“From the first images we meet the double stylistic mark of this film, lost and unjustly underestimated for many years: the new combination of images and sound – when it was made in 1927 the film was silent and never distributed – the truly Italian topic based on the contrast between “modernism” – the hectic and superficial life of New York’s upper class – and healthy traditions, identified with the passion and strong feeling of classical Naples.

The story, although articulated in the comedy genre – there are also attempts to graft on the well-tried body of sentimental comedy the typical motifs of American sophisticated comedy – and without going beyond the constraints of its genre, evokes nonetheless analogies with Viaggio in Italia, made much later by Rossellini: a couple – in Almirante’s film not yet married – leave America to go to Naples, for what it should have been a vacation and instead would become a decisive experience, leading to the discovery of the profound truth about themselves and the value and meaning of life itself.

The new edition, in the crucial moment of the still experimental passage from silent to sound, shows evident signs of accurate research: not an attempt – as we find in other post-synchronised works – of temporary and confused synchronisation between lip movements and dialogues (only one scene in the ending was apparently filmed anew, to present the only dialogue between the two protagonists in a close-up) but rather an accurate work carried out in order to add consistently to images and subtitles the utmost meaning through sounds, noises and music.

Restoration has been carried out from an incomplete duplicating negative and from an original lavender (1926) and negative soundtrack, the latter unfortunately missing a reel, left silent in the final version”.

Mario Musumeci