Teresa Venerdì / Doctor Beware

Vittorio De Sica: Teresa Venerdì / Doctor Beware (IT 1941) with Anna Magnani as Loletta.

Do You Like Women.
    IT 1941. D: Vittorio De Sica.

    Sog.: Gherardo Gherardi, Franco Riganti, dal romanzo Péntek Rézi (1937) di Rezsö Török. Scen.: Gherardo Gherardi, Vittorio De Sica, Margherita Maglione, Aldo De Benedetti. F.: Vincenzo Seratrice. M.: Mario Bonotti. Mus.: Renzo Rossellini. Scgf.: Mario Rappini. Int.: Adriana Benetti (Teresa Venerdì), Anna Magnani (Maddalena ‘Loletta’ Prima), Vittorio De Sica (dottor Pietro Vignali), Irasema Dilian (Lilli Passalacqua), Clara Auteri Pepe (Giuseppina), Zaira La Fratta (Alice), Olga Vittoria Gentili (Lola Passalacqua), Giuditta Rissone (l’istitutrice Anna). Prod.: Alleanza Cinematografica Italiana, Europa Film. DCP. D.: 92’. Bn.
    Unreleased in Finland.

    Copy from CSC Cineteca Nazionale. Courtesy of Viggo.
    Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna: Anna Magnani, the One and Only.

    Original in Italian with e-subtitles in English by Sub-Ti Londra.

    Viewed at Europa Cinema, 24 June 2023.

Emiliano Morreale (Bologna 2023 catalog): " Vittorio De Sica was the most famous comedy actor in Italy when he made this, his third film as director, following the success of Maddalena… zero in condotta. Once again, he pushed at the boundaries of the genre as if it provided a way to escape from the trappings of the cinema of the Fascist regime. He does so through the story of a hot-headed young man who is assigned the position of head physician in a female orphanage. He is surrounded by young girls who provide contour to the film’s white telephone comedy surface, as well as an endless circle of women representing a sample of character-types common in the cinema of the era: the dreamer Irasema Dilian, the teacher Giuditta Rissone, and the naïve Adriana Benetti in the role of Teresa Venerdì who is in love with the doctor. Then, of course, there is Anna Magnani in her first significant film role playing his lover, the soubrette Maddalena, a.k.a. Loletta. Her role is significant not in terms of screen time (she only appears for a few minutes), but rather for the precision with which De Sica recognises her comic talent, creating a character which is split between a pretence of elegance and a common touch that would typify many of her postwar roles (her final line is timeless: “It’s over for her, it’s over for me… we have understood one another perfectly.”) The film constitutes a dress rehearsal for Magnani as a comedienne and she enters and exits the role as if she were already a star with a clearly defined persona, grappling with a character who steps into the limelight and acts, all the while ironically commenting on her own performance. This is evident right from the start, in the irresistible scene in which she listlessly practices the song: “Here in my heart, here in my heart/ there is love/ and there is pain”. " Emiliano Morreale

AA: The introductions to the previous film, Yam daabo, were overlong, and the distance from Jolly to Europa was longer than I realized, I was late and only after special pleading was let in to the only screening of this early Vittorio De Sica movie that I had never seen before.

Doctor Pietro Vignali (Vittorio De Sica) is a pediatrician beloved by the children and the staff of the female orphanage. He swims gracefully in the sea of women and knows to fend off schoolgirl crushes with tact. Only Teresa Venerdì is different.

Emiliano Morreale in his program note (see above) nails accurately the presence of Anna Magnani in this movie. She pays only a brief visit as the ex-lover, yet she completely commands the screen, already the charismatic, magnetic, magnificent Magnani, full of passion and wit and with an absolute comic timing. She knows how to connect.