Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands **** (1976, Sonia Braga, José Wilker, Mauro Mendonça) – Classic Movie Review 13,623  

The 1976 Brazilian comedy film Dona Flor and her Two Husbands stars Sonia Braga, José Wilker and Mauro Mendonça, as Dona Flor’s husband drops dead but returns as a ghost after she remarries a dull, older pharmacist.

Writer/ director Bruno Barreto’s 1976 Brazilian comedy film Dona Flor and her Two Husbands [Dona Flor E Seus Dois Maridos] is based on the 1966 novel by Jorge Amado, and stars Sonia Braga, José Wilker, Mauro Mendonça, Dinorah Briallanti, and Nelson Xavier.

When widow Dona Flor (Sonia Braga) remarries a year after her handsome, irresponsible husband Vadinho (José Wilker) dies on carnival day, her second marriage to dull, older pharmacist Teodoro (Mauro Mendonça) hasn’t the ghost of a chance. Inconveniently, she has to give over a third of her new matrimonial bed to her dead husband’s over-enthusiastic spirit. The nude spirit of Vadinho reappears to Flor, saying she called him to share her bed with him. Flor is the only one who can see and hear Vadinho, but that’s enough to cause chaos.

Dona Flor and her Two Husbands is a very bright, delicious and unusual erotic fantasy with the wonderfully vivacious, appealing and alluring Sonia Braga enjoying her sex scenes, which will probably be cut for TV.

A soft-core Brazilian Blithe Spirit, it was remade in America as Kiss Me Goodbye in 1982, with Sally Field, James Caan and Jeff Bridges.

Bruno Barreto said that Sonia Braga was at ease in the sex scenes: ‘She was very casual about it, very relaxed.’

It was Brazil’s most successful film until 2010, with more than 10 million tickets sold.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,623

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