The Law

Decent satire of mating rituals and gender politics, goofily sketched but with a resonant note of pity. Good cast, good camerawork.

Power struggles - one giant power struggle encompassing a single town. Multiple perspectives of this struggle is shown, and there's maybe one subplot too many, but this is still very much effective. Gina Lollobrigida is phenomenal and Dassin plays her impish, sexualized character for all its worth.

A perfectly nuanced portrait of gender politics, that somehow juggles frivolity, intensity and (imagine that) a wonderfully contagious excitement. It only helps that, with this role, Gina Lollobrigida enters the filmic Asgard of screen sirens alongside Monroe, Hayworth, Tierney, and Bardot.