Adua and Her Friends [Adua e le compagne] (Collection of 64 original film stills for the 1960 film)

Rome: Zebra Films / Cineriz, 1960. Collection of 64 vintage borderless single weight film still photographs for the 1960 Italian film. Starring actress Signoret is prominently featured, looking pensive or embracing costar Mastroianni, and in stunning group images with her female costars. Numerical annotations in manuscript pencil on the versos, five with Contino's rubberstamp, and two are dupes made by the original developer.

Based on an original screenplay, about the 1958 Merlin Law making brothels illegal in Italy. Adua (Signoret) and her three friends are prostitutes whose brothel in Rome is shut down. Adua convinces them to pool their savings to open a restaurant to generate a living, instead of returning to prostitution. Their permit is rejected because of their lurid history, but a former client agrees to buy the building and hire them to run a brothel fronting as a restaurant, charging them rent. The restaurant is ironically successful and Adua even romances Piero (Mastroianni), but her landlord's excessive rent finally vanquishes her hopes for a brighter future. She holds her ground against the man, but no moral deed is without consequences in the underworld, and she is last seen as her destitute former self.

Petrangeli also directed "She Wolf" (1953), Visconti's "Ossessione" (1943, assistant director and screenwriter), and Rossellini's "Europe '51" (1952, second assistant director); he was a prolific filmmaker in the Commedia all'italiana, and died while shooting his last film, "How, When and with Whom" (1969).

7 x 9.5 inches, some slightly smaller. Very Good plus overall, with curling and a few scattered creases.