At first glance this movie seems as though it will be about worker conditions and struggles— not an unusual subject for Italian films of the era—but instead those issues are backgrounded in favor of a rather frustrating culture-clash romance.
Giuliano Gemma is the Milanese factory laborer who falls in love with Stefania Sandrelli as a migrant from Sicily who also works there. She loves him, too. The trouble is that she's brought her very, very traditional values and hangups (as well as her even more traditional brother), which include strict ideas about propriety and "a woman's place" that to him seem somewhat daft. When her brother hits her for daring to see a "strange" man, she tells everyone her "fiance" hit her, because the former would be a source of shame, while the latter is a source of pride! She's constantly bursting into tears, changing her mind and frustrating Gemma's attempts to stabilize their relationship until you wish he'd just find someone better. (Although of course the other factory women are painted as worse options.)
This dynamic would work better as drama (and occasional comedy) if Tuscan native Sandrelli weren't miscast—she's just too chic and modern to convince as a southern peasant who can't escape the rather backward, servile notions of womanhood and marriage she was raised with. Gemma, as the suitor mostly bewildered by those values, is very good in a more muted ordinary-guy role than he typically played at the time.
The somewhat strained North vs. South Romeo & Juliet thing does come to a somewhat poignant if drawn-out conclusion (semi-SPOILER here) caused by the poor, even dangerous working conditions at the factory. "Crime of Love" is decent but uninspiring, and won't be very compelling to anyone who's not already a fan of one or both stars.
Giuliano Gemma is the Milanese factory laborer who falls in love with Stefania Sandrelli as a migrant from Sicily who also works there. She loves him, too. The trouble is that she's brought her very, very traditional values and hangups (as well as her even more traditional brother), which include strict ideas about propriety and "a woman's place" that to him seem somewhat daft. When her brother hits her for daring to see a "strange" man, she tells everyone her "fiance" hit her, because the former would be a source of shame, while the latter is a source of pride! She's constantly bursting into tears, changing her mind and frustrating Gemma's attempts to stabilize their relationship until you wish he'd just find someone better. (Although of course the other factory women are painted as worse options.)
This dynamic would work better as drama (and occasional comedy) if Tuscan native Sandrelli weren't miscast—she's just too chic and modern to convince as a southern peasant who can't escape the rather backward, servile notions of womanhood and marriage she was raised with. Gemma, as the suitor mostly bewildered by those values, is very good in a more muted ordinary-guy role than he typically played at the time.
The somewhat strained North vs. South Romeo & Juliet thing does come to a somewhat poignant if drawn-out conclusion (semi-SPOILER here) caused by the poor, even dangerous working conditions at the factory. "Crime of Love" is decent but uninspiring, and won't be very compelling to anyone who's not already a fan of one or both stars.