I watched the Americanized version last night on TCM. It was a bit choppy, and the dialog didn't match up very well with the actors' mouths, but overall the story was very moving. I like the analogy of St. Francis of Assisi or Mother Theresa, except they weren't locked up. But I think maybe that was also a commentary on the repressive social regimes of the times. The TCM commentator mentioned an interesting side-note, that during the making of this film, Ms. Bergman discovered that she was expecting twins. I think that was very much reflected in her interaction with the children in this story. Hopefully TCM will show the Italian version one day.
Review of Europe '51
