Franca Marzi Movies

In this Italian comedy, three unemployed actors are rehearsing for a crime scene in their boarding house unaware that they are being watched by a nosy neighbor who is convinced that they are professional assassins. He offers them money to kill his philandering wife, and the hungry thespians agree to do the deed. Of course, they don't plan on killing anyone. Meanwhile, the wife and her boy friend are cooking up their own plot. Real trouble ensues when all the different conspiracies get mixed up. As result, the husband has a fatal coronary, and to protect themselves, the woman and her lover lure into a sausage factory where they plan to throw the three into a meat grinder. Fortunately, the police arrive at the last minute and arrest the woman and her lover for the murder (even though they didn't really kill him) of her husband. The actors then attempt to resume their careers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Nights of Cabiria opens with Cabiria (Giulietta Masina) and her boyfriend playfully embracing by the seaside -- and then he shoves her into the water and steals her purse. Cabiria is revived by some local boys and runs off by herself, shouting. What follows is a series of similarly humiliating episodes, in which the defiantly positive prostitute Cabiria is hurt, but never broken. She gets picked up by movie star Alberto Lazzati (Amedeo Nazzari, doing a self-parody) and taken to his palatial estate. However, his mistress shows up and Cabiria gets locked in the bathroom all night with the dog. She then joins her fellow prostitutes for a blessing from the Virgin Mary, and ends up getting drunk and wandering into a local show, where the hypnotist invites her to join him on-stage. The audience heckles her, and she toughly reminds them of her independence and that she owns her own house. There she meets Oscar (François Perier), an accountant who romantically pursues her. Despite the warnings of her fellow prostitute friend, Wanda (Franca Marzi), she prepares to sell all her belongings and accept Oscar's proposal of marriage. After being ruthlessly taken advantage of once again, Cabiria walks off alone with a smirk of hope. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, 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

This obscure Italian crime potboiler features a nominal performance from a slumming Boris Karloff as wealthy businessman Don Gaetano, who assists a narcotics detective (Franca Marzi) in rescuing his kidnapped daughter from a drug-smuggling ring based on the island of Ischia. The syndicate's leader is using the girl as a shield to prevent the inspector from getting too close to their operation. Predictable plot twists abound until Gaetano is revealed as the man who masterminded the abduction from the beginning. Karloff, still in a pre-Thriller career lull, would fare considerably better in his next Italian production, I Tre Volti Della Paura, thanks to the deft hand of director Mario Bava. Also known as Monster of the Island. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Few Italian filmmakers turned out lavish costume dramas with as much panache as Riccardo Freda. In Il Figlio D'Artagnan, Piero Palmermini stars as Raul, the son of swashbuckler D'Artagnan of Three Musketeers fame. Unlike his famous father, Raul has no deep abiding love for swordplay, but before long he's fighting side-by-side with his dad against the foes of Cardinal Richelieu (a good guy this time out). D'Artagnan Junior also finds time for romance with several buxom wenches. The screenplay for Il Figlio D'Artagnan is credited to one "Dick Jordan," which sounds suspiciously like one of director Freda's many aliases. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Toto, the brilliant Italian comic actor, frequently appeared in parodies of previous movie hits. Toto le Moko is a lampoon of Jean Gabin's Pepe le Moko, and as such plays best if one is familiar with the Gabin picture. Toto plays the cousin of notorious Pepe le Moko, leader of all illegal activities in the Casbah. When Pepe disappears, Toto is obliged to take his place. Through a combination of a magic potion and sheer dumb luck, Our Hero manages to keep himself alive, and also finds time to dally with several desirable lovelies. But when Pepe returns, there's you-know-what to pay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide