In this sentimental romance scripted by director Luigi Comencini and Marcello Fondato, leading-lady Claudia Cardinale rises above the tepid screenplay to turn in one of her better efforts. Set in a small Italian village in the 1940s, La Ragazza di Bube tells the story of a woman who falls in love with a complete stranger (George Chakiris). The stranger turns out to have killed a fascist policeman during World War II and is sent to jail for 14 years. The woman pines for the convict and waits out his sentence, spurning the love of a writer (Marc Michel) who wants to marry her. Chakiris is typically stiff, and Carlo Rustichelli's passionate score makes more of the situation than is warranted, but Cardinale's controlled, low-key performance keeps the film from becoming too overwrought. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi