A Tale of Five Women (1951) User Reviews

A rare outing for Cellano as the film's star

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 4 January 2017]

Bonar Cellano was a popular supporting actor in the UK till his early death in a car crash,which his friend Michael Balfour survived.His family were circus acrobats,which no doubt accounted for the scenes early one using his acrobatic skills.I disagree with the other reviewer,I believe his performance was perfectly acceptable.I do agree that this film is very clunky and not very satisfactory.His quest to 5 cities clearly coincides with the distribution deals made by the co producers.However the result is an uneven and patchy film.Again as mentioned by the other reviewer the scenery is interesting.Seeing the bombed cities where no reconstruction has taken place.

The only good thing is the scenery

[SnoopyStyle · 4/10 · 27 February 2014]

Bob Mitchell (Bonar Colleano) is an English man who speaks with an American accent. He's a world-traveling circus acrobat, but after falling off a chandelier in a German bar, he suffers amnesia. He is assumed to be an American. They find clues to his identities with five bank notes from five European countries, each with a different girl's name plus a picture of a baby. Lesley (Barbara Kelly) from a magazine proposes to send him to all five countries in order to find his past. The movie has five local shoots of Rome, Vienna, Berlin, Paris and London. Each one is shot with a different crew including different directors and writers.

The setup is terribly clunky and just an excuse to get Bob to 5 different cities. I do notice that the movie genre is listed as Drama, Mystery, Romance, and War. It's missing Comedy. I think they do try to make a comedy. Of course, they fail badly. Maybe that's why nobody included Comedy as the genre. Bonar Colleano is very wooden and lack the comedic skills. About the only thing that is interesting is the scenery of post War Europe.

Forced Misunderstandings

[stevenbutten · 4/10 · 26 April 2018]

I won't bother with the plot, what there is of it is covered elsewhere, but I would make a correction in that protagonist Bob Mitchell is in the RAF not the British Army. Sadly Bonar Colleano gives a decidedly stilted performance as Mitchell, but there are interesting appearances from some interesting actors: Eva Bartok, Gina Lollobrigida, stalwart Brit Geoffrey Sumner as the Wingco, Marcello Mastroiani and a cameo from Terence Alexander as a hotel receptionist. As Mitchell travels from city to city, almost every meeting leads to a silly misunderstanding, all of which could be avoided if he just starts out by saying he has amnesia. The movie does provide a glimpse of post-war Europe and shines a dim light on the plight of stateless refugees, but it's no Third Man.

An American Amnesiac Airman in Europe

[richardchatten · 5/10 · 12 January 2022]

A very poor man's hybrid of 'Un Carnet de Bal' and 'A Foreign Affair'. It's not exactly good, but contains evocative footage of bombed out postwar Rome and Berlin in those far-off days when ten shillings constituted a note, has an attractive leading actor in Bonar Colleano, one of the guest stars is a young Gina Lollobrigida; and there's even a glimpse of a youthful Marcello Mastroiani.