Marcello Luchetti

The Eye of the Needle

Two young men in a village in Sicily raping a girl. In the end, two skilled lawyers will succeed in getting them to complete the trial, but one, who in the meantime has fallen in love with the victim.

His Women

Stefano Garbelli is employed by a pharmaceutical company. One evening Daniela, a young independent prostitute, approaches Stefano pretending to be a nurse. They get together, but Daniela has a sinister plan.

I due compari

Giovanni peddles useless pens in the streets of Rome with his sidekick Francesco, but his college-student daughter thinks he is a rich industrialist. She falls in love with a rich guy and when her father tells her the trust about their financial situation she drops her fiance and refuses food. Luckily, the guy's parents give their consent to the marriage anyway.

Puccini

Produced in Italy in breathtaking Technicolor, this biographical story of Puccini (played by L'avventura's Gabriele Ferzetti) spans his creative life from early student days to the height of success, including his early flop Madama Butterfly and his incomplete Turandot. Along the way he encounters three women who change his life, including a sexy, beautiful singer (Two for the Road's Nadia Gray) whom he drops for a small town girl (Sirocco's Marta Toren), and a servant girl who commits suicide over him. Well-selected excerpts from Manon, La Boheme, Madama Butterfly and Turandot are featured along with other Puccini music, including the voice of Beniamino Gigli. Sets, costumes and production values are first class, all sumptuously filmed by Claude Renoir.