Battle of the Villa Fiorita could have been so much better. The novel by Rumer Godden had more suspense. However, it is hard to make an attractive movie about such an unattractive subject, even with stars of the caliber of Maureen O'Hara and Rossano Brazzi. Their characters were like two overgrown children themselves, there was no emotional maturity there.
Wife (O'Hara) leaves home, deserts her children in England, to take off to Italy with New Lover (Brazzi), leaving husband alone to pick up the pieces. The children are devastated by their mother's betrayal, and secretly travel to Italy to fetch her back, but the father never catches on to their whereabouts until AFTER they arrive in Italy? What kind of father was THAT?
The children here are good actors, but even their story line is unattractive. The two girls starve themselves to frighten the mother and her new lover, and the boy gets red in the face and says he will never forgive his mother, then he secretly brings food to one of the girls and not the other. Most unpleasant.
Then there is the cop-out ending. The boy and one of the girls go out on a little boat in a thunderstorm and the whole town turns out to find them. Because they almost die, the mother decides to leave New Lover and go home to the children's father, whom she no longer loves (and to whom we no longer feel any pity for, since he never bothers to come to Italy to check on his kids and bring them home).
Best thing about the film, as has been pointed out by others, is the nice scenery of 1960's Italy and Europe. But if you want that you can always see an old travelogue; that in and of itself is not enough to keep your interest together for this film.
Wife (O'Hara) leaves home, deserts her children in England, to take off to Italy with New Lover (Brazzi), leaving husband alone to pick up the pieces. The children are devastated by their mother's betrayal, and secretly travel to Italy to fetch her back, but the father never catches on to their whereabouts until AFTER they arrive in Italy? What kind of father was THAT?
The children here are good actors, but even their story line is unattractive. The two girls starve themselves to frighten the mother and her new lover, and the boy gets red in the face and says he will never forgive his mother, then he secretly brings food to one of the girls and not the other. Most unpleasant.
Then there is the cop-out ending. The boy and one of the girls go out on a little boat in a thunderstorm and the whole town turns out to find them. Because they almost die, the mother decides to leave New Lover and go home to the children's father, whom she no longer loves (and to whom we no longer feel any pity for, since he never bothers to come to Italy to check on his kids and bring them home).
Best thing about the film, as has been pointed out by others, is the nice scenery of 1960's Italy and Europe. But if you want that you can always see an old travelogue; that in and of itself is not enough to keep your interest together for this film.