The young Augusto Genina directs this matrimonial comedy with verve, capturing the right tone and rythms. The Count and Countess Valmonte are a likeable and close-knit couple, but he spends too many evenings at his club, at least as far as she is concerned. Is there something behind these absences? From perfumed letters laden with suspicion and afternoon squabbles, the Countess decides to take action and sets in motion a plan to catch her supposedly cheating husband in flagrante. The consequences of this action are both unforeseen and difficult to manage. Genina entrusts his craft to his actors, and in particular to Bianca Virginia Camagni, who is on top-form. The actress manages to convey the comic rhythms while still creating a fully-rounded character for Laura, in so doing demonstrating a particular ability in loading props with express significance: the letter addressed to her husband that she cannot decide whether to open; the cigarettes clasped in trembling hands; and a go-between’s glove abandoned in the wrong place.

Stella Dagna