User Reviews

This is a comedy, and it is very unusual to find Amedeo Nazzari in a comedy, for he is never funny, only good-looking, honest and a stable actor - he was in hundreds of Italian movies, and they are all good enough. Here he is the sailor who goes ashore and meets a mermaid - that is, a fake one in an amusement park, posing as a seductive mermaid and attracting crowds of people by her charm and beauty (Doris Duranti). Our sailor gets involved with her, but her impresario also has claims on her, so there are complications. However, our sailor has a friend (Polidor) who is the real comedian of the film, more often drunk than not, and he ultimately saves the situation. The comedy is well written, the plot is constantly moving on, the cinematography and direction are good enough, and although there are reminiscences of Marcel Carné's "Quai des brumes" the year before, this Italian version of a stranded wanderer ashore is as funny and entertaining as Marcel Carné's bleak fog drama is gloomy - there are no villains here, and the one who tries to be a villain fails miserably by surviving his own death, which actually brings the comedy to a natural happy ending.