Vittorio Duse Movies
There's nothing more terrifying than a Beast With a Gun, and when psychotic criminal Nanni Vitali (Helmut Berger) and three violent thugs stage a jailbreak, the streets will run red with blood in the final film from notorious director Sergio Grieco. Taking to the pavement in a horrific frenzy of rape, robbery, and revenge, Vitali seals his own grim fate when, in brutalizing a beautiful young woman, he catches the attention of a determined cop (Richard Harrison) bent on bringing the murderous madman to justice. As his relentless slide into darkness speeds to a furious race against death, Vitali seems determined to avoid going back into his cage even if it means going down in a hail of bullets and gunsmoke. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helmut Berger, Marisa Mell, (more)
- 1950
Actor Aldo Fabrizi did double duty as star and director of the Italian seriocomedy Benevuto, Reverendo! Fabrizi plays a ne'er-do-well who robs a church collection box. To avoid detection, he dons the robes of a priest and slips out right under the parishioners' noses. He escapes to another village, where the locals assume that he's the new priest. Forced to keep up the masquerade, Fabrizi ends up taking his clerical responsibilities very seriously. Fabrizi co-scripted Benvenuto, Revendo! with Piero Tellini. The film was distributed worldwide by 20th Century-Fox. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lianella Carell, Giovanni Grasso, Jr., (more)
- 1947
Set amongst the Italian peasantry of WW2, Caccia Tragica (Tragic Chase) is set in motino when a truck loaded with money targetted for farming projects is stolen by bandits. The local villagers set aside their petty political and personal differences, banding together to capture the outlaws and recover the loot. The story takes a romantic detour by concentrating on the romance between two young people caught in the middle between the pursuers and the pursued. At the time of its release, Caccia Tragica was perceived as a Communist tract (it was produced by the left-leaning National Association of Italian Partisans). This didn't prevent the film from winning an award at the 1947 Venice Film Festival, quite a coup for first-time director Giueseppe De Santis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrea Checchi, Massimo Girotti, (more)
- 1970
This three-part social satire lampoons the church, television, big business and universities plagued by campus unrest. Riccardo (Vittorio Gassman) is a rebel who causes confusion on campus and at a television station. Part two finds industrial magnate Cavazza (Michel Simon) hounding his subordinate Franco (Nino Manfredi) when the two travel to New York. Franco abandons his boss on Fifth Avenue, where he is arrested for using a phone booth as a toilet. Cavazza gets revenge when both are back in Italy. In part three, Don Giuseppe (Alberto Sordi) is a priest who defends himself against allegations of an illicit affair with a local cashier. After an audience with the bishop, the once-quiet priest demands a car, a wife, and another flock to lead. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Gassman, Nino Manfredi, (more)
Previously filmed in 1935 with Ann Harding, Enchanted April, a romantic novel by Elizabeth, was remade in 1992. The first film skips along superficially at 66 minutes: the second, directed by the always intriguing Mike Newell, runs 101 minutes, allowing for richer characterizations and a bottomless reserve of brilliant dialogue. Two cloistered, married English women (Josie Lawrence, Miranda Richardson) impulsively rent an Italian villa and embark upon a vacation without their spouses. They are joined by two other ladies: the high-flown aging widow Joan Plowright, and elegant upper-crust beauty Polly Walker) whom they've never met. Under the spell of an exotic new location, the foursome are in for quite a few life-altering experiences, many of them amusing, and not a few very surprising. Impeccably accurate in its recreation of European manners and mores in the 1920s, Enchanted April is sheer bliss from fade-in to fade-out. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miranda Richardson, Joan Plowright, (more)
The grim, drab life of a man who labors in a Po Valley sugar refinery in northern Italy provides the center of this black-and-white drama from Michelangelo Antonioni. The worker lives with a married woman and their young daughter. One day, the woman learns that her legal spouse died. The refinery worker immediately proposes, but she spurns him in favor of another. Deeply depressed, the laborer begins to drift aimlessly across the northern wasteland with his daughter in tow. Along the way, he meets many people, including a woman from his past. Despite his many low-key adventures, he is unable to forget his daughter's mother and so returns to find that she lives in a new home with a new child. The story comes to its climax during a demonstration protesting the building of a U.S. airfield where the refinery stands. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, (more)
- 1949
Originally Il Sole Sorge Ancora, Outcry is a neorealist tribute to the Italian resistance fighters of World War II. The scene is the tiny village of Lombardy, just outside Milan. The villagers have suffered four years of humiliation and exploitation at the hands of the fascists. But when a priest and a communist hostage are executed by pro-Nazi troops, the townsfolk join the resistance in revolting against their oppressors. Woven throughout this basic storyline are the exploits of Army deserter Vittorio Duse, who juggles with the affections of the daughter (Lea Padovani) of the partisan leader and a woman of wealth (Elli Parvo). Some observers have suggested that Outcry director Aldo Vergano might have become the pre-eminent Italian neorealist director had his career not been curtailed by a prison term; others have noted that Vergano's films, while spirited and sincere, pale in comparison to the more famous efforts of DeSica and Rosselini. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lea Padovani, Elli Parvo, (more)
- 1993
Luca (Stefano Abbati) was a political activist, sure. He fought corruption with the best of them, and worked with other who did. But now he has a decent life as a deejay at a radio station, and a girlfriend who doesn't ask too much of him. Why should he go along with his friend Giovanni (Alberto DiStasio) when he asks him to help with the production of a documentary on the terrorism of the 1970s? For one thing, he hasn't seen his parents and some of the old crowd for years, and wonders how they've been doing. For another, maybe it's time to reassess his decision. Soon enough, in this combination drama and thriller, he rediscovers why he got out of the game. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stefano Abbati, Alberto di Stasio, (more)
- 1996
Set in 18th-century Italy and is somewhat based on the true story of priest Achille Ropa Sanuti, who was persecuted by the Church for dabbling in the black arts, The Arcane Enchanter is a surprisingly old-fashioned, highly atmospheric horror film. Young priest in training, Giacomo commits a minor sin in seminary school and is forced to flee from vengeful church authorities. It is a spooky old woman who offers him deliverance by sending him to become the newest secretary to the enigmatic Arcane Enchanter, a strange fellow who has been banished to a lonely tower deep in the wilderness. Giacomo's predecessor Nerio was apparently involved with Satan and recently died. The Enchanter, while not a devil worshipper, also dabbles in wizardry, something that Giacomo gradually comes to accept. Both the Enchanter and his new scribe are forced to team up when the evil Nerio's ghost rises up to threaten their souls. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1967
The Stranger is a literal (but still very cinematic) adaptation of the novel by Albert Camus. Marcello Mastrioanni stars as Meursault, a man who feels utterly isolated from everyone and everything around him. This alienation results in sudden, inexplicable bursts of violence, culminating in murder. The subsequent trial of Meursault manages to convey the oppressive heat of its Algerian setting with director Luchino Visconti's usual veneer of elegant decadence. Though set in the 1930s, the sensibilities of the film were very much attuned to the 1960s: the problem was that Camus' sentiments had been adopted by so many other filmmakers of the period that The Stranger seemed rather commonplace. The film was originally released in Italy as Lo Staniero. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Anna Karina, (more)
Often considered one of the first examples of Italian neorealism, Luchino Visconti's first film was this adaptation of James M. Cain's steamy novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, which would also be made twice in the U.S., first in 1946 with Lana Turner and John Garfield and then in 1981 with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange. Massimo Girotti stars as a drifter named Gino, who gets a job at a provincial inn. The handsome wanderer attempts to resist the advances of Giovanna (Clara Calamai), the estranged wife of nasty innkeeper Bragana (Juan de Landa), but he eventually gives in. Gino then allows her to talk him into killing Bragana to get the insurance money, with predictable results. Although the melodramatic story is a far cry from the post-war social statements of such later neorealist classics as Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City (1945) and Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves (1948), the movie began to feature some of neorealism's defining characteristics: above all, an emphasis on outdoor shooting and natural light and a relentless focus on the lives of the poor. Ossessione caused a sensation not just because of its lurid subject matter but also because Visconti's realist style makes you practically feel the heat and dirt and sweat of the film's environment. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clara Calamai, Massimo Girotti, (more)
- 1984
Sophia Loren plays an Italian cab driver whose 12-year-old son (played by her real-life son Edoardo Ponti) is blinded in an accident. Lacking the funds necessary for her son's operation, Sophia goes the Buona Sera Mrs. Campbell route by scouring the Italian countryside looking for her former lovers. By claiming that each man is the father of her son, Ms. Loren is able to build up a sizeable bank account. True love rears its head when Sophia hits upon her American ex-lover Daniel J. Travanti, an embittered recluse who lives near Mont Blanc, on the French/Italian border. In addition to Edoardo Ponti, several other members of Sophia's family pop up as actors and on the production staff of Aurora; in addition, Ricky Tognazzi, son of Italian film star Ugo Tognazzi, is featured in the cast. Originally titled Aurora by Night, this US/Italian coproduction premiered on NBC TV in October of 1984, then was released theatrically in Europe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- PG
The Queen of Hearts is an essentially Italian story given full and proper treatment by a virtually all-British crew. Anita Zagaria plays a lovely Italian lass, consigned to an arranged marriage with a wealthy Sicilian man. She balks at the altar and runs off, while the jilted bridegroom swears revenge. She marries another Italian (Joseph Long), and together they set up the quaint "Lucky Cafe" in the middle of London. Though the family vendetta that results from this union has its unfortunate consequences, there are quite a few laughs along the way as well. The Queen of Hearts was directed by Jon Amiel, best known for his handling of the quirky TV serial The Singing Detective. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Duse, Joseph Long, (more)
After a break of more than 15 years, director Francis Ford Coppola and writer Mario Puzo returned to the well for this third and final story of the fictional Corleone crime family. Two decades have passed, and crime kingpin Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), now divorced from his wife Kay (Diane Keaton), has nearly succeeded in keeping his promise that his family would one day be "completely legitimate." A philanthropist devoted to public service, Michael is in the news as the recipient of a special award from the Pope for his good works, a controversial move given his checkered past. Determined to buy redemption, Michael and his lawyer B.J. (George Hamilton) are working on a complicated but legal deal to bail the Vatican out of looming financial troubles that will ultimately reap billions and put Michael on the world stage as a major financial player. However, trouble looms in several forms: The press is hostile to his intentions. Michael is in failing health and suffers a mild diabetic stroke. Stylish mob underling Joey Zaza (Joe Mantegna) is muscling into the Corleone turf. "The Commission" of Mafia families, represented by patriarch Altobello (Eli Wallach) doesn't want to let their cash cow Corleone out of the Mafia, though he has made a generous financial offer in exchange for his release from la cosa nostra. And then there's Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia), the illegitimate and equally temperamental son of Michael's long-dead brother Sonny. Vincent desperately wants in to the family (both literally and figuratively), and at the urging of his sister Connie (Talia Shire), Michael welcomes the young man and allows him to adopt the Corleone name. However, a flirtatious attraction between Vincent and his cousin, Michael's naïve daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola) develops, and threatens to develop into a full-fledged romance and undo the godfather's future plans. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, (more)
- 1962
Three novice directors went in together to write and direct this routine drama about the Mafia in Sicily. Salvatore (Gian Maria Volonte) lives in a rural environment on the island, and when he becomes fed up with Mafia tactics, he swings into action. First he convinces the farmers and workers that they can band together, and then he convinces them to go on strike against their exploitative employers. The results bring tragedy in their wake, but the beginnings of a unified stance against the mobsters takes hold. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gian Maria Volontè, Didi Perego, (more)
