Nanni Loy Movies
Having studied documentary filmmaking at Rome's Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Loy began assisting such directors as Augusto Genina and Luigi Zampa in the early '50s. After making documentaries, he co-directed his first features with Gianni Puccini in 1957, Parola Di Ladro and Il Marito. Admired for his World War II drama Le Quattro Giornate Di Napoli (aka The Four Days of Naples), Loy has worked mostly in television since the late '60s, but has continued helming features such as the comedies Made in Italy and Mi Manda Picone (aka Where's Picone?). ~ All Movie Guide- 1994
This unique Italian pseudo-documentary deftly blends fact with fiction in its portrait of stage, screen, and television actor Alessandro Haber (a.k.a. Antonio Hutter). Haber, considered one of Italy's finest comic actors, has worked with some of the greatest Italian directors of all time including, Bertolucci, Mastroianni, Michele Placido, and Nanni Loy. Film clips and interviews are interspliced throughout the film and the line between the truth and the story behind the comic actor's life is delightfully blurred. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alessandro Haber, Adriana Innocenti, (more)
- 1993
The title of this movie refers to a typical Neapolitan shell-game in which a package of valuable merchandise is switched for something worthless while a brief diversion is used as a cover. This comic anthology is a survival guide to the mad, sometimes joyful anarchy of this ill-managed town, told in ten separate episodes. In one of the funniest, a woman swindled out of her apartment by a phony medium successfully uses his own superstitious belief that there are real mediums somewhere to get her apartment back. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommaso Bianco, Enzo Cannavale, (more)
- 1989
Fortunato Assante (Leo Gullotta) is a merely adequate professional actor who is down on his luck, and has a hefty loan to repay. Why else would he agree to take a job coaching kids at a reformatory to put on a musical? However, once he gets into the job and discovers the keen intelligence and performing skill of the kids, he begins to take an interest in them. He soon learns about the precarious existence many of them have lived out on the streets, and the desperate acts they have committed simply to survive. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leo Gullotta, Aldo Giuffré, (more)
- 1984
The Neapolitan Mafia is one of the players in this comedy thriller about how one man in particular manages to scrape up some cash in Naples at the expense of organized crime. Salvatore (Giancarlo Giannini) sets up shop in a local hospital each day to help patients and visitors find their way around. On one of his normal days, a woman named Lucella Picone (Lina Sastri) asks him to find out if her husband is in the hospital morgue -- he burnt himself to death in court to protest the abominable working conditions at his factory. Suspecting that there is something strange in this request, Salvatore cribs Picone's journal and soon deciphers the ciphers -- she is actually an "insurance" collector for the mob. Deciding to take a little advantage of his good fortune, Salvatore starts making the rounds for Picone, letting everyone know that "Picone sent me." Even he knows his good fortune cannot last forever and it does not take long for Picone to catch on to his scheme -- but how can she retrieve her journal and stop him? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giancarlo Giannini, Lina Sastri, (more)
- 1982
In back-to-back stories that are unrelated to each other except through a few shared stabs at sexual and social morés, director Nanni Loy and the two featured stars (and co-writers) Renato Pozzetto and Nino Manfredi have fun with some "taboo" themes. In the first story, Don Emidio (Pozzetto) is actually a Catholic priest who suffers amnesia while on a train and ends up falling for an attractive Milanese woman (Mara Venier), leading to a joyful and uninhibited celebration of their romantic natures -- at least for several blissful days. In the second story, a widowed father is a brash construction worker whose favorite hobby is bragging about his son's great accomplishments as a soccer player. Dad's world is about to be jarred into another dimension when his macho son finally tells him about his true sexual orientation. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renato Pozzetto, Mara Venier, (more)
This entertaining, light comedy is carried on the shoulders of Nino Manfredi, who plays a gypsy coffee vendor illegally selling expresso on trains. Inventive, creative, and needing to stay several steps ahead of the conductors and other bureaucrats out to shut down his operation, the cafe artist often finds himself hiding out in the most unusual places. He needs the money because his young, asthmatic son needs medical attention. That fact casts no shadow on the comedy though, as the coffee vendor continues to dodge his pursuers toward what must surely be an upbeat ending for all concerned. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nino Manfredi, Adolfo Celi, (more)
- 1976
In this episodic anthology, written and directed by assorted Italian filmmakers, the political and social aspects of Italian life are chronicled. In one satirical episode, The Bomb, a bogus bomb threat at a police headquarters gradually balloons into a real terrorist plot culminating with the bombing of the police commissioner. Other episodes satirize the CIA, Christmas in Naples and pompous public officials. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1976
Three films are gathered here under one title, and the general theme of sexual encounters unites them. In "Superman and Lady Godiva," a man working as a bouncer at an Amsterdam sex show is forced to bring his jealous wife to his workplace. She is hired as a performer and becomes a "star," much to his chagrin. The second episode (title not given) concerns a sexual encounter between an Italian father and his daughter's Swedish friend. In the final episode, "The Elevator," a high-ranking priest (a monsignor) gets stuck in an elevator with a ravishingly beautiful woman on a summer day which, in Italy, means that practically no one is in the city to rescue them. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paolo Villaggio, Nino Manfredi, (more)
- 1974
Giovanni Bonfiglio (Paolo Villaggio) is a sports agent from Italy, and he has signed black basketball ace Ben Ferguson (Sterling St. Jacques) to his team for a lot of money. He receives an education in American racism because Ferguson, a Black Panther, must tie up a few loose ends before he heads off to Italy. One of his accomplishments in this fairly violent film is to quiet a potential race riot. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
This French language film is a typical action/crime film by director Georges Lautner. Serge (Jean Yanne) is a jewel thief, doing time in prison for a robbery. He was turned in by his wife (Mireille Darc), who is now the mistress of the head of the gang. The police let Serge out of prison, hoping that he will lead them to the missing loot. Instead, he runs into trouble with the gang members, who are not entirely happy to see him back, since they set him up to take the fall for them. He is also at risk from the police who are following him, as not all of them are on the up-and-up. Fortunately, his back is being covered by an old prison friend who helps him stay alive. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mireille Darc, Jean Yanne, (more)
- 1971
An Italian engineer who has been working in Sweden returns with his wife to his homeland for a short visit, and he is swiftly detained for some unspecified crime. He moves from horrid prison to even more horrid prison as he awaits trial. His sanity grows ever more shaky in the process, and he still has not learned what the charge is. After even more suffering, he eventually learns the charge against him, just as it is being dropped. This relentless indictment of the Italian prison system is leavened with some humorous moments. The film features comic actor Alberto Sordi, who won a "Best Actor" award for this role at the 1972 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Don't confuse this 1970 Italian/Yugoslav Operation Snafu with the 1962 British comedy-drama of the same name. While the earlier film boasted an engaging story and a boisterous early appearance by Sean Connery, the 1970 film is a witless mess. Even star Peter Falk fails to raise a laugh in his role as an American officer assigned to whip a troop of Algerian soldiers into shape during World War II. Their mission is an all-but-suicidal attack on a Sicilian enemy stronghold. As bad as Falk looks in this thing, his fellow "distinguished" American actors Jason Robards and Martin Landau look worse. The film's official title is Situation Normal, All Fouled Up; after five minutes, everyone in the audience will shout in unison the word for which "Fouled" is the accepted euphemism. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Made in Italy is a multistoried film, set...in Italy, of course. An all-star cast appears in brief seriocomic vignettes about rich and poor, tourist and native. Director Nanni Loy exhibits the realistic and somewhat earthy technique he'd used on his earlier documentaries, with heavy emphasis on ironic punch lines. Filmed in 1965 by a Franco/Italian production team, Made in Italy received the best possible exposure upon its 1967 American release when clips were showcased on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Best bit: The "give to the poor" poster in an impoverished Italian mountain village. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Magnani, Marina Berti, (more)
- 1965
This gang-directed comedy combines the talents of Dino Risi, Franco Rossi, and Luigi Filippo Sonego. In "A Decisive Day," Nino Manfredi plays a shy company employee who wins the heart of a longtime flame only to discover she is married. Franco Rossi directs "Complex Of The Nubian Slave" starring Ugo Tognazzi and Claudie Lange. An Italian bigwig faces social ruin when he discovers his wife once appeared nude in a sword-and-sandal epic. Luigi Filippo directs "Toothsome Guglielmo" starring Alberto Sordi in the final episode. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- 1963
Head of the Family (IL Padre de Famiglia) is a sparse seriocomic effort directed and co-written by Italian documentary filmmaker Nanni Loy. When his wife Leslie Caron announces she is pregnant, Nino Manfredi is at first overjoyed. His delight dwindles into quiet desperation as his little family grows and grows. With so many precocious children scurrying about, the macho Manfredi feels that his position as head of the household is threatened. In a gentle, nonaggressive manner, Head of the Family reveals several universal truths about family solidarity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nino Manfredi, Leslie Caron, (more)
- 1962
This gripping, Oscar-nominated war drama is set in the fall of 1943 during the Nazi occupation of Italy when all the Neapolitan males from five to sixty are forced to work in slave camps. Tired of the cruelty and oppression, the people rise up and launch such a violent melee that they frighten the German invaders out of their city. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Regina Bianchi, Aldo Giuffré, (more)
- 1959
In this comedy, a bungling gang leader and his henchmen attempt to swipe a suitcase full of loot from a soccer pool. The task seems simple enough, but the gang suffers a variety of zany mishaps before the leader finally gets hold of the money. Just as he gets it, he is arrested by the police for jaywalking. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Gassman, Renato Salvatori, (more)
- 1957
In any language, the title of this Italian melodrama (English translation: Honor Among Thieves) is amusingly ironic. Gabrielle Ferzetti stars as a master crook with a sentimental streak. Because he's basically a good guy, Ferzetti decides to use his ill-gotten gains for the benefit of others. Unfortunately, his partners in crime are not so charitably inclined towards their fellow man. Enhancing the American box-office take of this Rome-lensed escapade is the presence of songstress Abbe Lane, who is a textbook example of the word "knockout." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gabriele Ferzetti, Abbe Lane, (more)
- 1954
The title of this Italian musical extravaganza promises "Half a Century of Songs," and that's just what it delivers. What plot there is contrives to encapsulate seven crucial moments in modern Italian history, as represented by the popular songs of each era. Jam-packed with star power, the film offers such Mediterranean luminaries as Silvana Pampini, Renato Rascel, Maria Fiore and Franco Interleghi. Many of the performers play two or three different roles, with amusing results. Aimed directly and almost exclusively at Italian-language markets, Canzoni di Mezzo Secolo was not exactly a smash hit in the U.S. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Silvana Pampanini, Cosetta Greco, (more)
