La Donna nel Mondo (1963) was one of two sequels produced by Italian filmmaker Gualtiero Jacopetti (1919-2011) in the wake of the worldwide success of his "shockumentary" Mondo Cane (A Dog's World) in 1962.
It would be hard to call Mondo Cane a documentary as it's merely a compilation of unrelated film clips showing bizarre and brutal rituals and practices around the world. Most of the footage is genuine but a few sequences apparently were staged or, as one source puts it, "creatively manipulated." Still, the film was enormously popular, largely because worldwide travel was a novel concept to most people, particularly North Americans, in the early '60s.
Jacopetti put together two quick sequels -- Mondo Pazzo (Mad World, also known as Mondo Cane No. 2) and La Donna nel Mondo (Women of the World).
Whatever one might think of these films there's no denying the excellence of their soundtracks. The Mondo Cane score was the work of Riz Ortolani and Nino Oliviero and the film's theme, More, was nominated for an Oscar and has been recorded hundreds of times since 1962. Jazz trombonist Kai Winding had a hit with it in the months following the film's release.
Oliviero provided the score for Mondo Cane No. 2 and again collaborated with Ortolani on La Donna nel Mondo.
Guitarist Al Caiola recorded his version of the theme from La Donna nel Mondo in 1963, shortly after the film hit theatres. This tune didn't appear on any of Caiola's LPs for United Artists and has not appeared as a legal digital release.
La Donna nel Mondo
The flip side of the Caiola single is interesting as well. Redigo is the theme from a now forgotten half-hour modern western TV series that starred Richard Egan and ran for a mere 15 weeks in 1963. I must admit I'd never heard of the program, which apparently was a shortened version of a one-hour show called Empire that aired the previous season. In any case here's the original opening credits for Redigo followed by Caiola's recording.
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