''The Sunday Woman'' ( it, La donna della domenica) is a 1975 Italian

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by

Luigi Comencini Luigi Comencini (; 8 June 1916 – 6 April 2007)
''The Guardian'' was an Italian

. It is based on the novel of the same name by

Carlo Fruttero Carlo Fruttero (19 September 1926 – 15 January 2012) was an Italian writer, journalist, translator and editor of anthologies. Fruttero was born in Turin. He is mostly known for his joint work with Franco Lucentini, especially as authors of cr ...

and Franco Lucentini. Set in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

and starring

Marcello Mastroianni Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni (28 September 1924 – 19 December 1996) was an Italian film actor, regarded as one of his country's most iconic male performers of the 20th century. He played leading roles for many of Italy's top di ...

Jacqueline Bisset Winifred Jacqueline Fraser Bisset ( ; born 13 September 1944) is a British actress. She began her film career in 1965 and first came to prominence in 1968 with roles in '' The Detective'', ''Bullitt'', and ''The Sweet Ride'', for which she rec ...

, and

Jean-Louis Trintignant Jean-Louis Xavier Trintignant (; 11 December 1930 – 17 June 2022) was a French actor. He made his theatrical debut in 1951, and went on to be regarded as one of the best French dramatic actors of the post-war era. He starred in many classic fi ...

, the story covers the murders of two marginal individuals who had associated with the city's élite.

Plot

Inspector Santamaria is assigned to investigate the murder of the failed architect Garrone, a louche character existing on the fringes of polite society, who has been battered to death with a stone phallus. The servants of the noblewoman Anna Carla Dosio, who she has just sacked, arrive at the police station with the discarded draft of a letter she had written to her friend Massimo Campi, which says that they are going to get rid of Garrone. The wealthy Campi has a secret lover, a young clerk called Lello Riviera who works in the city's planning department, and Santamaria has the young man followed. It emerges that Garrone was acting for the widow Ines Tabusso, who lives in a crumbling villa set in overgrown grounds that are a haunt of prostitutes. If he could wangle planning permission for development, she would make a fortune. The Inspector is warned by his boss to move with care now that rich and influential people are involved. All his suspects have motives for eliminating Garrone and none have solid alibis for the time of his death. While Campi withholds co-operation, to protect his homosexuality, Anna Carla enthusiastically assists Santamaria and promises him a secret rendezvous, beginning with lunch. Hoping to win the co-operation of Ines, he mounts a night raid to clear her grounds of prostitutes. By coincidence, all the characters for different reasons go to the Balon, the city's flea market, where Riviera is battered to death with a stone pestle. The culprit is Ines, who discovered that he was aware of her illicit planning application. She had also killed Garrone when he doubled his price for his crooked work on her behalf. With the case solved, Santamaria and Anna Carla are able to enjoy the private lunch they have promised each other. Their happy afternoon ends when she has to get out of bed to start packing for the family holidays.

Cast

as Commissioner Salvatore Santamaria *

as Anna Carla Dosio *

as Massimo Campi * Aldo Reggiani as Lello Riviera *

Maria Teresa Albani Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, d ...

as Virginia Tabusso *

Omero Antonutti Omero Antonutti (3 August 1935 – 5 November 2019) was an Italian actor and voice actor. Biography Born in Basiliano, in the province of Udine (in the Northeastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia), after having worked in shipyards Ant ...

as Benito *

Gigi Ballista Gigi Ballista (1 December 1918 – 2 August 1980) was an Italian film and television actor. He appeared in 60 films between 1961 and 1980. Life and career Born in Florence, Ballista graduated in Law, then he started working as a PR consulta ...

as Vollero * Fortunato Cecilia as Nicosia (as Renato Cecilia) *

Claudio Gora Claudio Gora, '' Emilio Giordana '' (27 July 1913 – 13 March 1998) was an Italian actor and film director. He was particularly prolific, making some 155 appearances in film and television over nearly 60 years (from 1939 to 1997). In the 1950s ...

as Garrone *

Franco Nebbia Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" Prefix * Franco, a prefix used when ref ...

as Bonetto *

Lina Volonghi Lina Volonghi (4 September 1914 – 24 February 1991) was an Italian stage, television and film actress. Life and career Born in Genoa as Giuseppina Angela Volonghi, a promising junior swimming champion in her youth, Volonghi started her actin ...

as Ines Tabusso *

Pino Caruso Giuseppe Caruso (12 October 1934 – 7 March 2019), best known as Pino Caruso, was an Italian actor, author and television personality. Life and career Caruso was born in Palermo, Sicily and debuted as dramatic stage actor in his home town in ...

as De Palma *

Mario Ferrero This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 numb ...

as Vittorio Dosio * Giuseppe Anatrelli as Commissario *

Antonio Orlando Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...

as Salvatore

References

External links

* 1975 films 1970s Italian-language films 1970s thriller films Films set in Turin Films directed by Luigi Comencini Films scored by Ennio Morricone Films with screenplays by Age & Scarpelli Italian thriller films 20th Century Fox films Films based on Italian novels 1970s Italian films {{1970s-thriller-film-stub