Woman of Straw (1964)
Woman of Straw (1964), directed by Basil Dearden.
Suave, confident Sean Connery is dissatisfied as secretary to his wealthy uncle, the tyrannical and racist Ralph Richardson. His cunning plan: bring in sexy Italian nurse Gina Lollobrigida, cautiously arrange for the old man to marry her. When he dies she gets the money and Connery a commission. Nothing can go wrong with that, right?
It's an old-fashioned murder/romance thriller, more of a low simmer than a full boil. The good points:
The leads are all very good.
Rich settings designed by Ken Adams: English manor house, yacht, villa on the Riviera.
It's kept within PG bounds, but Sean and Gina have considerable sizzle together. The camera spends a good amount of time on both of them, for obvious reasons.
Some of the scenes look like old time steamy paperback book covers, particularly Lollobrigida in her lingerie.
A break from the Bond films, released after From Russia with Love (1963). Connery is awfully good as the calculating playboy villain.
There is a race angle: the old man treats his African servants brutally, but the nurse is kind. That turns out to be important.
On the down side: it's a dull screenplay and could have played faster than its 1h57m running time. It picks up in the final act.
Available on Blu-ray from Kino.
