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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
Should you watch Una notte con te tonight? Only if you really like old, dusty Italian comedies where people talk at the speed of light. If you want something deep or modern, you will probably hate this instantly.
The whole story is about a girl (played by Elsa Merlini) who runs away from home. Naturally, she immediately gets mistaken for a thief because that is how movies in the 1930s worked. 🤷♂️
Honestly, it reminds me of the chaotic energy in Little Meena's Romance. Everyone is constantly running around and looking extremely worried about nothing.
Elsa Merlini is pretty charming, though she has this habit of staring directly at the camera. It happens like three times. I think she was actually waiting for the director to tell her what to do next.
And Nino Besozzi? He is fine, but he spends half the movie adjusting his collar. Seriously, his shirt must have been made of actual sandpaper because he cannot stop touching his neck.
The script have five writers credited. Five! For a simple comedy about a girl running away. You can tell too, because the plot moves in these weird, jerky zig-zags that make no sense.
It has some of that same clunky plotting you see in The Gay Deceiver. One minute they are arguing about a suitcase, the next they are almost crying.
There is this one scene in a hotel hallway where an extra in the background just stands there. He is supposed to be a bellboy but he looks like he's having a minor existential crisis. I ended up watching him instead of the main actors.
The movie gets way better once they stop trying to make the romance believable. It is much more fun when it is just pure, silly chaos.
It is not a masterpiece, and the print I found had terrible contrast. But if you have eighty minutes to waste and want to see old-school Italian actors yelling at each other, it is a decent time.
