and teeth, stupid, broke, bungles his own hanging several times. Matilde. Cutting off hair to marry Mother Church. Any normal mother would like their daughters to have nice hairstyles, but of course with Mother Church the hair 'i capelli' had to be hidden behind those heavy veils.Women in black. Mourning forever? Mourning that they had no rights nor respect? Vincenzo in white 'bianco', perfect for hot summer days, but mamas in 'nero' would surely swelter in the sun. Vincenzo swaggering and leader of the pack, while traditional women have to be victims, have no birth control, and spend their lives in those days washing clothes by hand outside and hanging them up on the line to dry. Women home-caretakers; men spewing out sex and violence and mafia-esque orders to kill enemies and those who mess with stupid oldtime dumb honor codes.Divorce I think became legal later in Italy than in the time frame of this film. Of course, Mother Church was not happy. Birth control may be readily available now there, too, so today's Agneses would not have to be bothered by 'getting knocked up' especially by someone else's main squeeze. Mother Church always wanted more parishioners, for moolah to be put into those coffers. Birth control cuts the number of churchgoers way down.Did the nuns sell Matilde's hair for more cash to put in those coffers?

The photography, direction, acting, music, all is surprisingly flawless for a comedy. It's the story that trips this movie up, but even that is strong for the first two thirds. For the first two-thirds, the movie reaches for the best and achieves what the greatest comedies have achieved. But somewhere towards the end, the plot turned unrealistic to me. Things just got a little more complicated than I felt was believable. I felt as if the director had taken us out for a lovely outing and then he suddenly began to freak out because he couldn't find the way back home. By the time, the word "FINE," appeared on the screen, I had lost all sympathy and amusement for the characters. Argh, it feels like a wasted opportunity! But give it a shot, and see what you think. At least, the first half was a treat, and Stefania Sandrelli's performance is a nice consolation throughout.

Three years before SEDUCED AND ABANDONED, Pietro Germi made the wonderful DIVORCE, Italian STYLE. It was a truly amazing film that poked fun at the machismo of Italian men and posed the silly question "Maybe it's better for a man to kill his wife instead of divorcing her"! Despite the film's popularity, Germi's next film didn't come out until SEDUCED AND ABANDONED in 1964. While it's a very good film, it doesn't seem nearly as original as the last one and could easily have been entitled "Divorce, Italian Style Part 2". That's because the plot once again is about machismo and the notion that a "real man" is most concerned about keeping up appearances--just like in the previous film. Because of that, the film seemed much less fresh and more a continuation of the last movie.SEDUCED AND ABANDONED begins with the troll, Peppino, seducing his fiancée's very young sister, Agnese (aged 15). To make things worse, the girl becomes pregnant. The family is naturally furious and most of what the crazed father is concerned about is what the people in their town will think. So, he decides to concoct a rather elaborate plot to force Peppino into marrying Agnese. The trouble is, Peppino now says he won't marry ANY girl who isn't a virgin--even though HE was the one responsible for this! There's a lot more to the film than this and it is a satire on Italian morality. Very funny and the father (Saro Urzì) did a great job as the befuddled and angry man, but as I said above, it all seems so familiar.Overall, a good film and one I would have enjoyed more had I not seen DIVORCE, Italian STYLE. However, the two films have such a similar spirit and cover so much of the same material, I can only mildly recommend SEDUCED AND ABANDONED.

When Agnese (Stefania Sandrelli), a fifteen-year old girl, is seduced and impregnated by her older sister's fiancé, the stage is set for a series of events that involve an attempted murder, an abortive suicide attempt, a protracted court battle, and a fake kidnapping. A wicked satire from Pietro Germi, Seduced and Abandoned lampoons the macho morality, legal system, and hypocrisy of Sicily in the early 1960s. Though it seems a bit overlong, it is a very funny film that shows how outmoded codes of honor can stifle individuality, and the consequences that result when a family's reputation becomes more important than their happiness.Saro Urzi won the award for Best Actor at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival and he turns in a dominating performance as Vincenzo Ascalone, the ebullient patriarch who is determined to preserve the family honor at any cost. After discovering that his young daughter Agnese has been seduced by Peppino Califano (Aldo Puglisi), daughter Mathilde's (Paola Biggio) fiancé, he goes into a rage, first against Agnese than against the cowardly Peppino, assaulting him in front of his parents. He demands that Peppino break off the engagement with Mathilde and marry Agnese, but Peppino hypocritically proclaims that he will not married a defiled woman though in fact he was the defiler.When Peppino hightails it out of town and hides in a monastery, Vincenzo persuades his son Antonio to hunt him down and kill him but the murder plot turns into another farce after Agnese informs the police (who are about as competent as the lawmen on The Dukes of Hazzard TV series). The bumpy affair finally ends up in court where the only thing that can prevent Peppino from jail is marriage but the proud papa refuses his daughter's hand. This forces Peppino to stage a false kidnapping and it goes on from there, full of twists and turns that left me a bit worn out but full of smiles.