Jon Mirsalis on Piano. Coming to the fore after the ethereal diva had begun to decline, Carmen Boni was another type of anti-diva, famous for her roles as a maschietta, a tomboy or young-mannish girl. Here, Boni portrays an orphan girl-scampolo means rag-who survives through odd jobs and the love of her equally shabby dog. She becomes the maid for a poor engineering student who is embroiled in an affair with a femme fatale. Pierre Sorlin could have been describing Scampolo when he wrote, "Beside the naive, innocent young women, tear-jerkers featured libidinous, cunning, and dangerous women able to capture brave young men." But he adds, "While telling extravagant anecdotes, these movies dealt, albeit obliquely, with problems like housing, violence, and life in cities, with which spectators were directly concerned....The charm of melodrama resulted partly from the overlapping of factual data and archetypal, endlessly repeated situations." The prolific director Augusto Genina-already fifteen years into his long career in 1928-was Boni's companion in life as well as on the set.