''La Sciantosa'' is an Italian

TV movie A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

produced by

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

television in 1970. Even though it was filmed in color, back then RAI's shows were still being shown in black and white, since they didn't convert to color TV until 1977.

Plot

Flora is a faded ''

sciantosa In Italian theatrical culture, the term sciantosa (; ) refers to a stock character that developed from the late 19th century through the early 20th century in such popular genres such as café-concert, variety show, ''avanspettacolo'', and revue. ...

'' (i.e. variety show diva), played by

Anna Magnani Anna Maria Magnani (; 7 March 1908 – 26 September 1973) was an Italian actress.Obituary ''Variety'', 3 October 1973, pg. 47 She was known for her explosive acting and earthy, realistic portrayals of characters. Born in Rome, she worked her ...

, whose career has declined. When she receives an invitation to sing at an army base, she thinks she's singing to the front line soldiers, so she accepts the invitation. She and her assistant, Cristina, played by

Rosita Pisano Rosa Pisano (15 October 1919 – 24 December 1975) was an Italian stage, film and television actress. Life and career Pisano was born in Naples, into a family of dialect theatre actors. She debuted on stage as a child actress in her family comp ...

, are met at the train station by Tonino, a young soldier, played by

Massimo Ranieri Massimo Ranieri (born Giovanni Calone on 3 May 1951) is an Italian singer, actor, television presenter and director. Biography Early life Ranieri was born in Naples ( at Santa Lucia), the fifth of eight children in the family. When he was 10, yo ...

. He then drives the ladies to the army base, and then introduces them to his misfit band of musicians, including a very annoying horn player, who almost causes Flora not to want to sing for the soldiers, and a guitar player, who ruins a march song by blowing a kazoo at the end. Flora's set to take the stage, draped in an

Italian flag The national flag of Italy ( it, Bandiera d'Italia, ), often referred to in Italian as ''il Tricolore'' ( en, the Tricolour, ) is a tricolour (flag), tricolour featuring three equally sized vertical Pale (heraldry), pales of green, white and red, ...

and wearing a crown. But when the curtain opens, and she sees the severity of some of the soldiers' injuries, she gets instant stage fright. After two unsuccessful tries to get her to do the march song, Tonino tells the band to play "

'O surdato 'nnammurato ''O surdato 'nnammurato'' (; in English: "The Soldier in Love") is a famous song written in the Neapolitan language. The song is used as the anthem of S.S.C. Napoli. The words were written by Aniello Califano and the music composed by Enrico Cann ...

", which Anna Magnani herself beautifully sings. At that point, she has an

epiphany Epiphany may refer to: * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany season, or Epiph ...

and breaks down. After the performance, the base being under attack, Tonino helps Flora out of the building. Unfortunately, she and Cristina get separated, and towards the end of the movie, Flora realizes how much she mistreated Cristina, and decides to sacrifice herself by shielding Tonino from an enemy plane firing at his car. Italian television films 1970 television films 1970 films Films directed by Alfredo Giannetti 1970s Italian films {{1970s-Italy-film-stub