There is little doubt that Gina Lollobrigida’s rise to fame in the post-WW2 years was attributed to her beauty and sex appeal but there was another reason she achieved international recognition – she was a gifted actress who was magnetic and believable in any film genre. In fact, some of her best work is evident in a few key films of the early 1950s but is often overshadowed by the glossy Hollywood productions she made during her peak years such as Solomon and Sheba (1959), Never So Few (1959) and Come September (1961). Rene Clair’s romantic fantasy Beauties of the Night (1952) is generally credited as Lollobrigida’s breakthrough film and Luigi Comencini’s Bread, Love and Dreams (1953) brought her international acclaim as an actress (She was nominated for Best Foreign Actress by BAFTA and won Best Actress from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists). But she had already proven herself as someone who could convincingly move from war drama (Achtung! Banditi!, 1951) to costume swashbuckler (Fanfare La Tulip, 1952) to sex farce (Wife for a Night, 1952) and La Provinciale (English title: The Wayward Wife, 1953), directed by Mario Soldati, is an impressive early dramatic showcase for Lollobrigida that is almost forgotten today.