Luciano Salce

Italian director Luciano Salce did his first post-college work helming stage plays, then moved to Brazil in 1950 to function as artistic director of Teatro Brasiliero de Comedia. Salce acted in a handful Brazilian films before returning to Italy to work in radio and television. His first film directorial credit was Le Pillole di Ecole (1960), after which he filled the triple-threat capacity as actor/writer/director for The Fascist (1961). Some of Scale's best film work in the '60s could be found in multi-storied pictures wherein each episode was handled by a different director, e.g. Kiss the Other Sheik (1965) and The Queens (1966). The director was particularly fond of light, location-shot comedies about the clash of old and new values, notably the Ugo Tognazzi vehicle Crazy Desire (1961) (please avoid the crudely English-dubbed version of this one). Virtually unknown in America, Luciano Salce is frequently represented on US television by one of his most conventional pictures, a harmless 1963 confection starring Sylvia Koscina and Catherine Spaak titled The Little Nuns.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide