gkeith_1 Agnese. No wonder the wedding ring would not go on her finger. Her fingers were swollen from enlarged tissues due to her pregnancy. Nowadays, Peppino could get her a stretch-band ring, albeit from the discount store, lol. Vincenzo. Reminds one of S. Berlusconi -- rotund, blow-hard, bragging, obnoxious, thinks he is handsome and charming. Baron. Goofy, bad hair and teeth, stupid, broke, bungles his own hanging several times. Matilde. Cutting off hair to marry Mother Church. Any normal mother would like their daughters to have nice hairstyles, but of course with Mother Church the hair 'i capelli' had to be hidden behind those heavy veils.Women in black. Mourning forever? Mourning that they had no rights nor respect? Vincenzo in white 'bianco', perfect for hot summer days, but mamas in 'nero' would surely swelter in the sun. Vincenzo swaggering and leader of the pack, while traditional women have to be victims, have no birth control, and spend their lives in those days washing clothes by hand outside and hanging them up on the line to dry. Women home-caretakers; men spewing out sex and violence and mafia-esque orders to kill enemies and those who mess with stupid oldtime dumb honor codes.Divorce I think became legal later in Italy than in the time frame of this film. Of course, Mother Church was not happy. Birth control may be readily available now there, too, so today's Agneses would not have to be bothered by 'getting knocked up' especially by someone else's main squeeze. Mother Church always wanted more parishioners, for moolah to be put into those coffers. Birth control cuts the number of churchgoers way down.Did the nuns sell Matilde's hair for more cash to put in those coffers?

Claudio Carvalho In Sicily, the fifteen year-old Agnese Ascalone (Stefania Sandrelli) is seduced by the youngster Peppino Califano (Aldo Puglisi), who is the fiancé of her older sister Matilde (Paola Biggio). When her father, Don Vincenzo Ascalone (Saro Urzì), discovers that Agnese is not pure anymore and is pregnant of Peppino, he visits his parents to arrange the marriage between Peppino and Agnese. Further, he makes arrangement with the decadent Baron Rizieri Zappalà (Leopoldo Trieste) to be Matilde's new fiancé. But Peppino refuses to marry Agnese and flees to a hideout in a convent. Don Ascalone seeks out his cousin that is a lawyer and they plot a scheme to kill Peppino. Don Ascalone sends his stupid son Antonio Ascalone (Lando Buzzanca) to gun down Peppino, but Agnese leaves home and tells the Police Chief Polenza (Oreste Palella) that Peppino will be murdered because she had been seduced by him. Now Peppino must marry Agnese otherwise he will go to prison. But Agnese does not want to marry him anymore."Sedotta e Abbandonata", a.k.a. "Seduced and Abandoned", is a tragicomic comedy about honor and family in Sicily. The Sicilians probably do not like this bitter movie since the story shows a hypocrite and retrograde society in the 60's, with gossipers and people interested in keep up appearances despite the feelings of the next of kin. Unfortunately the conclusion is quite disappointing. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Seduzida & Abandonada" ("Seduced and Abandoned")

MartinHafer Three years before SEDUCED AND ABANDONED, Pietro Germi made the wonderful DIVORCE, Italian STYLE. It was a truly amazing film that poked fun at the machismo of Italian men and posed the silly question "Maybe it's better for a man to kill his wife instead of divorcing her"! Despite the film's popularity, Germi's next film didn't come out until SEDUCED AND ABANDONED in 1964. While it's a very good film, it doesn't seem nearly as original as the last one and could easily have been entitled "Divorce, Italian Style Part 2". That's because the plot once again is about machismo and the notion that a "real man" is most concerned about keeping up appearances--just like in the previous film. Because of that, the film seemed much less fresh and more a continuation of the last movie.SEDUCED AND ABANDONED begins with the troll, Peppino, seducing his fiancée's very young sister, Agnese (aged 15). To make things worse, the girl becomes pregnant. The family is naturally furious and most of what the crazed father is concerned about is what the people in their town will think. So, he decides to concoct a rather elaborate plot to force Peppino into marrying Agnese. The trouble is, Peppino now says he won't marry ANY girl who isn't a virgin--even though HE was the one responsible for this! There's a lot more to the film than this and it is a satire on Italian morality. Very funny and the father (Saro Urzì) did a great job as the befuddled and angry man, but as I said above, it all seems so familiar.Overall, a good film and one I would have enjoyed more had I not seen DIVORCE, Italian STYLE. However, the two films have such a similar spirit and cover so much of the same material, I can only mildly recommend SEDUCED AND ABANDONED.

M. J Arocena The Italians are masters at laughing at themselves. I wonder if Iraq had developed that kind of self parody the world wouldn't have turned a much different place. I mention Iraq because, based on the tale told in "Seduced and Abandoned", the only difference between Sicily and Iraq is the name of their God. The great Pietro Germi designs a grotesquely comic masterpiece of such ferocity that the line between comedy and tragedy is indeed very thin. As is typical in a Germi film, the cast is uniformly sensational. Here, besides a very young and extraordinary Stefania Sandrelli, there is a superlative performance by Saro Urzi, the head of the family threatened by a devastating scandal. Ignorance and hypocrisy dissected with a refined, elegant hand. Observed with the acute, unsentimental eye of an outsider and yet, Pietro Germi, was an Italian who looked with affectionate horror at the cultural ties that kept his Country trailing behind the rest of the western world. Not to be missed.