To save her profligate brother from disgrace, Giulia (Leda Gys) gives herself to her husband’s best friend and finds herself pregnant; years later her children’s paternity is called into question.
An American director comes to Italy to shoot a film about the beautiful city of Naples, casting Pupatella (Leda Gys), a native of Santa Lucia, the sailors' neighborhood, in the movie. Eager to become a film star, Pupatella returns to America with Billy, but their relationship is destroyed by a misunderstanding.
The life and loves of Leda, from orphan in a convent boarding school to film star, narrated through the pages of her diary and her correspondence with her best friend. Leda falls in love with her friend’s fiancé, but a timely letter brings the situation to a satisfactory conclusion for everyone. (giornatedelcinemamuto.it)
The story of the film «La storia di una donna», in which Pina Menichelli played the main role, is typical for «divas-films» – it’s about beauty and weakness of a woman, insidiousness and cowardice of men, inevitable destiny and mad passion…
Filippo Derblay, a young man of humble birth, became, thanks to his job, the owner of the ironworks. He is secretly in love with Clara, the daughter of the Marquis of Beaulieu, who lost all his fortune. Clara is engaged to the Duke of Bligny, a vain cousin of her. After learning of Clara’s financial disgrace, the Duke prefers to engage to Atenaide Moulinet, a social climber and daughter of the industrialist Moulinet, the “King of Cacao”. To get revenge, Clara agrees to marry Filippo Derblay, despite she considers him an upstart and she despises him. But Filippo, who loves her deeply, can’t tolerate to be humiliated, will prove how much her prejudice was wrong and, at the end, he will win her love. Among the most captivating aspects of the film, the intense performance of the great diva Pina Menichelli and the high level of the photography, that captures spaces from life as the remarkable images of the factory and the workers at the machinery.
