Sylva Koscina

She made a fleeting appearance in the part of an aspiring actress in Siamo uomini o caporali? we men or corporals? (1955) before making a flying catch at her great opportunity: she portrayed Giulia, daughter of the train engineer Andrea, in Pietro Germi's Il ferroviere Railroad Man (1956). Koscina immediately confirmed her talent in Guendalina (1957), where she had no difficulty playing the part of a young mother.

A lead player in popular comedies, such as Nonna Sabella Sabella (1957), Ladro lui, ladra lei a thief, she a thief (1958), and Poveri millionari millionaires (1958), Koscina alternated cleverly between roles as vamp and ingenue. She represented women in search of social upward mobility, the image of an Italy that had left its worst problems behind.

Koscina was suited to sophisticated comedies like Mogli pericolose wives (1958), where she made a direct sentimental challenge to poor Giorgia Moll. But she also seemed at ease draped in a peplum: she made a marvelous fiancée for Hercules in Le fatiche di Ercole Hercules (1958), a prototype of this kind of film. A true-life example of her popularity in Italy occurred when, in order to win her over, a police officer let her go without issuing a traffic ticket. Sylva was later a guest on a television program, at which time she thanked the policeman on the air, thus getting him into lots of trouble with the police department. Read Less