Vivi Gioi Movies
- 1963
For anyone not up on Italian history during World War II, this interesting docudrama about the eventual execution by the Nazis of Mussolini's son-in-law Count Ciano (Frank Wolf) will have a few gaps. The war is ending and the fascists have clearly lost, so in their last-ditch effort to lay the blame elsewhere they choose Galeazzo Ciano, their former Foreign Minister, as one of several "traitors" to the fascist cause. Neither Mussolini himself nor an offer of the Count's diaries have any effect on the Verona-based trial which condemned and executed several others as traitors. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Silvana Mangano, Vivi Gioi, (more)
- 1956
In this heartwarming drama, the life of an Italian rice farmer involved in an unhappy marriage is chronicled. One day, he notices a familiar looking migrant in his field. Upon following the girl, he discovers that she is his illegitimate daughter. To quietly make up for his past indiscretion, he begins giving the girl many gifts, but he does not tell her who he is. Later the girl falls for an auto mechanic who gets jealous of her secret father's attention to her. This causes the father to tell the mechanic the truth; the fix it man then decides to engineer a reunion. He then goes on to save the girl from getting raped by her father's deadbeat nephew. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elsa Martinelli, Folco Lulli, (more)
- 1951
The title of this Italian wartime drama translates to Without a Flag. Set during WW I, the story concentrates on a group of Austrian saboteurs, who wreak havoc on Italian military installations. A secret agent manages to infiltrate the saboteur's headquarters in Vienna, where he appropriates a list of secret plans. The trick now is to get out of the building and back to Italy. To improve the film's box-office chances, a romance between "mortal enemies" Massimo Serato and Vivi Gioi is concocted. Though essentially a thriller, Senza Bandiera is not without its (deliberately) comic moments. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vivi Gioi, Massimo Serato, (more)
- 1949
The principal selling angle for The Earth Cries Out was its timeliness. The film is one of the first to record the migration of European Jews to Israel following the 1948 pullout of the British. After exhausting its cache of stock footage, the film settles into banality by concentrating on the exploits of three different people: A terrorist, A British officer, and a colonizer. Though well photographed (and, in the English version, well dubbed), The Earth Cries Out pales in comparison to such Hollywood Israeli-based films as Sword in the Desert (49), The Juggler (52) and Exodus. The film was initially released in Italy as Il Grido Della Terra. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrea Checchi, Marina Berti, (more)
