Maurizio D'Ancora Movies

The fun begins when a travelling opera company ends up in a tiny provincial Italian village. Insulted by their tacky surroundings, the troupe's leading man and leading lady leave in a huff (a small blue huff, actually). Two talented locals -- a male music teacher and his star female pupil -- step into their parts, and the show goes on. The girl's jealous sweetheart tries to sabotage the production, leading to a hilarious slapstick climax reminiscent of The Marx Bros.' A Night at the Opera (still two years in the future). Mozart's original score from The Marriage of Figaro is played "straight," even if the story itself isn't. Filmed in 1931, Figaro Gran Giornata (Figaro's Great Day) showed up in the U.S. two years later. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

La Vacanza del Diavolo is the Italian-language version of the 1930 Nancy Carroll vehicle The Devil's Holiday. Carmen Boni steps into the Carroll role as Lisa Hobart, a mercenary manicurist who plots to marry wealthy wheat heir Robert Stone (Maurizio D'Ancora). Despite the objections of his family, the couple elopes, whereupon Stone's father offers the girl a fortune if she'll agree to give the boy up. Never having been in love with him anyway, Lisa agrees to dump him but has a change of heart -- and conscience -- when Stone is gravely injured in an accident. Observers in 1930 felt that Nancy Carroll did it better. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Prolific filmmaker Mario Bonnard's only 1935 effort was Milizia Territoriale (Territorial Militia). Based on a novel by A. DeBenedetti, the film stars G. Bolognesi as Ciccio, a meek, browbeaten shoe clerk. Hoping to escape his domineering family, employers and customers, Ciccio joins the army at the outbreak of WWI. He is swiftly promoted to the rank of Major, allowing him to assert himself for the first time in his life -- and now his former tormentors bow and toady whenever he strolls into view. Alas, when the war is over, so is Ciccio's brief moment in the sun, and he returns to his humble clerical job. The worm finally and permanently turns when Ciccio falls in love with a gorgeous war widow (Leda Gloria), insisting upon marrying her despite the protests of his hateful family. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Nancy Carroll brings a touch of freshness to the well-worn plot convolutions of Devil's Holiday. Ms. Carroll plays a manicurist who woos and weds wealthy Phillips Holmes. She tells herself that she harbors no mercenary notions, but when Holmes' family offers to buy her off if she'll leave, Carroll accepts the offer. The girl's basic loyalty surfaces when Holmes goes temporarily insane; Carroll reneges on her cash deal with the family and returns to her husband. Devil's Holiday is one of those class-conscious early 1930s pictures that always scored a hit with middle-class filmgoers, who liked to believe that they, too, would behave as altruistically as Nancy Carroll if given the chance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi