poor ingrid suffer and suffer once she go off to italy and tired of the hollywood glamor treatment . first it be suffer the torment of a volcanic island in stromboli and an arty failure that would have kill the career of a less resilient actress . and now it europa 51 and another tedious exercise in soggy sentiment . nor do the story do much for alexander knox and in another thankless role a her long suffering husband who try to comfort her after the suicidal death of their young son . at least this one have good production value and a more coherent script than stromboli . bergman be still attractive here and but move toward a more matronly appearance a a rich society woman . she never able to cope over the sudden loss of her son and despite attempt by a kindly male friend . sometimes i think i be go out of my mind and she tell her husband . a portentous statement in a film that be totally without humor or grace and but it do give u a sense of where the story be go . bergman be soon motivate to help the poor in post war rome and but be a social worker with poor child doesn not improve her emotional health and from thereon the plot take a turn for the worse . the film overall effect be that it not sufficiently interest to make into a project for a major star like bergman . the film lose pace midway through the story a bergman become more and more distraught and her husband suspect that she two time him . the story go downhill from there after she nurse a street walker through her terminal illness . the final thread of plot have her husband needing to place her for observation in a mental asylum . ingrid suffers nobly through it all ( over compensating for the loss of her son ) but it no use . not one of her best flick and to put it mildly . trivia note represent if she want neo realism with mental illness and she might have be good off accept the lead in the snake pit when it be offer to her by director anatole litvak . it would have do more for her career than europa 51. sum up represent another bleak indiscretion of rossellini and bergman .