Three fathers?! San Forino, a village in Italy. Carla ‘Campbell’ (Gina Lollobrigida) is an Italian woman who as a 16-year old twenty years earlier during the American occupation of Italy in WW2 slept with three American GIs in the course of 10 days, Cpl. Phil Newman (Phil Silvers), Lt. Justin Young (Peter Lawford) and Sgt. Walter Braddock (Telly Savalas). By the time she discovers she is pregnant, all three have moved on, and she, uncertain of which is the father, convinces each of the three (who are unaware of the existence of the other two) to support ‘his’ daughter Gia (Janet Margolin) financially over the years. To protect her reputation, as well as the reputation of her child, Carla has raised the girl to believe her mother is the widow of a non-existent army captain named Eddie Campbell, a name she borrowed from a can of soup (otherwise he would have been Captain Coca-Cola, the only other term she knew in English at the time). She shares her bed nowadays with Vittorio (Philippe Leroy) who works in her vineyard and she lives in a very nice house with a housekeeper and Gia is coming home from college. Now the three ex-airmen are attending a unit-wide reunion of the 293rd Squadron of the 15th Air Force in the village where they were stationed. The men are accompanied by their wives, Shirley Newman (Shelley Winters), Lauren Young (Marian Moses) and Fritzie Braddock (Lee Grant). In the Newmans’ case they are accompanied by their three fairly obnoxious boys. Carla is forced into a series of comic situations as she tries to keep them – each one anxious to meet his daughter Gia (Janet Margolin) for the first time – from discovering her secret while at the same time trying to keep Gia from running off to Paris to be with a much older married lecturer who will take her to Brazil. When confronted, Mrs. Campbell admits she does not know which of the three men is Gia’s father … I’m only one woman but my heart aches for three. Now more obvious as a source for the bonkers story of ABBA musical Mamma Mia! and its subsequent film adaptations, this expensive and smoothly told romcom from the camera-pen of Melvin Frank boasts a ridiculously good ensemble, fabulous locations and an enviable number of good lines in a characterful story. We paid more war damages than Germany. There are three terrific performances from the wives too, in a shrewdly cast lineup with contrasting physical and acting styles on display. At the centre of it all is La Lollo, trying to balance an impossible situation that is playful and funny with some decent slapstick and mastery of tone. It’s beautifully shot around Lazio and Rocca Catonera as well as Cinecitta Studios by Gabor Pogany. Riz Ortolani’s score keeps everything bouncing along including that title song performed by Jimmy Roselli. Co-written by Dennis Norden and Sheldon Keller, this is bright and enjoyable from beginning to end, even if there’s a necessarily quasi-sentimental conclusion. In Snow White the other dwarfs knew about each other
mondomovies 