ROMAN FOLLY

This is an over-extended romantic joke which tells about Perdita, ready for M.I.T. at 16 but less sophisticated in other ways (actually Perdita is at her best as a grease monkey, tinkering with cars) when she is sent to Rome for a year to be groomed by the Princess del Tevere. Her palazzo is not only heavy with decor and decorum, but the Princess is a formidable woman who always gets her way and this time she's dead set on arranging a wealthy marriage for her nephew Nino. Nino likes the horses; he also likes a have-not, Esmerelda, and most of this-- in between balls and dinner parties and repartee-- deals with Perdita's collaboration with Nino to outwit the old woman... Simpatico enough, but except for the occasional riposte, nothing very funny happens on the way to the Forum. For women, with time on their hands and nothing much on their minds except very light entertainment.