The Stellone del “La Donna Del Fiume”
In my MV Agusta 175 story (OBA-89) I mentioned the 1954 Italian movie “La Donna Del Fiume” included an MV Agusta 175 Sport which was also released in that year.
If you haven’t seen the film there are several versions on YouTube. The MV features in the 27th minute during an outdoor dance scene where Nives, played by Sophia Loren, turns down a guy who is clearly not there just to dance with her. He leaves angry and returns with a bunch of guys on motorcycles who ride into the dancers causing an all-in brawl. The main character Gino, played by Rik
Battaglia, had been unsuccessfully trying to woo Nives for some time and saw an opportunity to be a hero. With the police on their way, Gino’s friend starts and warms up the little MV and calls to him to jump on, albeit sans helmet or any other protective gear. Gino is busy coaxing Nives to escape with him or face jail for causing the fight. She reluctantly jumps on side saddle and we are entertained by three whole minutes of a scared and angry Nives and alpha male Gino tearing through the countryside at high speed. Nives’ emotions are exhausted and she calms to a drowsy state. No longer responding to Gino’s questions, he caresses her hands which are wrapped tightly around him without rejection. Gino slows the MV, glides off into a grassy drain on the side of the road and they gracefully fall to the ground on the left as the MV falls to the right.
They embrace and the rest is mushy.
Fast-forward to 2022 and I recently found a guy in Paris selling movie memorabilia. He listed period black and white photos which accompanied the promotional posters when the film toured the world’s cinemas. I purchased one depicting the moment after the soft fall with the actors and the MV laying on their side in the drain. I compared the bike with an overhead shot of my MV. Interestingly there is a ‘quick release’ fuel cap on the promo photo which (by spare parts listing) is not original. I noted that the bike in the photo was used in the movie ‘action’ shots. However, for the ‘static’ studio shots with wind machine, badly dubbed engine noise and the actors yelling at each other, the fuel cap was in fact the correct black plastic screw-on type. A plastic bung in place of the headlight speedo on the promo bike is possible as I believe the speedo was an option. The hand grips are different, lever grips are fitted, there is an aftermarket ‘testicle protector’ on the front of the seat and the stitching at the rear of
the seat is a little different to mine. Of course, they never came with mirrors which I added to my bike to meet today’s road rules.
Another item of interest is the number plate. The movie bike is registered FL 21392. The first letters are an abbreviation of the Italian province in which it is registered. In this case FL represents Florence. The Automobile Club of Italy have a ‘Public Vehicle Register’ which lists the changes of ownership, dates of transfer, the number plate numbers etc. for the life of every road registered machine. My MV came with a photocopy of the transfer history which shows it was first registered in the Udine Provence, thus its original number plate is listed with the prefix UD. The machine was then sold to a guy in Cagliari (Sardinia) on the exact day I was born and the new numberplate was listed with the prefix CA which I still have. Both my and the movie MV plates are correct for the period as they have a pressed circle painted with the Italian republic emblem (introduced in 1948) dividing the letters from the numbers. What now comes to my mind is whether the movie MV still exists and with the same number plate. If so, I wonder if the owner knows that their MV was instrumental in transporting Sophia and Rik through a roller coaster of emotions which smoothed to their first intimate moment. While the Stellone d’Italia (great star of Italy) dominates the numberplate emblem I think it appropriate as the MV was certainly one of the Stellone of this film.
From Gaven Dall’Osto