EVERY DAY'S A HOLIDAY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 952, 8 November 1957, Page 21

EVERY DAY'S A HOLIDAY

(Pararmount-Ponti-de Laurentiis) A Cert. "HE best short stories, says H. E. Bates, give one a feeling of being slightly lifted off the earth, which is the effect L’Oro di Napoli had on me, even in this dubbed English version, These are stories of the Neapolitans, the most warm-hearted of the Italians we are told. A household deals with a guest who has stayed with them, unwanted, for 10 years; an aristocratic gambler down on his luck plays with a small boy; a prostitute marries a gentleman with a conscience of sorts; and the gay young wife of a pizza seller losesand recovers-a valuable emerald ring. Three of these pieces are fairly slight, amusing rather than solemn, which should make them enjoyably entertaining even to those who don’t in the ordinary way go to Continental films.

By any moviegoer’s standards the list of players also is interesting. Familiar faces include Silvana Mangano as the prostitute and Sophia Loren as the young wife-played with a pert, infectious gaiety which shows an interesting new facet of her talent; and there are fine perfotmances by Vittorio de Sica as the gambler and Erno Crisa (the gamekeeper of Lady Chatterley) as the

bridegroom in the third story. Although this film was not meant to be neéorealistic — Cesare Zavattini, who adapted the Giuseppe Marotta stories on which it is based, has said so himself-it is full of the life and movement of the streets of Naples. Otello Martelli’s camera is beautifully mobile; de Sica has directed the film with a wonderful eye for detail-not least in the

scenes he plays himself; and the film’e enchanting

liveliness is underlined by Alessandro Cicognini’s expressive score.