After being blacklisted in 1950, the famous noir director Jules Dassin (Brute Force, The Naked City, Night and the City) moved to Europe and made several excellent films, one of which is The Law (1959). As with his other important (if not most important) European film, Rififi, The Law has one scene that holds the entire movie together. With Rififi, it is the heist that happens in real time; with The Law, it is the molestation of the two stars of the movie, Gina Lollobrigida's breasts.

Set in a sunny seaside town in southern Italy, the movie is about sexual energy. There is the restless energy of the sun, of the wind, of the sea, and of the human body. The energy that causes this town the most trouble is the energy of the body. The sun keeps them happy, the wind keeps them cool, the sea keeps them going, and their bodies drive them crazy. Sex is a force that confuses everything by sending people in every direction. There is the young agronomist (Marcello Mastroianni) who is desired by young Marietta (Lollobrigida); there's a local weasel (Yves Montand) who wants nothing more in life than the opportunity to fuck Marietta; there's the judge's wife (Melina Mercouri—the director's Greek wife) who wants so badly to fuck the weasel's son; there's an inspector who wants to fuck his wife's maid—and so on and so on. Most of these desires are never fulfilled, and only one has a happy ending.

Now back to this all-important scene that involves Lollobrigida's breasts. It happens in the third act of the film, in a cabin that's packed with grain bags. The weasel finds Marietta alone there and wastes no time grabbing her breasts and, with the whole of his face, devouring them like a beast. The attack, however, is cut short by a blade that slashes the weasel's cheek. He bleeds, he leaves the cabin, he promises revenge. But he knows, and she knows, he cannot defeat her powerful breasts. Despite their sexy prominence in the movie—Marietta only knows how to wear the tightest shirts—no man is allowed to even think about touching them. The weasel breaks this law, the real law of the film (look but don't touch), and is punished with a permanent scar. Even the man Marietta loves, the young agronomist, is not allowed to enjoy the stars of the movie. He can kiss wild Marietta, seize her waist, and even slap her bottom—but his hands and lips must stay away from her breasts. That is the law of the wonderful film.