Lady Liberty (film)

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Lady Liberty
Lady Liberty (film).jpg
Directed by Mario Monicelli
Written by Leonard Melfi
Suso Cecchi D'Amico
Don Carlos Dunaway
Ring Lardner Jr. (uncredited)
Produced byCarlo Ponti
Starring Sophia Loren
William Devane
Gigi Proietti
Susan Sarandon
Danny DeVito
Cinematography Alfio Contini
Edited by Ruggero Mastroianni
Music by Ron-Lucio Dalla
Production
companies
Compagnia Cinematografica Champion
Les Films Concordia
Distributed by United Artists (United States and Canada)
Warner Bros. [1] (International)
Release dates
  • 23 December 1971 (1971-12-23)(Italy)
  • 7 June 1972 (1972-06-07)(USA)
Running time
97 minutes
CountriesItaly
France
United States [1]
LanguageEnglish

Lady Liberty (Italian : La mortadella) is a 1971 comedy film directed by Mario Monicelli, and starring Sophia Loren, William Devane, Gigi Proietti, Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito and Edward Herrmann in his film debut. [2]

Contents

It was shot at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome and on location in Emilia-Romagna and New York. The film's sets were designed by the art director Mario Garbuglia.

Plot summary

Maddalena Ciarrapico arrives in New York City from Italy to get married and brings her fiancé a gift of mortadella (large Italian pork sausage) from her co-workers at the sausage factory where she used to work. But she is refused permission to bring the mortadella into the country because of the ban on meat which may contain food-borne diseases. [3] An indignant Maddalena refuses to hand the sausage over, staying in the customs office at the airport, sparking a diplomatic incident in which she attracts widespread sympathy and support.

Cast

Soundtrack

A song by Harry Nilsson, "I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City," was included in the movie.

Reception

The New York Times was scathing in its review of the film, observing that "Probably no other woman has so triumphantly survived as many rotten movies in such a short space of time as Sophia Loren." Although "the farcical premise is promising" it was "a comedy that manages to be both too serious and not serious enough and that, at no point matches the level of the humor and intelligence of its principal performance". It also questioned "the grindingly bleak New York settings in which so much of the film is set". [4]

References

  1. 1 2 "Lady Liberty (1971)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films . Retrieved 10 May 2025.
  2. ↑ Lady Liberty at IMDb
  3. ↑ "La MORTADELLA (1971) | BFI". Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 2009-01-14. Retrieved 2017-06-01.
  4. ↑ Canby, Vincent (1972-06-08). "Movie Review - - Sophia Loren Leads Cast of 'Lady Liberty':Ponti-Produced Farce Opens on Double Bill Posse Chases Bronson in 'Chato's Land'". Movies.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2017-06-01.


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