Woman of Straw. “Take off that uniform and look like a woman.Rustle, crackle and swish!” bellows Ralph Richardson. Nothingcould be easier for Gina Lollobrigida. As the nurse assigned to acrotchety British tycoon who spends his days in a wheelchair, Gina soonrustles the old gent into a marriage proposal. She gets the idea fromhis sexy nephew, Sean Connery—an actor who occasionally takes leave ofhis James Bond roles, only to find that crime pays equally wellelsewhere. Just as one might expect, Sean and Gina plan to share theinheritance once Richardson kicks off. Just as one might expect, hekicks off unexpectedly. Poisoned.
In this neatly contrived suspense drama, all the surprises happen righton schedule. Some are effective, though, such as when Gina shuffles acorpse from a yacht to a Rolls-Royce to a country house. She faces eachplot twist with swish and crackle, and is about to collect the millionswhen—but never mind. The real mystery is that anyone would pin a titlelike Woman of Straw on a movie starring Lollobrigida.