This wonderfully sexy and funny comedy, a variation on BLITHE SPIRIT, shattered Brazilian box-office records and proved very popular worldwide, chiefly because of Braga's tremendously sensual presence. She plays a beautiful woman whose gambling, whoring husband drops dead after an
all-night carousal. Deciding to marry again, she chooses a boring, devout, middle-aged pharmacist who rarely wants to make love. One night, as she lies in bed next to her sleeping spouse, the ghost of her first husband appears, nude, in the room. She tries to get rid of him, but he refuses. She
finally succumbs to his blandishments and takes the ghost to bed with her, while the second husband continues to sleep.
This entertaining and erotic picture, while perhaps not the most challenging film to come out of Brazil in the 1970s, is nevertheless enjoyable. At times, though, the creative personalities involved seem to want to play it both ways and make it "art cinema" as well as "commercial cinema" simply
because it was aimed at the international market. Director Barreto and Braga teamed up again in in GABRIELA, costarring Marcello Mastroianni. Remade in 1982 as KISS ME GOODBYE with--are you ready for this?--Sally Field in the lead role. leave a comment
