Come September (1961)

What a pleasant surprise.

Robert (Rock Hudson) has exactly what he wants. Lisa (Gina Lollobrigida) is his September girl. Every September, he leaves Rome for his villa in the country, and he spends the whole month with Lisa. When the month is up, he says goodbye and goes back to Rome.

He's happy with that arrangement. I guess we're to assume that he thinks she's happy with that arrangement, too. Does he have other girls in Rome, or other girls for different months? Not that we know of. In his own way, he might be "faithful" to Lisa.

But do they ever talk the other eleven months of the year? The last time Robert left for Rome, Lisa ended up meeting another man. It's July, and she's set to marry this other guy, but as luck would have it, Robert decides to go to his villa a couple months early. But how had Lisa been seeing this other guy for seven months without Robert ever knowing?

This is when he learns the servant that takes care of his villa has started running it as a hotel in Robert's absence. At first, I thought the movie was taking an odd turn, because we get introduced to a bunch of younger male and female Americans. Robert doesn't want anyone living in his villa, but at the same time he quickly takes on a paternal role, making it his mission to protect the girls from the predatory boys.

It's all rather ironic, because he's making sure the boys don't use the girls, and he's giving the girls advice on how not to be used. Robert, of course, is completely oblivious to the fact that he's been using Lisa, which possibly explains, by his own philosophy, why he's never thought about marrying her.

When Lisa finally tells Robert that she's leaving, Robert gets upset. First, he wants to marry her. Then, when she refuses, he just wants to go back to America. Fortunately, this movie is a romance to the core, and all of the guys, including Robert, realize that they've just been jerks, and all of the women realize that the jerks they love actually have good hearts.

In some ways, I think this movie is better than it deserves to be, but I like how everything plays out, and the Italian setting is wonderfully shot.

Rating: 4/5 stars

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