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In honour of Sandra Dee's 74th birthday, which is tomorrow, this week on «Film Friday» I bring you the first film I ever saw her in. Incidentally, this is one of my personal favourites. Directed by Robert Mulligan, Come September (1961) follows the tribulations of Robert Talbot (Rock Hudson), a wealthy American businessman and confirmed bachelor who, once a year — always in September — flies to Italy to romance his beautiful, but highly temperamental, Roman mistress, Lisa Fellini (Gina Lollobrigida), at his luxurious seaside villa in Portofino. Although Lisa loves him, she has grown tired of waiting for his elusive marriage proposal and has decided to marry instead a stuffy Englishman named Spencer (Ronald Howard). However, when Robert moves up his annual visit to July and calls her on his way from Milan, Lisa cancels the wedding and rushes to meet him. Upon his arrival, Robert discovers that, in his absence, his major-domo, Maurice Clavell (Walter Slezak), has transformed the v...

For this week's «Film Friday» I have decided to tell you a little bit about one of my favourite films of all time, classic or otherwise. Because sometimes, «there is a moment — a long moment — when everything is risked with the proper stranger.» Directed by Robert Mulligan, Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) tells the story of Angie Rossini (Natalie Wood), an Italian-American salesgirl at Macy's department store who finds herself pregnant after a one-night stand with a struggling jazz musician named Rocky Papasano (Steve McQueen). She informs him that she is pregnant and asks him to recommend a doctor, whereupon he consults his current girlfriend, stripper Barbie (Edie Adams), but she jealously refuses to help him. Unaware of her pregnancy, Angie's mother (Penny Stanton) and older brothers, Dominick (Herschel Bernardi) and Julio (Harvey Lembeck), want her to marry Anthony Colombo (Tom Bosley), a shy cook and also of Italian extraction. Eventually, Rocky raises the mone...