Eleonora Rossi-Drago Movies
Of Italian-Spanish heritage, Eleanora Rossi-Drago worked as a salesgirl before entering films in 1949. In the early stages of her movie career, she was typecast in sexy, bodice-ripping roles in such films as Pirates of Capri (1949) and Sensualita (1952). By the time she left films in the 1970s, she had matriculated into a capable character actress. Eleanora Rossi-Drago is best known to American audiences for her "salty" performance as Lot's wife in John Huston's The Bible (1966). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1952
Catastrophe results from a love triangle. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eleonora Rossi-Drago, Amedeo Nazzari, (more)
- 1952
The English-language title of this Italian WW I drama is Seven of the Big Bear. The title refers to a group of Italian navy frogmen, who train arduously for a raid on the allied stronghold of Gilbraltar. Their "inside man" on the island is actually a woman, nightclub singer Eleanora Rossi Drago. When last seen, the deep-sea-diving heroes are engaged in an assault on the British fleet at Alexandria. I Sette Dell'Orsa Maggiore would make a fascinating companion feature to the American wartime actioner The Frogmen. The music is by Nino Rota, whose later filmwork included the two Godfather films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pierre Cressoy, Tino Carraro, (more)
- 1952
The original Italian title of The Barefoot Savage was Sensualita, an apt description of voluptuous leading-lady Eleanora Rossi-Drago. A newcomer to rural Italy, Rossi-Drago grows to dislike the tedium of working in the fields. She tries to seduce one of the owners of the farm where she works, and when the man tells her to get lost, she sets her sights on his brother. Only after she has married the brother does the farm owner realize that he's fallen in love with her. The tragedy that follows can best be described as operatic. Barefoot Savage was obviously inspired by the success of the 1949 Italian drama Bitter Rice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amedeo Nazzari, Marcello Mastroianni, (more)
- 1953
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
- Starring:
- Leonardo Cortese
- 1953
Originally released as Trattedella Blanche, Girls Marked Danger offers a voyeuristic glimpse at the subrosa world of 20th century white slavery. Veteran Hollywood heavy Marc Lawrence plays a vice lord who recruits innocent young Italian ladies for his nefarious purposes, on the pretext of hiring them to be cabaret dancers in South America. Despite the fact that none of Lawrence's "girls" ever return home, the new candidates suspect nothing as they sign up for the tour. Since the plot and outcome of Girls Marked Danger are predictable, the film justifies its 78-minute length by concentrating on the backgrounds of some of the unfortunate lasses. The most tragic of the ladies is played by Eleanora Rossi Drago, who is not only brutally beaten and mishandled, but ends up dying in childbirth. The nominal romantic lead is played by Sophia Loren, who tends to be upstaged on this occasion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Silvana Pampanini, Sophia Loren, (more)
- 1954
This film is comprised of three vignettes focusing upon women and war. The first episode, set in WW II, chronicles the sad journey of an American woman who goes to Italy to bring her husband's body home. In Italy she makes a heart-wrenching discovery: he had been living with an Italian family and had impregnated their daughter and sees the child. The second story chronicles the abandonment of Joan of Arc, by her king and her soldiers. The third episode is a humorous adaptation of "Lysistrata," the Greek play where Athenian wives refused to sleep with their husbands until they stopped making war. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Roman couturier Clelia (Eleonora Rossi-Drago) leaves the big city to work at a boutique in Turin. She moves into a hotel and makes several new friends, but is soon drawn into their extremely unpleasant lives. Clelia enters a doomed relationship with a poor architect's assistant (Ettore Manni), sees her new best friend Rosetta (Madeleine Fischer) commit suicide after being jilted by her married lover (Gabriele Ferzetti), and is eventually fired from her new job when her hysteria over Rosetta's death interferes with her work. Clelia finally goes back to Rome, and viewers will not blame her a bit. Le Amiche, based on a 1949 article published in La Bella Estate ("Tre Donne Sole" by Cesare Pavese), is perhaps Michelangelo Antonioni's first great film. Juggling 10 characters with great aplomb, Antonioni and co-screenwriters Suso Cecchi D'Amico and Alba De Cespedes have created a rich, interlocking narrative which manages to rise above mere melodrama through careful attention to the ebb and flow of interpersonal relationships and a keen sense of balance. The fine supporting cast includes Valentina Cortese, Yvonne Furneaux, and Franco Fabrizi. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valentina Cortese, Gabriele Ferzetti, (more)
Showing no signs of slowing down in his 70th year, Sacha Guitry served as director and writer of the lavish historical epic Napoleon, and also costarred as Talleyrand. It is now hard to assess the quality of the film, since most American prints are severely edited, and the color photography appallingly washed out. Reviewers in 1955 admired the effort that went into this $1,800,000 production, but complained that the viewer left the film with no deeper understanding of Napoleon Bonaparte than the viewer had had when coming in. Daniel Gelin poses impressively as the young Bonaparte, registering emotion only when things go wrong in his conquest of Europe, while Raymond Pellegrin is somewhat better as the older, more jaded Napoleon (the transition between the two actors is handled in a near-comic fashion). The Revolution is reduced to a few fleeting scenes, while the rest of the film is devoted to political infighting and betrayal. The huge supporting cast includes Michele Morgan as Josephine and Lana Marconi and Dany Robin, respectively, as Napoleon's mistresses Waleska and Desiree. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raymond Pellegrin, Daniel Gélin, (more)
- 1956
Directed by the incredibly prolific Mario Camerini, Suor Letizia was released in English-speaking regions as When Angels Don't Fly and The Awakening. In her first film appearance since The Rose Tattoo, Anna Magnani plays a feisty nun named Sister Letizia. Believing herself above such earthly trivialities as a maternal instinct, Sr. Letizia changes her way of thinking when an abandoned child is placed in her care. Unofficially adopting the boy, the good sister eventually comes to realize that even she cannot provide the care and guidance of a biological mother. Carefully constructed to accommodate all the surefire box-office elements inherent in Camerini's earlier films, Suor Letizia was almost guaranteed to be a hit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Magnani, Eleonora Rossi-Drago, (more)
- 1957
Tous Peuvent Me Tuer (Anyone Can Kill Me) is one of the many "perfect crime" melodramas which glutted the French film industry in the late '50s. Five crooks participate in a holdup, hide the money, then confess to a lesser crime so that they will receive a bare-minimum prison sentence. Once behind bars, however, the conspirators are killed off one by one. As the suspect list narrows, it appears that one of the bad guys has decimated the others in order to claim all the loot for himself. Can things be this cut-and-dried? Not likely. The salability of Tous Peuvent Me Tuer in the U.S. was improved by the star power of third-billed Anouk Aimée. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anouk Aimée, Eleonora Rossi-Drago, (more)
- 1958
This routine story by director Maurice Cloche is about two gangs at war over the possession of a valuable cache of crude diamonds. As the gangs battle it out with each other, a young man is drawn into the conflict by his girlfriend, an aggressive sort of woman in her own way. Before the basically innocent bystander becomes a casualty of the dispute, he falls in love with another woman who manages to lead him away from the conflict. At the same time, the gangs are well on the way to destroying each other. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Pascal, Eleonora Rossi-Drago, (more)
Francois Perier, Peter vanEyck, and Anouk Aimee star in this tense tale of five highly skilled thieves who all pool their resources in hopes of pulling off the perfect heist. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Anna Magnani is a powerful actress who can rise above the sentimentality of this film and still give a heartwarming performance. When a child has been abandoned by his mother and her boyfriend and is placed in her care, a kindly nun finds that her love for the boy may be more powerful than her vows for the church, as she contemplates leaving the sisterhood to become his full-time Mother. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1958
This nonsensical swashbuckler stars Jean Marais as a "lovable rogue" named LaTour. Generally loyal to no one but himself, La Tour swears eternal fidelity to King Louis XIV during a moment of national crisis in France. When he's not dueling for his life or romancing the ladies, our hero is prone to bursting out in song (Ah, this must be the "singing cavalier" alluded to in Singin' in the Rain). Filmed on an epic scale in Yugoslavia, La Tour, Prends Barde! nonetheless cost a lot less than American costume dramas of the period. The film was reissued to U.S. television under a variety of titles in the 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Marais, Cathia Caro, (more)
- 1959
Jean-Louis Trintignant's star was just rising when he took on the role of Carlo in this engrossing wartime coming-of-age story. Carlo is a young man living in his own world and blithely inattentive to the real war that is happening not very far away. This is particularly striking because he is the son of a high-level fascist. The year is 1943 and he has gone to a seaside resort on vacation where he meets the beautiful, older widow Roberta (Eleonora Rossi Drago). Carlo is smitten and in spite of various obstacles, he and Roberta enter into a romantic liaison. Then one day Allied forces land on the coast and Carlo is faced with the realities of war and a reassessment of his life. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eleonora Rossi-Drago, Jean-Louis Trintignant, (more)
- 1959
A puzzling crime case is methodically worked out to a solution in this excellent suspense drama by director (and lead actor) Pietro Germi. Inspector Ingravallo (Germi) is charged with an investigation into the murder of the wife of Remo Banducci (Claudio Gora). The good inspector is only human, and he lets his instincts, as well as his personal feelings about people, guide him in his unraveling of the mystery. This technique makes for a close observation of interpersonal relationships, and they dominate the story. In the end, both the murder mystery and the qualities and characteristics of the people involved in the drama share center stage. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pietro Germi, Claudia Cardinale, (more)
- 1960
Under Ten Flags is a fact-based British maritime epic set during World War II. Allied ships are being victimized by a German surface raider, which sails under friendly flags until moving in for the kill. Since so many nationalities were involved in making this film (both before and behind the cameras), it is difficult at times to determine whose side one is supposed to be on. On screen, the Germans seem the cleverest and most resourceful of all the combatants; at times, one hopes that they'll get away with their high-seas perfidy--especially since the captain is played by charismatic American actor Van Heflin. Under Ten Flags has a minimum of war action, but this didn't prevent an enterprising home-movie firm from excerpting nine minutes' worth of highlights for an 8-millimeter version--which did better business than the original 92 minute feature! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Van Heflin, Charles Laughton, (more)
