The Battle of the Villa Fiorita *** (1965, Maureen O’Hara, Rossano Brazzi, Richard Todd) – Classic Movie Review 6823

The Battle of the Villa Fiorita is film-maker Delmer Daves’s final movie, a lively Italian-set love affair soap opera outing with ideal roles for Maureen O’Hara, Rossano Brazzi and Richard Todd, who eat them up gratefully.

Westerns expert Daves strayed from the range in the late Fifties to making a series of romantic dramas and came over to Britain to write, produce and direct this cheerful, emotionally charged 1964 romantic comedy in which an unhappily middle-aged married English woman called Moira Clavering (Maureen O’Hara) leaves her neglectful husband Darrell (Richard Todd) and takes off for the Italian Lake Garda to pursue a romance with a widowed Italian pianist, Lorenzo Tasara (Rossano Brazzi), whom she met when he was visiting England.

Of course, the path to true love does not run smooth, even in romantic Italy, thanks to both character’s children and the film’s need for some kind of plot. Moira’s two children go to their mother’s lakeside villa Fiorita, where they team with Lorenzo’s daughter to bust the relationship.

The movie’s other assets are the glorious Lake Garda (Lago di Garda) scenery, the Technicolor cinematography and a host of lovely British character actors. It is just a shame about Daves’s tearful but clichéd screenplay from the Rumer Godden novel.

Also in the cast are Phyllis Calvert, Ursula Jeans, Maxine Audley, Richard Wattis, Finlay Currie, Martin Stephens, Olivia Hussey, Elizabeth Dear, Ettore Manni, Clelia Matania and Rosi Di Pietro.

Daves started his Westerns career with Broken Arrow (1950), followed by Drum Beat (1954), Jubal (1956), The Last Wagon (1956), 3:10 to Yuma (1957), Cowboy (1958) and The Hanging Tree.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6823

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