La lupa (1953) Online

Director Alberto Lattuada based this movie on the classic Sicilian story and drama by Giovanni Verga, author of "Cavalleria rusticana." A middle-aged woman is named "la lupa" or "the she-wolf" because of her rather aggressive libido. She sets her heart on a young soldier on duty near the town. Her own young daughter has the same feelings and snatches the man away from her. They have a child and throw the mother out of the house. Naturally the "she-wolf" seeks revenge. The "she-wolf" is played by Kerima; her daughter is May Britt, and Ettore Manni is the object of their desire. Franco Zeffirelli created a very successful stage version of the play with actress Anna Magnani in Rome in 1965. How we in the United States all would have loved to see Anna Magnani in the stage version of LA LUPA, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, which was promised a U.S. tour in the late 1960's but which never happened.

Among the intense preoccupations of the neo-realist boys in Italy are the animalistic aspects of the elemental urge. How lust can dehumanize people and drive them to rash and violent deeds is a subject of fierce fascination with the washline-and-undershirt school. Such is the sordid contemplation that is ravenously pursued in the Italian film, "La Lupa" ("The She Wolf").

Here, in a raw village setting that is powdered with the dust of the hot south and peopled with the blunt and earthy peasants that are legion in these fierce Italian films, Alberto Lattuada has projected a passionate and turbulent tale of a strange woman's utter ruination because of her hunger for men.

His heroine is a dark and brawny slattern who skulks about the town, drawing dirty remarks from the females and brazen suggestions from the males. In her attitude, it is evident that she holds her neighbors in contempt and maintains herself and her pretty daughter through the attraction she has for the local boss.

So it goes until there comes along a soldier, who, while willing to take her lustful love, finds himself so beguiled by the daugh-ter that he marries the girl and settles down. This is repulsive to mama, who bides her time until a baby is born, then she moves in and once again seduces her now somewhat restless son-in-law. Obviously, this upsets the daughter, and things are in a most disordered state, when mama finally surrenders to the porcine tobacco tycoon. Out of this comes vengeance and violence among the workers in the boss' factory, and the show ends with mama being burned up in a fire in the factory.

This wild tale of lust and retribution has been freely adapted from an old story by Giovanni Verga about the hot-blooded folks of Sicily. And Signor Lattuada has staged it in stark realistic style so that heat seems to rise from the stone streets and sweat pops from human pores. In the frequent encounters among the actors, clothing becomes undone and flesh is revealed in much abundance. So is blood and tears.

But the impact of this sort of drama invariably depends upon the essential and elusive credibility of the rugged performers in their roles. And it is in this critical area that "La Lupa" eventually falls down. Kerima, the big and swarthy actress who made her movie debut in "Outcast of the Islands", stalks through the role of the "she wolf" with her jaw set and eyes aflame, but the depth and extent of her passion is measured mostly by the amount of flesh she shows. Hers is a labeled characterization. You have to take her for what it says she is.

As the soldier who starts the family ruckus, Ettore Manni is a sturdy, handsome boy, with hair on his chest and bulging biceps—things that the neo-realists love. But he, too, delivers a performance in a two-dimensional frame. And as the pure and innocent daughter, May Britt musters such a virginal air and a look of such absolute sweetness that she doesn't seem logical or real. However, Mario Passante is not only real but quite corrupt and wickedly unwholesome as the fat tobacco-factory boss.

In all this sordid demonstration, nothing novel or instructive is revealed. It is just a matter of showing a scandalous woman in a terrible rut. And that is done by Signor Lattuada, roundly, with few holds barred.

The villagers hated the savage fiery woman they called the She-Wolf (Kerima), fearing her untamed passions and uninhibited actions. Yet, they were helpless when, through the influence of Imbornone (Mario Passante), she arranged to have Maria (May Britt), her daughter, chosen to represent St. Agatha at a lavish village pageant.

During the fiesta, she meets Lasca (Ettore Mannin), a handsome young soldier and, recognizing in him an answering emotion equal to her own, she falls madly in love. Maria, meanwhile, has captured his attention, and while he joins the savage She-Wolf in a wild night of love, aka equal emotions answered, he is nevertheless interested in the elfin girl who portrayed the leading role in the pageant. Later, he meets Maria and falls deeply in love with her, but flees when he learns she is the daughter of the She-Wolf. But, the passion-driven mother talks Lasca into marrying Maria after she gives them her home, and promises to go away and live in another village.

But, shortly after-wards, she finds an excuse to return and even shorter there-after-wards than that, the young people "find they are sharing their primitive intimacy with the unbridled ardour of the She-Wolf." (I don't know, I don't speak Italian and that may be a bad translation.) She finds a number of ways to remind Lasca of her presence, and Maria, waiting the birth of her child, watches in mute misery as the "tumult" between her mother and her husband grows. (You have to read between the lines.) But, when the child is born, Lasca swears loyalty to Maria---yeah, sure, now he does---and drives the She-Wolf from the house.

So she goes over and gets herself under Imbourne's "protection"---means the same in all languages---and finds herself in a position to vent her hatreds and frustrations on those she believes responsible for her unhappiness.

And venting takes on a whole another meaning when the venting is being done by a spurned, horny Mother-in-law. SEE: The Graduate