Kurt Polter Movies
- 1961
In this WW II drama, six soldiers end up separated from their units behind enemy lines in Italy. As they make their way back to safety, they pick up a wandering fellow. The man is a Nazi spy assigned to assassinate an important resistance leader. Soon the soldiers begin to suffer mysterious, fatal mishaps. Still they continue on until the remaining four and their conniving companion make it to the underground camp. There the Nazi captures the leader. Fortunately, the remaining soldiers stop him and he ends up running back towards the German lines. Unfortunately, his compatriots mistake him for the enemy and shoot him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alex Nicol, Frank Latimore, (more)
- 1960
Also known as The Passionate Thief, this fast-paced crime comedy stars Anna Magnani as the fly in the ointment for a pair of disreputable types. Pickpockets Toto and Ben Gazzara don't want Magnani around while they ply their trade, but she manages to foul up their plans by falling in love with their "pigeon", American tourist Fred Clark. Gazzara briefly rids himself of Magnani by pinning a robbery rap on her. Upon her release from jail, she is reunited with Toto, who has loved her all along. Since it is established early on that Magnani is a movie extra and Toto an out-of-work actor, Risate di Giola gets away with a few jibes at the Italian film industry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
With a deft guiding hand, director Roberto Rossellini brings out the depths in this study of a man's transformation during the German occupation of Milan. Based on a novel by Indro Montanelli, the story is true. Colonel Mueller (Hannes Messemer) and his cohorts have decided to plant a spy in the Milan prison. They choose a petty thief from the streets who earns his living plying the black-market trade and assign him to the task. He is thrown in jail under the false identity of General della Rovere (Vittorio De Sica) in order to bring the Italian resistance fighters among the prisoners, out into the open. As the fake general slowly makes friends with these men, he becomes a leader of sorts, and this transformation gets him thinking in a different way about himself. This well-wrought drama was given the "Best Foreign Film" award in 1960 by the New York Film Critics, and it won the Golden Lion at the 1959 Venice Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio De Sica, Hannes Messemer, (more)
