Cinema: The Baron Takes a Wife

Divorce—Italian Style. In the U.S., when a man wants a divorce, he goes to court; in Italy, so the wise guys say, he goes to a gunsmith. Why? For two reasons: 1) divorce is illegal in Catholic Italy; 2) the penalty for a "crime of honor" (the murder of a mate discovered in adultery) is light—with plenty of time-off for good behavior. The situation horrifies modern-minded Italians, but what can they do about it? Director Pietro Germi has done something wildly, wickedly, wonderfully funny about it. In one of the cleverest comedies ever made in Italy, he has applied a cunning...