Leonardo Cortese Movies

In this suspenseful WW II thriller, the hard-bitten commander of a British battleship stationed in Alexandria Harbor early in the war must force two captured Italian frogmen to tell him whether or not they planted time-bombs upon the ship's hull. The captives are uncooperative and the captain has them wait with the crew for the ship to explode. The minutes tick by and the increasingly nervous British sailors begin questioning their leader's judgment. Eventually, one of the hostages cracks and tells them that there is one mine, but he refuses to divulge its location or the time of detonation. The captain evacuates the ship and leaves the prisoners behind. He remains aboard and surreptitiously eavesdrops upon them. When he learns the mine's location, he attempts to have the bomb removed. Unfortunately he is too late and the ship is badly damaged. Desiring to fool the Italian reconnaissance planes he knows will come, the captain puts most of his crew on deck to make the Italian fliers think their mission failed. Meanwhile other crewmen frantically try to repair the ruined hull below deck. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Gina (Irene Genna), a provincial Italian lass, is whisked away to the Big City upon entering a beauty contest. When she loses, the financially strapped Gina takes a job as a photographer's model. It would seem from the evidence presented in the film that the "modelling agency" is actually a front for a prostitution ring. The heavily American prints of Verginita don't make this clear, but they can't censor the gleam in the agency-owner's Otello Toso eye. At any rate, it turns out that Gina needs rescuing from her new profession, and confectionery salesman Franco (Leonardo Cortese) is just the fellow for this assignment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Al Diavolo con Celebrita is one of two Italian films hurriedly made in 1948 by comic actor Mischa Auer. Like the first (Snow White and the 7 Thieves), it is hardly representative of Auer at his best. The star plays U.S. diplomat Bernard Stork, whose timid young interpreter Professor Bricci (Leonard Cortese) is hopelessly in love with Stork's secretary Ellen Rawlins (Marilyn Buford). Somehow, Bricci comes into possession of a magic artifact that enables him to assume the bodies and personalities of recently deceased individuals. The Professor hopes to profess his love for Ellen in one of these guises, but is always prevented from doing so. When Mr. Stork dies suddenly, Bricci takes over his body, resulting in a bizarre finale at the United Nations, with look-alikes for President Truman, Churchill, and Stalin engaging in silly slapstick. Somewhere there's an antiwar message in Al Diavolo con Celebrita, but it's buried under mounds of nonsense. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A love-triangle causes all sorts of problems for a renowned violinist in this Italian drama. The trouble begins when his wife has brief affair with his ambitious accompanist who later blackmails her into keeping it going. The man becomes so obsessed that he even fakes his own murder so he can pin it on the violinist. Unfortunately, the accompanist is caught by the fiddler who kills him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Unlike many of director Mario Bonnard's films, which for various reasons took forever to obtain American distributors Jeanne Dore was released in the U.S. only a few months after its Italian premiere. The magnificent Emma Gramatica plays the title character, the mother of handsome young Jacques Dore (Leonardo Cortese). When the gorgeous but selfish Mme. Perodot (Evi Maltagliati) falls into the clutches of an oily moneylender, Jacques nobly comes to her rescue by killing the bounder. As Jacques is sent away for a 20-year prison term, his mother suffers and suffers with silent nobility. The film is designed to contrast the lifestyles of the selfless Jeanne Dore and the avaricious Mme. Perodot, and in this it succeeds; in terms of originality, however, the film doesn't have much to offer outside of Bonnard's always clever direction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide