Valentina Cortese Movies
Actress Valentina Cortese began appearing in Italian films at age 15. Attaining stardom in the 1948 Anglo-French production The Glass Mountain (1948), Cortese was brought to the U.S. to co-star opposite Orson Welles in Black Magic (1949). She was then signed to a contract by Darryl F. Zanuck, who emphasized her Mediterranean background by changing the spelling of her name to Cortesa. One of her starring films was 1951's The House on Telegraph Hill, in which she appeared with Richard Basehart, to whom she was married from 1951 to 1970. By 1952, Cortese had struck out in Hollywood, and was back making pictures in Europe and England; ironically, it was during this period that she essayed her best-known role in an American-produced film: Countess Eleanora Torlato-Favrini in The Barefoot Contessa (1954). Surviving long past the "young female lead" stage, Cortese did some of her finest work in her middle years. When Ingrid Bergman, accepting the 1974 "Best Supporting Actress" Academy Award for her minor role in Murder on the Orient Express, announced to the world that she thought the prize should have gone to Valentine Cortese for her bravura performance as a drink-besotted film star in Truffaut's Day for Night (1973), there were quite a few out there in Televisionland who wholeheartedly agreed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
In this Italian effort (spoken English is obviously dubbed) a dentist is seduced by his daughter and her girl friend. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1962
This routine, slow-paced biographical drama is based on the 1929 autobiography of Swedish doctor Axel Martin Fredrik, The Story of San Michele. The drama follows the physician, psychiatrist, and adventurer as he travels the distances from Lapland to his Villa San Michele on Capri, with special stops in Paris and Rome. Personal physician to Queen Victoria, also physician to the Swedish royal family (he spent his last years living in the Royal Palace in Sweden), "Axel Munthe" knew everyone from the poorest clients to the most well-endowed. His love of animals, his support of bird sanctuaries, his involvement with architecture as he constructs his impressive villa over a period of five summers, and his interests in archaeology and hypnotism are all explored. O.W. Fischer's portrayal of the doctor is sometimes criticized as having more Fischer than Munthe in it. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- O.W. Fischer, Rosanna Schiaffino, (more)
This 1962 Biblical epic was adapted by Christopher Fry from the novel by Pär Lagerkvist. Anthony Quinn stars as Barabbas, the thief who was pardoned in place of Jesus. For the rest of his life, the guilt-ridden criminal tries to justify his existence and to determine his place in the scheme of things. Along the way he encounters the self-righteous pomposity of Pontius Pilate (Arthur Kennedy), the stoning of Sara (Katy Jurado), the gladiatorial sadism of Torvald (Jack Palance), and the burning of Rome. The film's unbilled Christ is played by Roy Magnano, the brother of Quinn's second-billed costar Silvia Mangano. Watch for the genuine solar eclipse during the Crucifixion sequence, an effect that director Richard Fleischer spent several days preparing for. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, (more)
- 1949
- NR
Gregory Ratoff is listed as sole director of the 1949 Orson Welles starrer Black Magic, but it is now common knowledge that Welles directed most of this lavish costumer himself. Told in flashback, the film recounts the life and times of notorious 18th-century hypnotist/magician/scam artist Cagliostro (played, but of course, by Welles). Learning the secrets of hypnosis from Dr. Mesmer (Charles Goldner), Cagliostro exploits this skill to gain wealth, prestige and, on occasion, romance. His downward slide begins when Cagliostro enters into an Anastasia-like scheme to substitute a young lass named Lorenza (Nancy Guild) for French queen Marie Antoinette. The charlatan's partners in crime are gypsies Gilbert (Akim Tamiroff, who manages to out-ham Welles in some scenes) and Zoraida (Valentina Cortese). Longer on style than substance, Black Magic is a wickedly delightful cinematic exercise, with Welles at his overbaked best. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Orson Welles, Nancy Guild, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Graham Faulkner, Judi Bowker, (more)
- 1990
- R
At one time, even the great Buster Keaton was a regular visitor of the mental health, alcoholic rehabilitation-center system. Since main-character Micha is obsessed with Keaton and everything that has to do with him, it is appropriate that after trying to pull a stunt on the public highways in imitation of the master (driving blindfolded), he winds up there as a result of the inevitable accident. The genial residents of the asylum have taken it over, following the death of the real doctor, and are having a grand old time there. They have elected O'Connor (Donald Sutherland) to run the place, perhaps because of his basement snake collection. One person after another dies in unintended mishaps, and the gardener (also an inmate) cheerfully disposes of the corpses. This odd international production features cinematography by the famed Sven Nykvist (who shot so many of Ingmar Bergman's films) and is the product of the stunning visual imagination of the esteemed art-house director Rebecca Horn. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, Geraldine Chaplin, (more)
- 1956
The Spanish/Italian Rocket From Calabuch is significant only as the last film of beloved character actor Edmund Gwenn. The 78-year-old star plays a retired atomic scientist who settles in a peaceful Spanish village. But he can't remain sedentary for long, and soon he's off and about developing a new kind of rocket. So much for his retirement, and so much for the peace and quiet in his village, which is soon overrun with reporters and spies. Rocket From Calabuch was originally released in Spain as simply Calabuch; the film didn't make it to the states until after Edmund Gwenn's death in 1959. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Gwenn
- 1951
The sheer star power of Viviane Romance makes the more absurd passages of Crossroads of Passion tolerable. Set during WW II, the story concentrates on the activities of anti-Nazi saboteurs in Lisbon. Flying in the face of Portugal's wartime neutrality, the saboteurs do their best to knock off as many Germans as possible. Romance plays the lover of a murdered Nazi bigwig, and she intends to wreak vengeance on the killers--until the obligatory eighth-reel epiphany. Billed second in Crossroads of Passion is young Valentina Cortese, on the verge of bigger things. The film was originally released in France in 1947 as La Carrefour des Passions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viviane Romance, Valentina Cortese, (more)
Known to English-speaking audiences as Day for Night, La nuit américaine was director François Truffaut's loving and humorous tribute to the communal insanity of making a movie. The film details the making of a family drama called "Meet Pamela" about the tragedy that follows when a young French man introduces his parents to his new British wife. Truffaut gently satirizes his own films with "Meet Pamela"'s overwrought storyline, but the real focus is on the chaos behind the scenes. One of the central actresses is continually drunk due to family problems, while the other is prone to emotional instability, and the male lead (Truffaut regular Jean-Pierre Leaud) starts to act erratically when his intermittent romance with the fickle script girl begins to fail. In addition to all this personal drama, the film is besieged by technical problems, from difficult tracking shots to stubborn animal actors. The inspiration for future satires of movie-making from Living in Oblivion to Irma Vep, La nuit américaine was considered slight by some critics in comparison to earlier Truffaut masterworks, but it went on to win the 1973 Oscar for Best Foreign Film. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, (more)
- 1953
In this Italian melodrama, three Roman prostitutes suddenly find themselves on the streets when the city informs them that their brothel is to be destroyed. The story chronicles what happens to each of them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1949
Femmes sans Nom is the second film in a proposed trilogy conceived by Hungarian director Geza Radvanyi (the first was Somewhere in Europe). In each of these three films, Radvanyi hoped to dramatically convey the plight of those left homeless and destitute by WW II. Femmes sans Nom is set in a relocation camp in Trieste, where hundreds of disenfranchised European women are huddled together. Prominent among these unfortunate souls is a former aristocrat, played by Francoise Rosay; a woman of loose morals, portrayed by Simone Simon; and an expectant mother, essayed by Valentine Cortese. After the lukewarm response to Femmes sans Nom, Geza Radvanyi dropped his plans for the third film in his "displaced persons" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Simon, Françoise Rosay, (more)
- 1970
- R
Producer/director Maximillian Schell adapted the screenplay of First Love from a story by Ivan Turgenev. John Moulder Brown plays Alexander, a 16-year-old boy who falls in love with 21-year-old Sinaida (Dominique Sanda). Despite a great deal of emotional turmoil, exacerbated by the fact that Sinaida has been sleeping with Alexander's father, Alexander insists upon pursuing the relationship. His sexual coming-of-age is played out against the ominous backdrop of pre-World War II Europe. The film was originally released as Ein Leibe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Moulder-Brown, Dominique Sanda, (more)
- 1947
In 1935, American audiences were treated to two simultaneously released versions of Les Miserables, one made in Hollywood, the other in France. Much the same thing happened in 1952. While 20th Century-Fox's Les Miserables, starring Michael Rennie as beleagured ex-convict Jean Valjean, was making the rounds, a second version, lensed in Italy, was also showing up in selected theatres. Running a fast 112 minutes (hardly enough time to do full justice to the novel), U.S. release of the Italian adaptation starred Gino Servi as Valjean, whose "new" life as a man of position and respect is forever threatened by dogged detective Javert. Valentine Cortese costars as Cosette, Valjean's adopted daughter. English-language prints of the the Italian Les Miserables credit the direction to "Robert Hampton"; in fact, direction was handled by prominent European filmmaker Riccardo Freda. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valentina Cortese, Gino Cervi, (more)
- 1950
Valentina Cortese's star continued to rise with the period melodrama Bullet for Stefano (Il Passatore). Cortese plays Barbara, whose wedding is interrupted when dashing brigand Stefano (Rossano Brazzi) kills the groom and abducts the bride. Eventually, Stefano tires of Barbara, and casts her aside. But she is not to be dispensed with so easily. Rallying the peasantry, Barbara sets the wheels in motion for Stefano's destruction. Curiously, despite his wretched behavior, there is a certain amount of sympathy for Stefano, who is a thief only because he wishes to help the poor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valentina Cortese, Rossano Brazzi, (more)
Because director Franco Zeffirelli noted publicly that he intended to depict Jesus Christ as a human being rather than a religious icon, his expensive made-for-TV miniseries Jesus of Nazareth fell victim to protestors long before its April 3, 1977, debut. Despite the pullout of several sponsors, Jesus of Nazareth was aired as scheduled, sweeping the ratings in the process. In avoiding the usual overproduced Hollywood approach to the Gospels, Zeffirelli offers one of the most sensitive and reverent portrayals of Jesus ever seen on film. In the title role, Robert Powell heads a huge international cast, which includes Olivia Hussey as Mary, Peter Ustinov as Herod the Great, Christopher Plummer as Herod Antipas, Michael York as John the Baptist, James Farentino as Simon Peter, Donald Pleasence as Melchior, James Earl Jones as Balthazar, Ian McShane as Judas, Anne Bancroft as Mary Magdalene, Rod Steiger as Pontius Pilate, James Mason as Joseph of Arimathea, Anthony Quinn as Caiaphas, Laurence Olivier as Nicodemus, Ernest Borgnine as the Centurion, and Claudia Cardinale as the Adulteress. Filmed in England, Tunisia, and Morocco, Jesus of Nazareth was scripted by Zeffirelli, Anthony Burgess, and Suso Cecchi D'Amico. It originally aired in two three-hour segments, telecast Palm and Easter Sunday of 1977 as part of NBC's Big Event anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Powell, Olivia Hussey, (more)
Juliet of the Spirits is a fantastical showcase for Federico Fellini's vibrant imagery, starring his wife, Giulietta Masina, as the titular leading character. Juliet is a wealthy housewife who constantly fears her husband, Giorgio (Mario Pisu), is cheating on her. While she yearns for a peaceful intimate evening on the night of their 15th anniversary, the egotistical Giorgio has forgotten about it and instead arrives home with his eccentric friends. After a trip to a séance, Juliet is haunted by images from the spirit world, including obsessions from her past involving religion and her late relatives. With her sisters and mother prying into her life, Juliet seems to be seeking an inner peace amidst all the sexual temptations surrounding her. She meets her neighbor, Suzy (Sandra Milo), a showy pleasure-seeker who lives in a sensual playhouse. It appears that all of Juliet's family, friends, and fantasies demand that she loosen up and embrace sexual freedom, yet she remains chaste and dowdy, lamenting over her unfaithful husband. The reasons for Juliet's repression are not clearly defined by the narrative, despite glimpses into her supposed imagination. Forced to endure the constant bombardment of sexually charged imaginings, the demure Juliet retreats on her own. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giulietta Masina, Mario Pisu, (more)
- 1947
This Italian drama is a wartime version of the old story. Set during WW II, it follows the journeys of a cursed French Jew who turns against his people and helps the Nazis. Later his guilt overcomes him and he allows himself to be sent to a concentration camp. There he falls in love. The two escape, but when they learn that the Nazis will massacre the other prisoners if he doesn't return, he is forced to turn himself in. At the story's end, the fellow is finally granted eternal rest and ends up gunned down by the German soldiers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Gassman, Valentina Cortese, (more)
- 1975
- R
After his son is kidnapped, a millionaire industrialist (James Mason) seeks revenge, in spite of the potential danger that his rash actions will bring about for his child and another kidnapped boy, the son of a poor mechanic (Luc Merenda). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1965
A young writer goes to a summer resort in wintertime to be alone and contemplate his moral dilemma in this thrilling and suspenseful psychological drama. He goes to visit Tilde (Virna Lisi), a young woman with whom he had a brief sexual relationship. To his horror, the writer learns that she has been killed by having her throat slashed, and her body was thrown into the lake. He finds no one willing to talk about the crime, and he uncovers the medical examiner's report that lists the promiscuous victim as being a virgin. When the wife of the hotel-owner is found dead, the writer urges for an in-depth investigation of the unsolved crimes. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Baldwin, Salvo Randone, (more)
- 1982
A Medeci villa is home to a crackpot doctor who does experiments on peacock eggs, a nurse who greets people by doing a handstand in her skirt, an aspiring ballerina, and a few other odd characters. The villa also hosts a broad range of visitors, including a musician and a gay couple -- the younger gay blade wastes no time in chasing after the mansion's gardener. A countess who arrived at the villa throws a dinner party one day while a wedding is going on in another room (partially sponsored by a local refrigerator company) and while the two young gays are cavorting in the bushes. At the height of the frivolity, gangsters invade the scene and things turn downright nasty, even the doc shoots one of his peacocks. Tourism is just not what it used to be. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valentina Cortese, Gisella Hahn, (more)
