I've always been a fan of the horror/sci-fi genre. My love stretches right back to the days in the 1970's when the BBC used to have a season of horror double bills on Saturday night. Generally, they'd show the Universal Dracula's and Frankenstein's in sequence first before something more up to date afterwards. But despite my ongoing interest, then as now I've never been keen on anything with 'meets' or 'versus' in the title; 'Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman', 'Freddy vs Jason', 'Alien vs Predator' - none have added up to anything more than the sum of their parts and are, to a film, quite dreadful.When faced with David Whitfield 'meeting' Mantovani, then a horror scenario of it's own is conjured up, but unlike the above films, this one does not disappoint. Whitefield's faux operatics meet Mantovani's faux classicism in a very real sludge of over emotional overflow that aims high but hits low. 'Cara Mia' likes to think it was specially scripted for Caruso to belt out at La Scala, yet the only thing it calls to my mind are those mock, redbrick mansions built with new money but given an old world air by the application of huge, plastic columns and buttresses that serve no purpose other than to kid eyes bleached clean of all taste and cultural appreciation that they are gazing at something genteel. Hurry up Elvis, fer gawd's sake.
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