Donatella is a simple and honest roman girl, daughter of a bookbinder and girlfriend of Guido, a gas station owner. One day she finds a woman's handbag containing valuables and documents, and decides to return it to her owner, a wealthy American lady, who offers Donatella a job as a secretary as a reward: she has to manage the lady's villa during her absences. There, Donatella casually meets Maurizio, a rich, elegant and well-educated young man, and ends up falling in love.
Production
Lavish villa locations scream mid-century Roman opulence.
Acting
Elsa Martinelli's wide-eyed sincerity sells every ridiculous premise.
Director
Mario Monicelli
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Monicelli made this during Italy's economic miracle, when peasant-to-bourgeois fantasies dominated cinema.
Abbe Lane and Xavier Cugat appear as themselves—the real-life married couple were massive stars, making their cameos genuinely surreal.
IT
