I hazard to think what audiences would think of this film if released today. Besides the political incorrectness of it all, the characters and situations presented are exaggerated to the point of being ridiculous. But this was 1955, Sophia Loren was a major star, and the picture seems to fit the bill somewhat as a romantic comedy. But boy, there are a number of cringe worthy scenes, and the running bit of Romolo (Alberto Sordi) trying to force the sale of a car he didn't own to photographer Mario (Peppino De Filippo) wore very thin by the mid-point of the picture. Hard to decide who was the biggest creep in the story, but my money goes on the sleazeball Alessio Spano (Vittorio De Sica), using Cesira's (Franca Valeri) donation money to pay for a restaurant dinner that ended chaotically. At it's center, the picture draws a dichotomy between the fashionable beauty of Agnese Tirabassi (Loren) and her plain Jane cousin Cesira, who isn't really bad looking, but doesn't carry off her charms the way Agnese does. In another picture, the guys might have been falling all over her, but with Loren displaying the 'sign of Venus', it was pretty much a no-contest. Even with all that, I was happy to catch this flick in it's current run on Netflix, otherwise I would never have come across it otherwise. I just read an article on Sophia Loren in which she's quoted saying that at eighty six, she feels like she's still twenty. I wonder what she would think of this movie today.
Review of The Sign of Venus
