Gasparone

We are in the most beautiful place in the world, ­Trapani in Sicily. Here, the Mayor Baboleno Nasoni can be as unashamedly corrupt as he wants. Here, his son Sindulfo can spend all his nights on dissolute amorous adventures. Nasoni wants to arrange a profitable marriage for his son, and so he makes the Countess Carlotta Santa Croce, who has been orphaned, married and widowed at an early age, believe that the inheri­tance proceedings which would have made her a millionairess has been decided against her.

Sora, who is from Spain and has a fiery temperament, is not finding her marriage to Benozzo, a genuine Sicilian, as passionate as she would wish, for her husband spends his nights away from home. However, the situation is not as Sora imagines! In addition to his job as an innkeeper, Benozzo is building up a lucrative side business smuggling coffee and sugar. In order to pursue this business undisturbed, he spreads rumours that the much-feared robber chief Gasparone is up to no good in the woods near Trapani, and that there has even been an attack on the Countess.

A mysterious stranger suddenly appears in the village, and on the basis of even more mysterious happenings, he is believed to be the notorious Gasparone: Sindulfo is abducted, the ransom money goes astray, and the mysterious stranger gives the Countess deep red roses. Someone enters Carlotta’s bedroom at night and disappears with the money. To gain control of these financial and erotic complications, the Mayor demands that the police force be increased.

The identity of the true criminals will finally be revealed …