Watching The Battle Of The Villa Fiorita I was struck at how similar this was to another Maureen O'Hara film, The Parent Trap. This is a great example of how one can take the same plot situation and treat it either comically or quite seriously. In this case the comic treatment was far better.
Maureen O'Hara is a 40 something wife and mother who experiences a mid life crisis. While part of a welcoming committee for concert pianist Rossano Brazzi the two of them begin an affair that breaks up Maureen's home and hearth, the one she shares with husband Richard Todd and children Martin Stephens and Elizabeth Dear.
Todd's not happy, but willing to let things go. But the kids are determined one way or another that the Brazzi/O'Hara marriage will never take place. Curiously enough when they hitchhike to Italy they find a willing ally in Olivia Hussey who is Brazzi's daughter. Brazzi is a widower, still Hussey wants no one taking her mother's place.
The kids use all kinds of wiles and strategies to break their parents up. Nothing with any parent trap like cuteness, this film never would have been done for Disney. It ends with an uncertain future for all concerned.
If there's a message here it misses the mark considerably. If you think you'll be seeing Maureen O'Hara after reading the description in another Parent Trap than The Battle Of The Villa Fiorita will disappoint you greatly. It doesn't quite cut it as drama either.
Maureen O'Hara is a 40 something wife and mother who experiences a mid life crisis. While part of a welcoming committee for concert pianist Rossano Brazzi the two of them begin an affair that breaks up Maureen's home and hearth, the one she shares with husband Richard Todd and children Martin Stephens and Elizabeth Dear.
Todd's not happy, but willing to let things go. But the kids are determined one way or another that the Brazzi/O'Hara marriage will never take place. Curiously enough when they hitchhike to Italy they find a willing ally in Olivia Hussey who is Brazzi's daughter. Brazzi is a widower, still Hussey wants no one taking her mother's place.
The kids use all kinds of wiles and strategies to break their parents up. Nothing with any parent trap like cuteness, this film never would have been done for Disney. It ends with an uncertain future for all concerned.
If there's a message here it misses the mark considerably. If you think you'll be seeing Maureen O'Hara after reading the description in another Parent Trap than The Battle Of The Villa Fiorita will disappoint you greatly. It doesn't quite cut it as drama either.