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"Casanova! Whenever there's intrigue in Venice, he's always involved." A spirit of pure dash, Vittorio Gassman's aquiline profile under a powdered peruke, "il donnaiolo" as undercover agent on a mission. An indiscreet letter from the Dogaressa (Elli Parvo) is "more valuable than any treaty," retrieving it would spring the Lothario's brother from the dungeon. Vienna is the first stop, an aristocratic cabal must be infiltrated, the MacGuffin lies in a safe cracked by manipulating clock hands. Charm is as much a weapon as the rapier, the fabled seducer pours it on a disguised countess (Gianna Maria Canale) until he's bonked on the noggin. "Your presence always makes me dizzy. Last time I believe I even lost my senses!" Opulence and movement are Riccardo Freda's forte, he means to dazzle and does so with a ripping round of swashbuckling espionage. (Naturally, the future Gothic maven opens his evanescent romp in a torture chamber.) A grand ball and a midnight duel, spilled champagne at the inn to uncloak Mata Hari in drag, a diplomatic conspiracy pointing to Saint Petersburg. The Empress (Yvonne Sanson) presides haughtily over palatial interiors and open-air hunts alike, a little switcheroo spoils her gala reading of the scandalous missive. "You lie so well, it is a pleasure to believe you." The sidekick (Dante Maggio) tags along from country to country, "not a matter of courage, a matter of salary." The escape in the snow finds Cossack pursuers on a collapsing bridge two decades ahead of The Wild Bunch, just the time for the hero to pledge his love to the plucky chambermaid (María Mercader), a fine note of melancholia caps it all. Il Casanova di Federico Fellini takes note, and so does On Her Majesty's Secret Service. With Alessandra Mamis, Hans Hinrich, Guido Notari, Vittorio Duse, Antonio Centa, and Tino Buazzelli. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |