Also known as Historia de una traición (Story of a Betrayal), Nel buio del terrore (In the Darkness of Terror) and Diabolicamente sole con il delitto (Diabolically Alone with the Crime), this was sold in the U. S. as The Great Swindle and the posters hint that it's similar to The Sting. As you can imagine, outside of having characters using one another for money, it has nothing to do with that movie.
Directed by José Antonio Nieves Conde, who also made Marta a few months earlier with stars Stephen Boyd and Marisa Mell. This was the movie where they began they love affair. In the book Coverlove, Mell said of Boyd, who had avoided her attempts to seduce him the first time they worked together, "He was just so awesome in his passion, his tenderness and his masculinity that I completely lost my head. Finally I asked him the reason why he was now changed so completely after he had been so dismissive before. He was thoughtful, "In the beginning you were too aggressive. I was just at the end of a difficult and desperate love affair. Mentally I was destroyed, and I just wanted to be left alone. I also felt an incredibly dangerous woman in you. To engage with you would mean to never get away from you. That's why I had completely shut down.""
I've mentioned before in the Marta article that their love was so destructive that they needed an exorcism. Mell speaks on this, saying, "Our demon was our passion. We were, as it is in San Vicino custom, made to wear a broad iron ring around the neck. We humbly bowed and prayed. The priest blessed us that we might be "pure." He celebrated the prescribed ritual for exorcism. It was kind of a supernatural experience. Perhaps you smile today over such hocus-pocus. At that time I felt is was not ridiculous, although I see myself as a clear-headed woman. But my connection to Stephen just had something very mystical, inscrutable in itself, and he felt the same way. Sometimes love is like a deadly disease, sometimes it makes you feel that you are damned for all eternity. Trying to explain the reasons for this is impossible. There are things in our lives that are too high for our philosophy.
Stephen and I returned to Rome, but we did not feel absolved. The demon of passion was still living in us."
When you watch this movie, know that this drama was going on behind the scenes.
Mell plays Carla, a high class call girl who purrs at one point that she was never made to be anyone's servant. She finds one of the girls she used to work the street with - back in the old, tougher, darker days - Lola (Sylva Koscina) working as a maid in a hotel she's staying in. She tells her that she isn't made for this life and helps to introduce her to the world of being paid by men just for moments of their time.
Her best client is Luis (Fernando Rey), but in the time when she isn't charging for her love, she starts to develop feelings for a painter named Arturo (Stephen Boyd). In a reverse of their actual relationship, the first evening that he meets her - he's soaked for being in the rain, she lets him in and he immediately starts drinking her expensive liquor and tries to get in her bed - she rebuffs his advances. A few days later, he saves her from jumping off a cliff and they end up together.
Yet Carla and Lola are more than friends, as they have had a long-time love that is rekindled by finding each other once again. The problem comes when Carla introduces Lola to Luis, who suddenly forgets her. Weeks later, as she's surrounded by newspapers, Carla learns that Luis died in an airplane crash. And that's when Lola comes back. Arturo suggests that they frame her for Luis' death, except that while Lola loves Carla, Arturo soon falls for Lola too. Everybody wants everybody and yet their need for money outweighs everything. Not everyone is going to survive this.
This movie may put some off by the way that it has flashbacks within scenes, but I truly adored every moment of it. Every single room the characters appear in is beyond incredible and I counted more than ten costume changes for Mell in less than twenty minutes. Nearly everyone is impossibly gorgeous and the twists and turns keep you wondering. This is not all that easy of a film to find but it rewards those who seek it.
Directed by José Antonio Nieves Conde, who also made Marta a few months earlier with stars Stephen Boyd and Marisa Mell. This was the movie where they began they love affair. In the book Coverlove, Mell said of Boyd, who had avoided her attempts to seduce him the first time they worked together, "He was just so awesome in his passion, his tenderness and his masculinity that I completely lost my head. Finally I asked him the reason why he was now changed so completely after he had been so dismissive before. He was thoughtful, "In the beginning you were too aggressive. I was just at the end of a difficult and desperate love affair. Mentally I was destroyed, and I just wanted to be left alone. I also felt an incredibly dangerous woman in you. To engage with you would mean to never get away from you. That's why I had completely shut down.""
I've mentioned before in the Marta article that their love was so destructive that they needed an exorcism. Mell speaks on this, saying, "Our demon was our passion. We were, as it is in San Vicino custom, made to wear a broad iron ring around the neck. We humbly bowed and prayed. The priest blessed us that we might be "pure." He celebrated the prescribed ritual for exorcism. It was kind of a supernatural experience. Perhaps you smile today over such hocus-pocus. At that time I felt is was not ridiculous, although I see myself as a clear-headed woman. But my connection to Stephen just had something very mystical, inscrutable in itself, and he felt the same way. Sometimes love is like a deadly disease, sometimes it makes you feel that you are damned for all eternity. Trying to explain the reasons for this is impossible. There are things in our lives that are too high for our philosophy.
Stephen and I returned to Rome, but we did not feel absolved. The demon of passion was still living in us."
When you watch this movie, know that this drama was going on behind the scenes.
Mell plays Carla, a high class call girl who purrs at one point that she was never made to be anyone's servant. She finds one of the girls she used to work the street with - back in the old, tougher, darker days - Lola (Sylva Koscina) working as a maid in a hotel she's staying in. She tells her that she isn't made for this life and helps to introduce her to the world of being paid by men just for moments of their time.
Her best client is Luis (Fernando Rey), but in the time when she isn't charging for her love, she starts to develop feelings for a painter named Arturo (Stephen Boyd). In a reverse of their actual relationship, the first evening that he meets her - he's soaked for being in the rain, she lets him in and he immediately starts drinking her expensive liquor and tries to get in her bed - she rebuffs his advances. A few days later, he saves her from jumping off a cliff and they end up together.
Yet Carla and Lola are more than friends, as they have had a long-time love that is rekindled by finding each other once again. The problem comes when Carla introduces Lola to Luis, who suddenly forgets her. Weeks later, as she's surrounded by newspapers, Carla learns that Luis died in an airplane crash. And that's when Lola comes back. Arturo suggests that they frame her for Luis' death, except that while Lola loves Carla, Arturo soon falls for Lola too. Everybody wants everybody and yet their need for money outweighs everything. Not everyone is going to survive this.
This movie may put some off by the way that it has flashbacks within scenes, but I truly adored every moment of it. Every single room the characters appear in is beyond incredible and I counted more than ten costume changes for Mell in less than twenty minutes. Nearly everyone is impossibly gorgeous and the twists and turns keep you wondering. This is not all that easy of a film to find but it rewards those who seek it.