You'd think that Sophia Loren and Omar Sharif would strike a ton of heat, but the only thing that they strike is each other. In a fractured fairy tale (only minus Edward Everett Horton's narration), that means that they are going to fall in love with each other. Annoying dubbing of the obvious Italian language film (where only the main stars are heard in English) has a cackling witch sounding like a duck on helium, and Italian teen boys with laughable voices. Sharif may be the Spanish prince Rodrigo, but he's a bit of a brute and certainly not always charming.
He encounters Loren after running away from his dominion mother (Dolores del Rio) who has chosen seven possible brides for him. Of course, they are the most vapid kind of royalty around, so he needs a temperamental peasant girl like Loren to excite and challenge him. But can such a macho prince in the 1600's really deal with such a hot tempered female such as Loren who isn't one to honor him, let obey.
This film has many magnificent segments, colorful and beautifully costumed yet it is silly in so many ways, starting with the taming of the shrew like relationship between the leads. You don't even get the pleasure of seeing a dizzy Loren after she gets out of the barrel that has rolled down a hill and through a herd of sheep. Then there is a huge pile of fermented chicken eggs that start hatching thanks to witchy poo, and of course the dishwashing sequence that I remembered fondly from my first viewing of this years ago.
Certainly a dozen or even two dozen chicks are cute, but when it's about a thousand, they become like rats. It's a very funny scene that really amused me. The overall theme is extremely silly, starting with a forgettable theme song, and the performances seem to be parodying tradition fairy tales, and not in a happily ever after sort of way. So while this is sumptuous to look at, there are elements of it that will bring on a lot of eye rolls.
He encounters Loren after running away from his dominion mother (Dolores del Rio) who has chosen seven possible brides for him. Of course, they are the most vapid kind of royalty around, so he needs a temperamental peasant girl like Loren to excite and challenge him. But can such a macho prince in the 1600's really deal with such a hot tempered female such as Loren who isn't one to honor him, let obey.
This film has many magnificent segments, colorful and beautifully costumed yet it is silly in so many ways, starting with the taming of the shrew like relationship between the leads. You don't even get the pleasure of seeing a dizzy Loren after she gets out of the barrel that has rolled down a hill and through a herd of sheep. Then there is a huge pile of fermented chicken eggs that start hatching thanks to witchy poo, and of course the dishwashing sequence that I remembered fondly from my first viewing of this years ago.
Certainly a dozen or even two dozen chicks are cute, but when it's about a thousand, they become like rats. It's a very funny scene that really amused me. The overall theme is extremely silly, starting with a forgettable theme song, and the performances seem to be parodying tradition fairy tales, and not in a happily ever after sort of way. So while this is sumptuous to look at, there are elements of it that will bring on a lot of eye rolls.