It was produced by Carlo Ponti, the Italian film mogul and the husband of Sophia Loren. He was already a married man when he met Loren (then named Sofia Lazzaro) and, after nurturing her career, Ponti divorced his first wife to marry Loren in 1957. But Italian law, guided by the Catholic Church, did not recognize his divorce and he was forced to have his marriage to Loren annulled to avoid charges of bigamy. It took becoming French citizens to finally become man and wife in the eyes of the law. Needless to say, Ponti had issues with the Catholic Church's view on marriage, which he had previously spoofed in the sex comedy Marriage Italian Style (1964), also with Loren and Mastroianni. You could say he upped the ante with The Priest's Wife.
Director Dino Risi had directed Loren in The Sign of Venus (1955) and Scandal in Sorrento (1955), both produced by Ponti. In the fifteen years since Risi made the acclaimed Il Sorpasso (1962), a road movie turned social snapshot, and found success in both social satires and the "commedia all'Italiana" genre of racy romantic comedies that became big in the sixties. He drew from both specialties for this reunion with Loren and Ponti.
The film was shot in English with an eye toward international release but in the Italian tradition it was overdubbed in the studio. Mastroianni attempted a Northern Italian accent for the Italian release but was dissatisfied with the result. "What I've always tried to do is catch the musicality of different regional speeches in Italy," he later remarked. "Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I don't. I that film I didn't." For the English language version, Loren dubbed herself but Mastroianni, who had not yet mastered English, was given a Scottish dialogue coach which complicated his attempts to speak the language.
The Priest's Wife was mildly scandalous when it was released in 1970. As Don Mario gives in to the obsessive pursuit of the beautiful Valeria (she chases him from Padua to the canals of Venice), he seeks advice from fellow priests, who suggest he quietly take a mistress and forget about marriage. Meanwhile the film spoofs life in the priesthood, where they are kept busy with exercise and chores to work off any sexual energy. David Robinson described Risi's satire of clerical hypocrisy "robust and unsparing." It's quite a contrast from the other film that Loren and Mastroianni released in 1970, the romantic, sweeping Sunflower, a Russian co-production directed by Vittorio De Sica. There's a lot more sexual banter and dirty secrets in this one, and Loren is much more glamorous.
By Sean Axmaker
Sources:
The Films of Sophia Loren, Tony Crawley. Citadel Press, 1976.
Marcello Mastroianni: His Life and Art, Donald Dewey. Birch Lane Press, 1993.
The Italian Cinema, Pierre Leprohon. Praeger Publishers, 1972.
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, Sophia Loren. Atria Books, 2014.
World Film Directors: Volume Two 1945-1985, ed. John Wakeman. H.W. Wilson Co., 1988.
