Adolfo Celi Movies

The famed Italian film director Pietro Germi (his sharply observant and satirical films include The Immoralist, and Divorce Italian Style) began work on this comedy, but died before he could do more than write the screenplay. However, he lived long enough to choose Mario Monicelli as his successor. In the story, four friends keep their friendship alive and their Tuscan town lively by means of an endless series of practical jokes and pranks of various sorts. Perozzi (Philippe Noiret) works on the night desk of a newspaper, reporting on crime. Mascetti (Ugo Tognazzi), an aristocrat, has seen better days. They are joined in mischief by Melandri (Gastone Moschin) and Necci (Duilio DelPrete), an architect and a cafe-owner by profession respectively. When the town doctor (Adolfo Celi) manages to outwit the collective efforts of the four, he is soon invited to join their little club. The rhythms of life in a cheerful provincial town are effectively unveiled in this zany and affectionate film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In a series of vignettes that serve as a sequel to Amici Miei, director Mario Monicelli brings back several of his stars from the earlier movie to continue their antics in Florence, home of the friends of the title. All five are (or in some cases, were) close companions and have a penchant for practical jokes. Count Lello Mascetti (Ugo Tognazzi) may not have much money, but then he has an unattractive, pregnant, unmarried daughter to compensate. Prof. Sassaroli (Adolfo Celi) is a surgeon who decides to get back at a slightly senile loan shark, and the other friends range from a bar owner to a love-sick man. Together, they are sure to go from one unlikely situation to the next. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

St. Francis of Assisi was an extraordinarily complex and difficult figure whose effect on his contemporary society was electrifying. Even today, many people are moved by his visionary message of universal toleration. Twelfth-century Italy had an exceptionally grim and regimented society, but the barefoot monk from Assisi undoubtedly had the courage that comes from deep faith and was able to transcend the oppressiveness of the time. In this Italian/British-produced film, director Franco Zeffirelli attempts to bring his vision of this great man to the screen. The contemporary (1970s) example of the hippie movement contributed a great deal to the style in which the story is told. The musical score, using ancient Italian melodies, was arranged by Donovan. The film is visually beautiful in a way which tends to minimize the squalor of the times. As the movie begins, Francis (Graham Faulkner) is the son of wealthy merchants, and enjoys his share of wine, women and song without serious thought. When war and disease devastate his neighborhood, Francis undergoes an anguished transformation which culminates in his appearing before the local bishop and removing his clothes to renounce his previous life and family before dedicating himself to God. The culminating dramatic moment is Francis' appearance before Pope Innocent III (Sir Alec Guinness), to make his case for an independent religious order under new rules. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The title Cambio de Cara translates to Change of Face. This Italian film investigates high-level corruption in a major international industry. Two reporters face serious injury or death while getting the goods on a cartel of white-collar crooks. Adolfo Celi stars as one of the fat cats, while Geraldine Hooper is around for glamour. Filmed in Italian, Cambio de Cara has been dubbed into Spanish for its video release-but an English-language version has yet to surface. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Diabolik (John Phillip Law) is the criminal mastermind who has just pulled off a huge heist. He spends most of his free time with his girlfriend, Eva (Marisa Mell), in fond embrace. The police minister (Terry-Thomas) is approached by Valmont (Adolfo Celi), a master criminal who proposes to use his underworld connections to catch Diabolik for the police. In between their gratuitous lovemaking, he and the exotic Eva are chased by police and the mob in this plodding crime drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Death Sentence is the literal English translation of Setenza di Morte, the original Italian title of this spaghetti western. Robin Clarke stars as a vengeful frontiersman whose brother has been killed. In the tradition of the Budd Boetticher classic Seven Men From Now, Clarke methodically hunts down the four men responsible. Hollywood's Richard Conte is second-billed as one of the culprits. Tomas Milian steals the show as an albino gunman prone to epileptic fits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It is no doubt extremely difficult to produce a film which is respectful of a world-renowned and widely loved man, recently deceased, who was considered to be either a saint or well on the way to being one. This unusual biographical film is based on writings (published and unpublished) of Pope John XXIII (born in a peasant family as Angelo Roncalli), who in his short tenure in the papacy began the Second Vatican Council and attempted to reform and liberalize many doctrines of the church, including encouraging the unification of Christians and of all humanity. Every pope after him has been busily attempting to undo most of his liberalizing legacy. This film presents the innovator in his own words, through the device of a narrator (in English, this is Rod Steiger), as he recounts some of the experiences of his life, especially as an ambulance driver in World War II. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A company specializing in international espionage turns a young man into a super hero and offers his services to the United Nations. For a hefty fee, the creation will supposedly become an international policeman who will fight crime and make the world safe from the machination of evil. When the super hero sees an old girlfriend, the lengthy brain operation that gave him is powers is rendered ineffective in this science fiction feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

There's a few million dollars' worth of star power and a nickel's worth of plot in the lavish race-car melodrama Grand Prix. Among the participants in this annual cross-continent competition are characters played by James Garner, Yves Montand, Brian Bedford, and Antonio Sabato. Interested parties include Toshiro Mifune (his voice dubbed by Paul Frees), Adolfo Celi, and Claude Dauphin, while the women who agonize on the sidelines include Eva Marie Saint, Jessica Walter, and Françoise Hardy. The racing sequences are top-rank, cleverly utilizing those 1960s devices of helicopter angles and multiple screens. Oscars went to editor Frederic Steinkamp (among others) and the sound-effects supervisor Franklin E. Milton. Filmed on location, Grand Prix made back its cost about half a week into its run. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The movers and shakers of our industrial society replace vampires in this Italian allegorical drama. A young employee of a large conglomerate is called to a mysterious, brooding mansion to be told of his promotion to head of an auto company. He attempts to kill the Nosferatu-like being who informs him of this, but is unable to, so he returns to the plant and his new job. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Alec Guinness plays against stereotype, imbuing his Adolf Hitler with an introverted solemnity in Ennio De Concini's Hitler: The Last Ten Days. Set almost entirely inside Hitler's Berlin bunker, the film chronicles the dying days of the Third Reich as the Allied armies close in on Berlin. Guinness's Hitler is an enclosed depressive who sinks slowly into madness, depression, and ultimately suicide as his 1,000-Year Reich collapses around him. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide