The Scientific Cardplayer

Lo scopone scientifico

Italy

1972

113 Min

Color

1.85:1

Italian, English

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
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CAST Alberto Sordi, Silvana Mangano, Joseph Cotten, Bette Davis, Mario Carotenuto, Domenico Modugno, Franca Scagnetti, Antonella Demaggi, Daniele Dublino, Luciana Lehar, Luciano Martana, Aristide Caporale, Alfredo Capri, Goffredo Pistoni, Leonardo Pantaleo, Guido Cerniglia, Emilio Cappuccio, Dante Cecilia, Riccardo Perucchetti, Piero Morgia, Luigi Antonio Guerra, Fabio Garriba, Dalila Di Lazzaro

An aging American millionairess journeys to Rome each year with her chauffeur George to play the card game scopa with destitute Peppino and his wife Antonia. The annual scenario remains unchanged: she donates the initial stakes so they can play, then ultimately wins the game, shattering the couple’s dream of scoring a victory and improving their lot in life. Eventually their daughter Cleopatra seeks revenge on her parents’ behalf.

The film’s Italian title is Lo scopone scientifico.

Bette Davis was in the midst of a three-week vacation at the health spa La Costa in Carlsbad, California when she received the script. On twenty-four-hour notice she flew to Rome for filming. It wasn’t until the first day of shooting she learned the dialogue was to be recorded in Italian. Of her co-star she said, “My name for Albert Sordi was Albert Sordid. It was unforgivable of him to refuse to speak English with me, especially as he spoke very good English.” This was the third on-screen pairing for Davis and Joseph Cotten. They previously co-starred in Beyond the Forest (1949) and Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). —Wikipedia

Director

Luigi Comencini

Luigi Comencini (8 June 1916, Salò – 6 April 2007) was an Italian film director. Together with Dino Risi, Ettore Scola and Mario Monicelli, he was considered among the masters of the commedia all’italiana genre.His daughters Cristina and Francesca are both film directors.

Patron, together with Alberto Lattuada and Mario Ferrari, of Cineteca Italiana, the first Italian film library, in the post-war period Luigi Comencini became a film critic, initially for “L’Avanti!”, and later for the weekly “Tempo”. In ‘46 he made his directing debut with the documentary “Children in cities (Bambini in città)”; two years later he made his first feature length film, “Guagliò (Probito rubare)”. Commercial fortune, nonetheless, was only to smile on him with the diptych “Bread, love and dreams (Pane, amore e fantasia)” (1953) and with “Frisky (Pane, amore e gelosia” (1954), a prime example of that pink neorealism destined to prove so popular in Italian cinema. The Sixties saw him play a leading… read more

Luigi Comencini (8 June 1916, Salò – 6 April 2007) was an Italian film director. Together with Dino Risi, Ettore Scola and Mario Monicelli, he was considered among the masters of the commedia all’italiana genre.His daughters Cristina and Francesca are both film directors.

Patron, together with Alberto Lattuada and Mario Ferrari, of Cineteca Italiana, the first Italian film library, in the post-war period Luigi Comencini became a film critic, initially for “L’Avanti!”, and later for the weekly “Tempo”. In ‘46 he made his directing debut with the documentary “Children in cities (Bambini in città)”; two years later he made his first feature length film, “Guagliò (Probito rubare)”. Commercial fortune, nonetheless, was only to smile on him with the diptych “Bread, love and dreams (Pane, amore e fantasia)” (1953) and with “Frisky (Pane, amore e gelosia” (1954), a prime example of that pink neorealism destined to prove so popular in Italian cinema. The Sixties saw him play a leading role in the genesis of the commedia all’italiana: “Everybody go home (Tutti a casa)” (1960), a scathing look at the behaviour of the Italians immediately after the armistice of 8th September 1943, is his most important work of the period, although others deserve a mention, including “Jail break (A cavallo della tigre)” (1961), a film with a strong narrative framework set in prison, and “The police commissioner (Il commissario)” (1962), a black comedy with romantic overtones that was quite ahead of its time. Later, Comencini was happiest portraying the world of children – something he had already tried his hand at in earlier works: it was his focus, for example, in “Misunderstood (Incompreso)” (1966), a beautiful condensation of the Florence Montgomery novel of the same name; in the TV adaptations “The adventures of Pinocchio (Le avventure di Pinocchio)” (1972) and “Heart (Cuore)” (1984), so fondly remembered by generations of viewers; in the wonderful “Eugenio (Voltati, Eugenio)” (1980), which probes the relationship between different generations with irony kept in check by austerity. He also contributed to light comedy with his unique, biting parable “The scientific cardplayer (Lo scopone scientifico)” (1972), the satiric whodunnit “The Sunday woman (La donna della domenica)” (1975), the bitter and atypical “The cat (Il gatto)” (1977), the totally bleak “Traffic jam (L’ingorgo)” (1979) and the allegory-cum-fairy story “Looking for Jesus (Cercasi Gesù)” (1982). Some less conclusive films followed, after which, health problems forced him to work only sporadically. His films constitute the legacy of one of Italy’s most personal directors, whose enormous merits have perhaps been underestimated. —italica.rai.it

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