The scene is commonly credited with being the first time that an actress had appeared topless in an Italian sound film,[3][4] although Vittoria Carpi showed a bare breast for a moment in the 1941 film La corona di ferro (The Iron Crown), which was also directed by Blasetti.

Calamai stated in a later interview that the original script did not have the character revealing herself this way and did not want to do the scene, but felt compelled by the director to do it and gave in when she was promised a closed set.

[4] Her most remembered role was in the film Luchino Visconti's Ossessione (1943), in which she played Giovanna, the ill-fated female protagonist.

[2][5] Calamai was offered the lead role in L'adultera (The Adulteress, 1946, directed by Duilio Coletti), after Anna Magnani, originally cast in the part, "was visibly five months' pregnant when she arrived on the set.

After years of retirement, she returned in 1975 to appear in the horror film Profondo rosso (Deep Red, directed by Dario Argento) as the eccentric matriarch, Marta.