Marina Berti Movies
Marina Berti was a popular bilingual Italian starlet whose English skills enabled her to appear in numerous stateside films, including Ben-Hur (1959) and Cleopatra (1963). Her popularity soared in the 1940s and '50s, though she would remain active onscreen through the early '90s. Born in London in 1924, Berti made her uncredited film debut in 1941's La Fuggitiva. Although she would eventually appear in nearly 100 films, her popularity never took off in the U.S. Marina Berti died October 29, 2002, in Rome following an extended illness. She was 78. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide- 1963
In this melodrama, set in German-occupied Italy during WW II, a Yankee spy is concealed in the attic of an underground contact's house. The contact's wife does not want him there as she is having an affair with the German Officer who is looking for him. He remains in the attic, hidden by the woman's son. Trouble ensues when the American is seen by the woman and her lover. He must escape across the slippery rain-soaked tile roof tops. The German troops are in hot pursuit. They are also after the woman who stands accused of sheltering the spy. Her lover, the German officer, realizing that he could lose it all for consorting with a local, shoots and kills the woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rory Calhoun, Marina Berti, (more)
- 1956
A beautiful English model encounters the romantic advances of an Egyptian ruler. She's more interested in a soldier she's met. Meanwhile "His Majesty" is oblivious to the fact that there are more important things going on in his world than the affections of a lovely girl--his subjects are plotting to overthrow him! ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Ratoff, Kay Kendall, (more)
This 1959 version of Lew Wallace's best-selling novel, which had already seen screen versions in 1907 and 1926, went on to win 11 Academy Awards. Adapted by Karl Tunberg and a raft of uncredited writers including Gore Vidal and Maxwell Anderson, the film once more recounts the tale of Jewish prince Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston), who lives in Judea with his family during the time that Jesus Christ was becoming known for his "radical" teachings. Ben-Hur's childhood friend Messala (Stephen Boyd) is now an ambitious Roman tribune; when Ben-Hur refuses to help Messala round up local dissidents on behalf of the emperor, Messala pounces on the first opportunity to exact revenge on his onetime friend. Tried on a trumped-up charge of attempting to kill the provincial governor (whose head was accidentally hit by a falling tile), Ben-Hur is condemned to the Roman galleys, while his mother (Martha Scott) and sister (Cathy O'Donnell) are imprisoned. But during a sea battle, Ben-Hur saves the life of commander Quintus Arrius (Jack Hawkins), who, in gratitude, adopts Ben-Hur as his son and gives him full control over his stable of racing horses. Ben-Hur never gives up trying to find his family or exact revenge on Messala. At crucial junctures in his life, he also crosses the path of Jesus, and each time he benefits from it. The highlight of the film's 212 minutes is its now-legendary chariot race, staged largely by stunt expert Yakima Canutt. Ben-Hur's Oscar haul included Best Picture, Best Director for the legendary William Wyler, Best Actor for Heston, and Best Supporting Actor for Welsh actor Hugh Griffith as an Arab sheik. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, (more)
In 1963, this colossal and opulent $60 million spectacular was epic in every sense of the word -- an epic investment, an epic in the annals of Hollywood gossip, and, ultimately, an epic flop that nearly dragged 20th Century Fox down the Nile along with Cleopatra's barge. Handsomely mounted by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who replaced Rouben Mamoulian as director after six days of shooting), the drama follows the eighteen tumultuous years that led to the founding of the Roman Empire. Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor) meets up with Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison) and plans to lure Caesar to her boudoir in order to forge an alliance with Rome so that she may hold on to her Egyptian empire. When Caesar is stabbed to death in the Roman Senate, Cleopatra is left without an ally, and Egypt is up for grabs. When Roman general Mark Antony (Richard Burton) comes along, she seduces him in order to make him over into her new protector. But, under the charms of Cleopatra, Mark Antony is reduced from a an awesome and dominating general to a sniveling, drunken wimp. At the Battle of Actium, Mark Antony is defeated and Cleopatra withdraws her troops, dooming Mark Antony and his army. With Egypt in peril, Antony and Cleopatra, the doomed lovers, meet each other for the last time, as the enemy forces close in. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, (more)
- 1992
In the salad days of his youth, Aureliano lived and worked in Africa, and the romance and exotic quality of those days remains with him still. These days, he lives a predictable existence, fending off the efforts of his female friend and former lover from those days to infuse some zest into his life. When he is approached by two anxious natives from the Ivory Coast looking for assistance, his stolid existence is shattered. The woman is on the run from the Italian underworld prostitution ring she worked for after stealing their drug stash, and the unsophisticated man is her Senegalese protector, whose family maintains some connections with Aureliano. When the gang kills the Senegalese, the former African's hand is forced into a relationship with the prostitute, and he gradually gains a fresh purpose in life. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Massimo Girotti, Marina Berti, (more)
- 1962
This classic Greek tale of a friendship that overcomes even death makes for an interesting sword-and-sandal saga, with Guy Williams in the role of Damon. An apt choice since Williams is himself an expert swordsman, as partially demonstrated in his role as Zorro on American television (1957-59). Pythias (Don Burnett) has been caught plotting the assassination of King Dionysis I of Syracuse (Arnoldo Foa). Before his execution, Dionysis grants Pythias leave to put his affairs in order because Damon volunteers to stand in his stead if Pythias does not come back to face the executioner. Damon's act is considered foolish. He was safe, why should Pythias come back? But the two are devotees of the Pythagorean mysteries, and their faith in brotherly love goes beyond self-interest. When Pythias does return in the allotted time, King Dionysis is impressed enough to have a change of heart. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Burnett, Guy Williams, (more)
- 1950
The real-life deportation of gangster Lucky Luciano was the inspiration for this romanticized and slightly crackbrained crime drama. Jeff Chandler plays the Luciano counterpart, who once he arrives in Italy renews his criminal activities. Chandler masterminds a black-market racket, capitalizing upon wartime shortages in Europe. He falls in love with a Contessa (Marta Toren), who is the benign patroness of the small village where he lives. Under her influence, Chandler abandons his life of crime, turns his back on the ill-gotten gains that he's already smuggled into Italy, and becomes a pillar of the community. And if you believe that, We have some land in Florida we'd like to show you. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Märta Torén, Jeff Chandler, (more)
- 1976
A beautiful woman (Laura Antonelli) is engaged to one man, but has an affair with both a young nobleman (Terence Stamp) and later his cousin (Marcello Mastroianni). This Italian production, also known as Divina Creatura, appears in both subtitled and dubbed versions. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laura Antonelli, Terence Stamp, (more)
- 1985
Nick Mancuso stars in the made-for-TV Embassy. Cast as an American ambassador stationed in Rome, Mancuso's life is thrown into turmoil by a crucial computer chip. When not trying to keep U.S. defense secrets from falling into the wrong hands, he must juggle the affections of his press-attache-girlfriend, (Mimi Rogers), and his girlfriend's chief rival (Blanche Baker). Embassy was intended as the 2-hour pilot for a weekly series; it didn't sell, but Nick Mancuso's next venture in the TV-pilot field, Stingray, proved successful. Embassy was initially telecast on April 21, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Reliable American character actor Robert Webber is afforded a rare leading role in the Italian Every Man is My Enemy. Webber plays a Mafia "torpedo" with an agenda all his own. While in Marseilles, he plots to pull off a big diamond robbery. Now he must not only avoid being nabbed by the authorities, but also dodge the bullets and knives of his fellow mobsters. Elsa Martinelli and Jean Servais co-star. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1953
Leopoldo Trieste's stage play Cronaca was the basis for the Italian drama Febbre di Vivere (Eager to Live). Though virtually every character in the film is tenuously connected with Italian high society, many of them can be classified as "low lifes." And none is lower than two-bit bookie Massico (Massimo Serato) who breaks at least three female hearts in the course of events. Coasting by on his charm, Massico manages to secure undying loyalty from all his women, even after casting them aside. But when he adds murder to his repertoire, his luck runs out. Marcello Mastrioanni is seen in a surprisingly passive role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Massimo Serato, Marcello Mastroianni, (more)
- 1969
- G
- Add If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium to QueueAdd If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium to top of Queue
A mid-1960s TV documentary special (and a New Yorker cartoon before that) was the inspiration for If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium. The film is a likeable satire of "packaged" European tours, where the nonplused tourists are expected to rush from one landmark to another in a breathless 18 days. Ian McShane stars as the amorous tour guide, with Suzanne Pleshette as the American department store buyer he falls for; their romance ends when Pleshette decides that the supposedly worldly McShane is too immature for her. An all-star cast, including Murray Hamilton, Peggy Cass, Pamela Britton, Marty Ingels, John Cassavetes and Vittorio De Sica, pops up in comic cameo roles. Our favorite bit: an American and German tourist, simultaneously regaling their respective wives with wildly divergent accounts of the same wartime confrontation. If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium was reworked in 1987 as a made-for-TV movie, cleverly title If It's Tuesday, It Still Must be Belgium. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Suzanne Pleshette, Ian McShane, (more)
- 1949
The Italian The Sky is Red (Il Cielo e Rosso) details the romantic adventures of two postwar couples. Despite being confined to a quarantined zone (quarantined for political, rather than health reasons), love finds a way. The neorealistic elements are passable, but what really "sold" this film abroad was its graphic-for-its-times sexual content. The cast is headed by Jacques Sernas and Marina Berti, another step in the right direction box office-wise. One of the young romeos is played by Mischa Auer Jr., son of the famed Russian comic actor. Among the many screenwriters of The Sky is Red is frequent De Sica and Fellini collaborator Cesare Zavattini. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marina Berti, Jacques Sernas, (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)
- 1962
Based on Flora Sandstrom's novel The Midwife of Pont Clery, this lightweight sexual farce involves the effect that Jessica (Angie Dickinson), a voluptuous midwife, has on the small Sicilian town in which she currently resides. Jessica is an American whose intentions may be charitable but whose physical attractions raise the libido of the men in town. Potential moms decide it is better to forego pregnancy by foregoing sex (this is a Catholic town) rather than have Jessica show up to deliver a baby. Meanwhile, the town priest (Maurice Chevalier), in his wisdom, directs Jessica's attention to the handsome widowed Marquis who lives in a charming castle, all alone -- anything to bring normal marital relations back on track. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angie Dickinson, Maurice Chevalier, (more)
- 1986
Based on a true story that happened in 1921, this drama features a frivolous opera company, their relationships with one another, and their rehearsals of Franz Lehar's "Mazurka Blu" just before their theater is bombed. While Greta, the leading lady (Senta Berger), is being romanced by Milan's Chief of Police (Erland Josephson), a right-wing terrorist group that supports Mussolini is planning to bomb the opera's theater and blame it on Communists. Success means that the local government will have a good excuse to give free rein to the fascists and indirectly help Mussolini come to power. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erland Josephson, Senta Berger, (more)
- 1970
- R
Here the director adapts his own novel about Mira (Romy Schneider), a firebrand of a woman, who moves from being a ferocious labor organizer to being the mistress of her town's factory owner (Ugo Tognazzi). Labor negotiations provide a background for their brief but devastating romantic affair. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1962
This is a typical costume drama and adventure story with plenty of fencing, and swash and buckle but not much ingenuity. Based on a story by Anthony Marshall, a swordsman by the name of Thomas Stanwood (Stewart Granger) finds himself fending off a multitude of attackers before he is captured and realizes he was defending himself against the very duke, Don Carlos (Riccardo Garrone), that he is supposed to be helping. The Duke overlooks the mistake and puts Thomas to guard his intended spouse, Orietta Arconti (Sylvia Koscina). She is a cold, arrogant woman who immediately antagonizes Thomas -- until he begins to realize a few things. Orietta's father was killed by the Duke when he took over their city, so how could she really be on the side of Don Carlos? As certain as night follows day, Thomas and Orietta are going to make an unbeatable pair when it comes to righting the wrongs of the past. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stewart Granger, Sylva Koscina, (more)
