Woman of Straw. “Take off that uniform and look like a woman. Rustle, crackle and swish!” bellows Ralph Richardson. Nothing could be easier for Gina Lollobrigida. As the nurse assigned to a crotchety British tycoon who spends his days in a wheelchair, Gina soon rustles the old gent into a marriage proposal. She gets the idea from his sexy nephew, Sean Connery—an actor who occasionally takes leave of his James Bond roles, only to find that crime pays equally well elsewhere. Just as one might expect, Sean and Gina plan to share the inheritance once Richardson kicks off. Just as one might expect, he kicks off unexpectedly. Poisoned.
In this neatly contrived suspense drama, all the surprises happen right on schedule. Some are effective, though, such as when Gina shuffles a corpse from a yacht to a Rolls-Royce to a country house. She faces each plot twist with swish and crackle, and is about to collect the millions when—but never mind. The real mystery is that anyone would pin a title like Woman of Straw on a movie starring Lollobrigida.
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