Federico Zardi Movies
This is a documentary-style Italian drama chronicling the rise and fall of the title character, a real-life Mob chieftain who rose to prominence in post-WWII Sicily. Salvatore Giuliano himself is almost unseen and his career is recalled in flashbacks after his assassination in 1950. With the help of his right-hand man and cousin Gaspare Pisciotta (Frank Wolff), Salvatore becomes a guerilla leader whose resistance to the corrupt politicians dominating his post-war nation leads to his popularity among the Sicilian peasant class. As time passes, though, Salvatore becomes more of a criminal than a rebel, threatening Mafia income. Even Salvatore's own devoted followers begin to doubt him, and when he orders the slaughter of communist supporters at a rally, a bloody shootout with police ensues. Salvatore Giuliano (1962) was such an effective anti-organized crime film that it inspired a real-life investigation into Mob activities in Sicily. The Giuliano story was later filmed as The Sicilian (1987) starring Christopher Lambert as the title character. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Salvo Randone, Frank Wolff, (more)
- 1962
Steve Reeves gives the most dramatically demanding performance of his career (and a surprisingly good one) in The Trojan Horse. Essentially a retelling of the final year of the siege of Troy from the point of view of Aeneas (Reeves), the movie is filled with fascinating portrayals. Aeneas, taking the interpretation from the poet Virgil, is the wisest of the Trojans and, after ten years of war, has become the leading advocate for finding an end to the fighting. His wisdom and nobility have earned him a place at the table with King Priam and the other rulers, which puts him at odds with the vain, jealous Paris and his Helen. Opening with the slaying of Hector by Achilles, the film is steeped in complex personal relationships and mythological conceits. John Drew Barrymore is the other "name" actor here, playing Ulysses as a clever, cynical, and bold warrior among the Greeks. Reeves brings real nobility to Aeneas and relies on his acting skills as much as his physique to bring off this movie, often mixing the two in a script filled with ironies, as when Aeneas must kill a Greek warrior for whom he earlier expressed respect. Along with Reeves' two Hercules films from the end of the 1950s, and Vittorio Cottafavi's Hercules and the Captive Women, this is one of the best examples of Italy's sword-and-sandal genre. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1960
An attorney and his amorous daughters provide the focus of this drama. The story begins as the lawyer begins searching for his lost teenage daughter and learns that she has run away with an older man. He and his daughter's friend take off after the fugitive lovers. Along the way, the lawyer and the young girl become lovers themselves. Eventually, they discover that she has dumped the older man for a lover her own age; they then find her in bed with said lover and drag her home. There they discover that the lawyer's other daughter too is involved with a much-older man. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gabriele Ferzetti, Jean Valerie, (more)
- 1960
The long-forgotten Italian historical epic Herod the Great (AKA Erode il Grande, 1960), dramatizes the dark final years of the title figure, an evil Judean Tetrarch notorious for sending Christ to the cross in league with Pontius Pilate. The story begins with Herod (Edmond Purdom) and Antony's shared defeat by Rome (when the two men foolishly decide to form an allegiance and go head to head with the colossal Empire), and ends with Herod's slide into insanity following Christ's death. Throughout, the ruler exhibits utter lunacy, raving constantly and spewing forth torrents of unbridled anger; the picture's overtone thus remains bleak, despairing and relentlessly gloomy throughout (take it or leave it). Arnaldo Genoino directs; Damiano Damiani, Federico Zardo, Tourjansky and Fernando Cerchio co-scripted. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Purdom, Sylvia Lopez, (more)
