Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

An absolute waste of money

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Jessica is an American lady (Angie Dickenson) who has inexplicably come to a small Italian town to be their midwife. What is a super-hot American doing there?! And what is the town to do? All the men spend all their time lusting after her and the women spend all their time complaining that their men are lusting after sweet Jessica. The town priest (inexplicably played by the French actor, Maurice Chevalier) tries to get everyone to accept Jessica--but it looks like it's an impossible task."Jessica" is a comedy that never really hits the mark--and its script clearly could have used a lot more work before it was filmed. As a comedy, it was supposed to be funny but it wasn't. Sadly, it was just pretty dull and it isn't particularly charming. As a result, the film just drags despite nice scenery.

Curvaceous young nurse from America--widowed on her wedding day and possibly still a virgin--is causing male hormones to race and females tempers to burn in a Sicilian village where she's the new midwife. Flora Sandstrom's novel "The Midwife of Pont Clery" becomes tepid showcase for star Angie Dickinson, who looks great riding around town on her Vespa but otherwise doesn't have much pizazz (the film's tagline calls her 'dynamite', yet Dickinson is so polite and low-keyed this is hardly the case). The women rebel against the sexy outsider by withholding lovemaking from their husbands, which might be an understandable reaction if leggy Jessica actually posed a threat to anybody. As it is, the girl is as innocent of her charms as the husbands are guilty of their ogling--though the picture does get a boost when Dickinson decides to fight back and be a flirt. Not to worry, she's already caught the eye of the wealthy, handsome marchese (himself a widower!), which leads to a limp and predictable conclusion. *1/2 from ****

This comedy of 1962 directed by veteran Jean Negulesco was a typical product of the era. Hollywood loved to do films abroad because of the ridiculous costs in the post war Europe. The studios got great natural scenery at a fraction of what they would have had to spend at home. "Jessica" seems to be a film earmarked to play at New York's Radio City Music Hall, that showed first run movies at the time it made its debut. It had all the elements going for it.As a film watched today, "Jessica" seems a bit out of place. Maybe at the time the idea of an American young woman, so modern, in contrast with the Sicilian folks, might have given the film company responsible for it, a plausible plot to go ahead. According to the credits, this film is based on a novel we have not read, so it is impossible to compare the text to the finished product.Maurice Chevalier was asked to play the wise old priest, Antonio. He uses his charm the same way he did in other films before. The young and beautiful Angie Dickinson appears in the main role. Gabrielle Ferzetti, an excellent Italian leading man didn't get to do much. Even old pros as Agnes Moorehead and Marcel Dalio are seen in supporting roles.

Of course my vote comes from when I first saw the movie, but I couldn't agree more with Diane. Is there any way to get that movie on DVD or VHS? Who is in charge of creating them? To whom should one write to spur them on to do it? Anyhow, this is one of the best movies I saw as a preteen. Hilarious. Good conversation material and fun for someone young to view. Have always wanted a Vespa after that movie. Anyhow, thanks Diane, for your comments. No wonder I have never been able to find the movie in video rental stores! Well, let me know if it ever does come out. And now for just a general comment to the website: Curious why one needs to have ten lines of comment. Didn't your English teachers always tell you to be succinct and get as much packed into a paragraph as you possibly could? Something that could easily be said in three sentences loses meaning and impact when it is dragged out into twelve sentences, for instance. Very curious.