Vespa

In a recent blog entry, no narcissus talks about getting a scooter. This took me back to the first time a scooter registered in my memory. It was Don and Prudence (Troy Donahue and Suzanne Pleshette) on a red Vespa in that 1962 classic Rome Adventure.

I can't imagine going to the movies when I was that young to see this movie when it was new. And if I saw it when it made it to tv several years later in 1965, it was in black and white. Okay, so maybe I didn't know the vespa was red until today but the whole romantic image has stayed with me for more than four decades.

The premise of the story is that Prudence takes her own advice and sets out for adventure and to find love. I found a little of the beginning on YouTube and heard a good quote. When Prudence's parents are seeing her off on her sea voyage to Italy and her mother is fretting and says, "What if something happens to you?" Prudence replies with a big impish grin, "Oh Mother, what if NOTHING did?"

A thirty-year old Angie Dickison plays the older woman who complicates everything. And there's that song "Al Di La". Even Al Hirt is in it.

When not on the Vespa, Prudence and Don are strolling hand-in-hand, water skiing or even suspended by cable car, or just gazing into each others eyes with absolutely stunning scenery of 1960's Italy as a backdrop.

Did I mention that Prudence almost always wears a skirt and rides daintly perched with her legs to one side? All the more reason to hang on tightly to her leading man I guess. Incidentally, the actors did fall in love and got married although in true Hollywood fashion it only lasted about eight months.




I found the whole non-English version in eleven parts on YouTube and watched it to get these screen shots. I wouldn't mind seeing it again (next time in English though) when I'm in the mood for a romantic movie. It's a classic one!