This film was a great positive surprise to me, as it caught my eye only because of the name of Vittorio de Sica, I thought it could be a film of his that I had missed, when it proved that he was just one of the actors. The film was also constantly interrupted by ghastly commercial tags, but when once I have started to watch a film I must see all of it, so I was fortunate enough to find another version without commercials, and what a reward it turned out to be! Pier Angeli was awarded for her performance and deserved it indeed, and my instinct proved right after all: the mere name of Vittorio de Sica is insurance enough for a picture well worth seeing. He plays one of the two teachers that show some understanding and empathy of the teenage problem, together with Lois Maxwell, who gets sacked for her human understanding, which boomerangs with disaster for the puritan headmistress, an old dinosaur blindfolded by hopeless petrification. There is no real romance except for some very innocent puppy love between a boy and a girl who find each other in a school play as a princess and her minstrel, and they have a slight adventure in a storm - that is all, but the shortsightedness of the headmistress results in an avalanche of drama, and finally the whole school is out in the woods chasing poor feverish Pier Angeli who only wants to kill herself. Naturally Vittorio de Sica saves the situation.
It's a wonderful film and very authentic in its revelation of generation clashes after the war concerning puberty complications, and the cinematography and the music add considerably to the astounding efficiency of the film. It's not a Vittorio de Sica neo-realistic classic by himself but by another of equal quality, so it really deserves a place beside "Bicycle Thieves" and the best films of Visconti and Rossellini.
Review of Tomorrow Is Too Late
