Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell

Essentially, this saucy 1968 comedy is Mamma Mia without the ABBA songs, starring Gina Lollobrigida as the eponymous woman who finds herself in the soup when three former American GIs return to her small Italian village for a 20-year reunion. Each believes he is the father of her daughter (Janet Margolin), for whom they have been sending monthly support checks. Mrs. Campbell's fellow villagers, meanwhile, have been led to believe that the father died a war hero (she took the name from a soup can). Peter Lawford, Telly Savalas, and Phil Silvers costar as “her own private anti-poverty program,” along with Marian Moses, Lee Grant, and Shelley Winters as their nonplussed wives. Writer-director Melvin Frank's romp runs out of steam at the end, but remains an entertaining farce, overall, and Lollobrigida naturally looks ravishing in high-def. Recommended. (D. Liebenson)