Avanti - 1972 *** 1/2

This was a gentle movie with some lovely music. You wouldn't know it was Billy Wilder but watching Jack Lemmon is enough for anyone.

Lemmon plays Wendell, a businessman who goes to Italy to collect the body of his father who died there whilst on holiday. Along the way he meets Pamela, and soon finds out that she is also there to collect a body, that of her mother, whom Wendell's father was having a 10 year affair! Wendell is initially gobsmacked and disgusted with the idea that his father would do something so immoral, whilst Pamela thinks it's awfully romantic, and the pair start to bond very slowly.

Along the way there is drunkeness, murder, blackmail and an assortment of dodgy characters who spent lots of time in Wendell and Pamela's respecting rooms, moving furniture about, and all the other things that people find funny in a film, made even more hilarious by Wendell and Pamela's impending relationship which is interrupted more times than is actually possible. This is not a screwball comedy, i.e. not manic and fast talk (could be why the films is over 2 hours) but instead it's slow-paced and enjoyable with just enough humour for you to raise a smile (or guffaw if Lemmon is in the scene) but not too much that you would be on the floor in stitches. Am so glad I've seen it! And I love Jack Lemmon!