"Sedotta e abbandonata" or "Seduced and Abandoned" or "A Matter of Honor" is a French/Italian co-production with the focus clearly being on the second as you may have seen from the title already too because this film plays in Sicily and is in the Italian language from beginning to end. The director of this almost 2-hour movie and at the same time one of several writers here is Pietro Germi and this is already from the latter stages of his career, not final stages though. If you take a look at the cast, you will find more actors than expected still alive today because this being a film from way over half a century already means that it is definitely very old and all the young actors in here are in their 70s and 80s now. One who is sadly not alive anymore today is lead actor Saro Urzì, otherwise he would be way past 100. Today he is probably most known for his supporting role in The Godfather from almost a decade after this black-and-white film here, but this one we got here comes right after I suppose. He also won a shared Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival I see and that surprised me a bit as I would not necessarily have thought this is the film and role Cannes would go for. But they did and that was not a bad decision because I think he played his part well and is a definite contender for being heart and soul of the film. But it is not just him, most of the character are fairly memorable here, be it the slightly dim-witted son, who all of a sudden starts speaking very quickly and surprisingly wittily on one occasion in the film's second half, or the character of Peppino who has interest in more than one of Don Vincenzo's daughters. I guess the male characters here are more memorable than the females as honestly even the baron has more to him than the protagonist's wife for example and the baron was honestly a character who brought nothing except entertainment purpose on one or two occasions. Also the older more chubby daughter is relatively forgettable and the only slightly memorable moment is near the end when she still thinks Peppino wants her for whatever reason. There must be something about him because otherwise why would all these ladies go crazy about him. But what is it exactly? Maybe ask the character of Agnese (played by Stefania Sandrelli) and boy did I fall in love with her watching this movie. I watched another film form that era called Divorce Italian Style (with Mastroianni), in which she played a young character that ended up seducing the much older protagonist, so this innocent seductive component seems to be her thing kind of because the description fits here as well. And I mean she was fairly attractive in that film too, but really in this one here she is a perfect 10 out of 10, more like an eleven really.
So it would have been far easier for everybody involved with Peppino taking the path that I would and that I would have expected, namely being eager to marry her from the very beginning. Also an interesting elaboration though. Today if your daughter's fiancé ends up in bed with another daughter of you, you probably would not be very amused at all. Back then, in Sicily with all its traditions, you don't chase the man away violently, but instead you try your best to make sure he marries the daughter whose virginity he took. This really ends up being Don Vincenzo's big challenge from beginning to end and as it goes on, we are well entertained here. This is of course another film from the prime age of Italian comedy, that always included drama as well. There is for example a murder plot, there is a main character dying from respiratory struggles, maybe heart disease too, there is of course a grown-up man sexually abusing a minor, even if it is not against her will and there are other of these more dramatic plot references as well. In the second half at times, it almost feels like a legal drama when we have all the scenes with the prosecutor, who can actually prosecute everybody as everybody is somewhat crooked here really, well except Agnese I suppose. But it is interesting how even she is depicted as somewhat guilty and carrying her own responsibility of how things turned out the way they did. Today, female justice warriors would be all up in arms if the character had been written like that today. But back then, not so much and honestly less political correctness is a very good thing in this case. There are other moments like the main character constantly slapping people around him almost Three Stooges style at times. And yes this also involves his daughter(s). Despite these acts of violence, he is depicted as a caring father for whom there is nothing more important really than honor. The concept of honor in this film here is also one of the more dramatic aspects. Sadly, this was one area that did not work really too well for me. You can see from my rating that I am not as convinced by the film as a whole as I am by Agnese's beauty and I will give you some specific moments that felt a bit weak to me. Early on, this would include how the father realizes who is the one that slept with his younger daughter. I think it was a bit far-fetched really that he found out so easily out of nowhere. The kidnapping scene also did not do a whole lot for me near the end. I know it is tradition and also hadto do with the concept of honor again, but somehow I was not buying it. And there were probably 2 or 3 other scenes I would have preferred to be left out (also the death near the end that honestly came out of nowhere), but that is entirely subjective perception I suppose. Luckily, the very entertaining scenes are more frequent in total. I cannot deny I enjoyed this film more as a comedy than as a drama and I think that is also what Germi wanted it to be seen for the most part. For example the scenes with the cousin who gets the murder plan going only are always fun. Or my very favorite scene and moment is probably when the main character arrives at Peppino's home to confront him about what he did. Man that was hilarious, already starting with him so delicately eating the pasta and we knew moments later hell would break loose. After initial struggles with the brother character in the second half, I also warmed up to him and found his simplicity pretty funny. Or how Agnese has to speak through that tube to be heard. Or the reenactment scene with Agnese being the one who does the seducing. Again here, this is subjective perception all in all. Maybe you will wonder why I picked exactly these scenes here and you will like others a lot more, but that is perfectly fine. The only thing that would surprise me is if you said none of these scenes did it for you at all because I think in general looking at the rating here on imdb and also what critics say people love this film even more than I did. I would not say it was a great watch in its entirety or one of the best films of 1964, but it has some truly great scenes that eventually make this a pretty good watch and there is no hesitation for me in giving this one a thumbs-up and positive recommendation. I think you should watch this one and if you are as lucky as myself and get a chance to see this on the big screen, then I say go for it. It is definitely worth the entrance fee, Sanndrelli's beauty alone is. I know I know I am repeating myself, but trust me I am not exaggerating. If you are into brunettes, that is.
So it would have been far easier for everybody involved with Peppino taking the path that I would and that I would have expected, namely being eager to marry her from the very beginning. Also an interesting elaboration though. Today if your daughter's fiancé ends up in bed with another daughter of you, you probably would not be very amused at all. Back then, in Sicily with all its traditions, you don't chase the man away violently, but instead you try your best to make sure he marries the daughter whose virginity he took. This really ends up being Don Vincenzo's big challenge from beginning to end and as it goes on, we are well entertained here. This is of course another film from the prime age of Italian comedy, that always included drama as well. There is for example a murder plot, there is a main character dying from respiratory struggles, maybe heart disease too, there is of course a grown-up man sexually abusing a minor, even if it is not against her will and there are other of these more dramatic plot references as well. In the second half at times, it almost feels like a legal drama when we have all the scenes with the prosecutor, who can actually prosecute everybody as everybody is somewhat crooked here really, well except Agnese I suppose. But it is interesting how even she is depicted as somewhat guilty and carrying her own responsibility of how things turned out the way they did. Today, female justice warriors would be all up in arms if the character had been written like that today. But back then, not so much and honestly less political correctness is a very good thing in this case. There are other moments like the main character constantly slapping people around him almost Three Stooges style at times. And yes this also involves his daughter(s). Despite these acts of violence, he is depicted as a caring father for whom there is nothing more important really than honor. The concept of honor in this film here is also one of the more dramatic aspects. Sadly, this was one area that did not work really too well for me. You can see from my rating that I am not as convinced by the film as a whole as I am by Agnese's beauty and I will give you some specific moments that felt a bit weak to me. Early on, this would include how the father realizes who is the one that slept with his younger daughter. I think it was a bit far-fetched really that he found out so easily out of nowhere. The kidnapping scene also did not do a whole lot for me near the end. I know it is tradition and also hadto do with the concept of honor again, but somehow I was not buying it. And there were probably 2 or 3 other scenes I would have preferred to be left out (also the death near the end that honestly came out of nowhere), but that is entirely subjective perception I suppose. Luckily, the very entertaining scenes are more frequent in total. I cannot deny I enjoyed this film more as a comedy than as a drama and I think that is also what Germi wanted it to be seen for the most part. For example the scenes with the cousin who gets the murder plan going only are always fun. Or my very favorite scene and moment is probably when the main character arrives at Peppino's home to confront him about what he did. Man that was hilarious, already starting with him so delicately eating the pasta and we knew moments later hell would break loose. After initial struggles with the brother character in the second half, I also warmed up to him and found his simplicity pretty funny. Or how Agnese has to speak through that tube to be heard. Or the reenactment scene with Agnese being the one who does the seducing. Again here, this is subjective perception all in all. Maybe you will wonder why I picked exactly these scenes here and you will like others a lot more, but that is perfectly fine. The only thing that would surprise me is if you said none of these scenes did it for you at all because I think in general looking at the rating here on imdb and also what critics say people love this film even more than I did. I would not say it was a great watch in its entirety or one of the best films of 1964, but it has some truly great scenes that eventually make this a pretty good watch and there is no hesitation for me in giving this one a thumbs-up and positive recommendation. I think you should watch this one and if you are as lucky as myself and get a chance to see this on the big screen, then I say go for it. It is definitely worth the entrance fee, Sanndrelli's beauty alone is. I know I know I am repeating myself, but trust me I am not exaggerating. If you are into brunettes, that is.