Walter Chiari Movies

The English-language title of this wacky comedy is It Was Him...Yes! Yes! "Him" Walter Milani, is played by Walter Chiari, a singular comic actor who was touted by American critics as a "new" star, even though he'd been successfully plugging away in European films since 1947. Chiari plays a meek-and-mild clerk in a department store who discovers that his boss (Carlo Campanini) is mortally afraid of him. It seems that the boss is plagued by nightmares, in which Malani appears as a "villain" who doles out ridicule and humiliation. With the help of a psychiatrist, the boss comes to grips with his inner fears, while the hapless Milani reacts in confusion as all sorts of favors and kindnesses are heaped upon him. The dream sequences are cleverly rendered send-ups of every Freudian symbol in the book. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This early Luchno Visconti drama stars Anna Magnani as an overbearing stage mother. Magnani's daughter (Tina Apicella) has zero talent, but Magnani raises such a ruckus at the studio after the girl's abortive screen test that the producers eventually find work for the girl. By this point, Magnani has renounced show business and, with daughter in tow, returns to her patient husband, who has been waiting for his wife to get her dreams of vicarious stardom out of her system. Based on a story by famed Italian scenarist (and frequent Fellini collaborator) Cesar Zavattini, Bellissima seems too trivial a story to be given the tender loving care provided by Visconti. Originally released at 130 minutes, the film was honed down to 90 minutes for American consumption. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

OK Nerone stars Italian film favorites Walter Chiari and Cario Capanine as a pair of fun-loving American sailors. While on a sightseeing tour of Rome, the two tars imagine themselves back to the days of Emperor Nero (Gino Cervi). The rest of the film is in the fine tradition of such Eddie Cantor comedies as Roman Scandals and Ali Baba Goes to Town, with Chiari and Capanine introducing 1st-century Rome to the pleasures of 20th-century America. The climax takes place in the Colosseum, as our heroes stage a football game to rescue the Christians from the lions. OK Nerone exists strictly for laughs, and in this respect it succeeds admirably. English-language prints were radically trimmed to satisfy the censors of the early 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The most frequently filmed of Emile Zola's works, Nana was given a slick, polished cinemazation by French- filmmaker Christian-Jacque in 1955. Martine Carol is well (if predictably) cast in the title role, playing a poverty-stricken Parisian girl who rises to prominence as a high-priced whore. Nana is content to love 'em and leave 'em until she becomes the mistress of government-official Charles Boyer. Her genuine love for Boyer results in disgrace and disaster for them both. While less inhibited than the bowdlerized 1934 Sam Goldwyn production of Nana, this French/Italian co-production is rather far afield from the Zola original. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Donatela (Elsa Martinelli) is a poor girl who works as personal secretary to wealthy Guido (Walter Chiari). When Donatela's boss is visited by lawyer Maurizio (Gabriele Ferzetti), he mistakenly believes that she, too, is rich--and automatically falls in love with her. Maurizio's attentions prompt Guido to see Donatela in an entirely new light, and soon he is also ardently pursuing her. These romantic complications are interrupted periodically by the musical contributions of bandleader Xavier Cugat and his vocalist-wife Abbe Lane. Despite its unpretentiousness, Donatela was given the usual big publicity buildup when it was released in the US. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Francoise Sagan's bittersweet novel Bonjour Tristesse is given a sumptuous Riviera-filmed screen treatment. David Niven plays a wealthy playboy, the father of teenaged libertine-in-the-making Jean Seberg. Seberg tolerates most of her father's mistresses, but doesn't know what to make of the prudish Deborah Kerr, who will not cohabit with Niven until after they're married. Feeling that her own relation with her father will be disrupted by Kerr's presence, Seberg does her malicious best to break up the relationship--only to be beaten to the punch by Niven, who despite his promises of fidelity to Kerr cannot give up his hedonistic lifestyle. The combination of the daughter's disdain and the father's rakishness drive Kerr to suicide. Niven and Seberg continue pursuing their lavish but empty lifestyle, though both realize that their lack of moral fibre has destroyed a life. The incestuous undertones of the original Sagan novel are only slightly downplayed in the film version; the "tristesse" (sadness) is visually conveyed by filming the Deborah Kerr flashback scenes in color and the opening and closing of the film in bleak black and white. Bonjour Tristesse was codirected by Otto Preminger, who'd previously discovered Jean Seberg for his benighted 1957 filmization of Saint Joan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This minor Italian comedy was released in the U.S. as Wives and Obscurities. Gino Cervi and Walter Chiari star as an American immigrant and his son who return to Cervi's Italian hometown after 35 years. While the girls in town are fascinated by Chiari's sophisticated veneer, the local males resent his Yankee behavior and target him for persecution and humiliation. Ultimately, Chiari is forced to stand up to his Italian tormentors and prove he's as good as any of them without hiding behind his fancy American convertible and flashy clothes. Some of the film's provincial humor is blunted by the English-language dubbing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A womanizing bachelor with a cynical outlook on marriage urges a young salesclerk to avoid tying the knot with his landlady's daughter in this comedy starring Vittorio De Sica and Walter Chiari. Luigi (De Sica) believes that marriage is a scam. He's doled out so much advice on the matter that he's earned the nickname "The Professor," and when smitten salesclerk Marcello (Walter Chiari) begins falling for his landlady's daughter, he comes to Luigi in search of advice. Though the Professor urges Marcello to get out of the relationship while he still can, it isn't long before wedding bells are ringing and Marcello is a walking down the aisle. When his new life turns into a waking nightmare, Marcello snaps and gets arrested for the murder of his wife and mother in law. But things aren't always what they seem in Marcello's world, and it doesn't take long for the truth to come out. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Set during one day in Retiro Park in Madrid, this series of static skits involves people interacting in the park or sitting on benches, and talking. People passing through the park include a gentleman looking for a wealthy woman to romance. The woman he encounters, and other characters, alternate between the comic and the melodramatic as the skits unfold. Based mainly on dialogue rather than action, this day in the park features talented actors with not that much to say underneath it all. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, a ship load of the rich and horny embark on a cruise aboard a millionaire's yacht. Included in the guest roster are a French businessman, his singing wife, his mistress, his wife's lover, a count whom the businessman hired to sleep with his wife so he can get a divorce, the boat owner's lover and his son, a lovely model hired by the owner to seduce his son who seems alarmingly disinterested in women, and a photographer to record it all. Lusty confusion ensues until everyone finds their proper mate. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide