The director answered those who compared the story of his film to Nabokov’s Lolita by pointing out that his work was meant to have a much broader scope and to deal with a controversial contemporary issue: the lack of sexual education for young people. However, the scrupulous manner in which Lattuada approached the subject did not keep the film from becoming the center of polemics. In September of 1960, Dolci inganni was examined by a film review board. Despite some difficulties, the film was granted authorization for release on condition that it would be slightly “touched up” and prohibited to those under sixteen. But on 26 November 1960, public prosecutor Carmelo Spagnuolo issued an order for the film to be seized. In his opinion, it contravened proper standards of morality because some scenes were “openly offensive to a common sense of decency”. In the end his order was revoked, but only after an appeals commission reviewed the film and required that an additional 301.5 meters of the film be cut. Approximately three and a half years after the original version was seized, a court case ended with a ruling in favor of the director.

This restoration is the reintegrated version of the film from 1964. It was made possible by producer Goffredo Lombardo who allowed the Cineteca di Bologna to use the original sound and picture negatives. The sound negative showed advanced signs of vinegar syndrome.

Karianne Fiorini