Charlotte Rampling plays an attractive young single
woman in the 17th century. Her older brother returns home, and the two fall madly in love. He gets
her pregnant, and when they are discovered she is forced to marry her rich
suitor. In the true fashion of the body-count school of 17th century revenge
dramas, things do not go well for them after that. In other words, it makes
the ending of Hamlet seem like a hippie love-in.
'Tis a Pity She's a Whore (1972) is an Italian melodrama based on the
eponymous 17th century
play by
John Ford. The following table summarizes the five key literary divisions
of the late 16th and early 17th century.
This play is technically from the somewhat obscure Caroline era, which
occurred after Shakespeare and Marlowe had died and Jonson had fallen out of
favor with the court. According to Terence P. Logan and Denzell S. Smith in
The Later Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists (p. 141), the play was first performed somewhere between
1629 and 1633. Another source,
The Classic Encyclopedia,
says 1626. In either case it was not performed until after James's
death, and was not published until 1633, well into the Caroline era, but many people have speculated that 'Tis Pity She's a Whore was written in the
Jacobean era rather than the Caroline, because its blood-soaked revenge theme
was so common in the drama of James's reign. If the 1626 performance
date is correct, the play may have been written, in whole or part, before
James died, but there is no hard evidence to support that speculation. Whether
that is the case or not, the play is certainly influenced strongly by the
Jacobean mind-set, and the filmmakers did try to reproduce the play faithfully.
Unfortunately,
this material was written to be performed on stage, and to appeal to the
unique tastes of the audiences of that time, so it doesn't really translate that
well to the screen, or for contemporary audiences in any medium.
The film does feature breast exposure
from a young Charlotte Rampling, so that's one ... er ... two good things
about it. Given that fact, this will be of primary interest to Charlotte Rampling
fans, and to both enthusiasts of the bloodbath school of 17th century
post-Elizabethan tragedy.
If you are not familiar with our grading system, you need to
read the
explanation, because the grading is not linear. For example, by
our definition, a
C is solid and a C+ is a VERY good movie. There are very few Bs
and As. Based on our descriptive system, this film is a:
C-/F
C- for the film, but an F for this DVD.
