A mezzanotte va la ronda del piacere (At Midnight the Pleasure Patrol Goes) is also known as The Immortal Bachelor, Midnight Pleasures and Midnight Lovers.
Gabriella (Claudia Cardinale, Blonde In Black Leather) is trapped in a loveless marriage to Andrea (Vittorio Gassman) and sees a lot of herself as she sits on the jury for the murder trial of Tina (Monica Vitti), who has killed her husband Gino (Giancarlo Giannini).
Or did she?
As Tina testifies, Gabriella wishes she had the passion in her marriage that Tina seemed to have. And then she learns why Tina and Gino had their last fight. Her new lover was Andrea. Gabriella begs her husband to testify in Tina’s defense but he leaves the country, only for Gino to show up, alive and ready to fight — and make love — to his wife again.
Director Marcello Fondato, who co-wrote this with Francesco Scardamaglia, was one of the writers of Black Sabbath and Blood and Black Lace.
FVI didn’t release this movie in the U.S. until 1980. Cardinale and Vitti are much better in Blonde In Black Leather, which New World released here as Lucky Girls.
Roger Ebert hated this and said, “Faithful readers will recall that I have, in the past, occasionally referred to Idiot Plots. The Immortal Bachelor is a classic Idiot Plot, requiring that everyone in the movie be an idiot. If they weren’t, they’d solve their problems instantly and the movie would be a short subject.”
