Scandal of 1960

A Breath of Scandal (1960) looks pretty good on paper - a Michael Curtiz sex farce starring Sophia Loren, with some Angela Lansbury and Maurice Chevalier thrown in. I can’t say it lived up to this, but it does still have Sophia Loren.

She plays an Austrian princess, exiled to a remote castle by the Emperor for having affairs. She is headstrong and self-centered. She loves to shoot a rifle at the mailman, and gallop her horse through the countryside. On one of these rides, American John Gavin in his new-fangled automobile scares her horse, throwing her. When she sees him, she has to have him, and sets out to seduce him. Since he is a Puritanical American, this is harder than it sounds, but she succeeds.

But her father, Chevalier, tells her that the Emperor has rescinded her exile and wants her to marry the Prince of Prussia. Of course, she is thrilled - that is what princesses do, she explains to Gavin, marry princes. She expects him to understand (he doesn’t). She also expects that no breath of scandal will be exposed, or the marriage cannot take place.

There isn’t much humor in this comedy (sex farce is a bit too far). Gavin is famously wooden - this makes him well cast, but not very interesting. Curtiz was probably past it. However, Loren looks amazing, with what appears to be a 19-inch waist. Her decadent aristocrat without a touch of feeling for the common people is charming, or at least bracing. She is so much better than the material.