VITTORIO GASSMAN is the unlikely hero of IL LEONE DI AMALFI, an early Pietro Francisci pepla.
Fabiola by United Artists in 1951—in censored, restructured, and newly narrated form. (The same version was also released in Great Britain, by New Realm Pictures, under the more cum- bersome title Fighting Gladiator and Fabiola.) Quo Vadis not only helped to reestablish a market for this kind of Italian product, but its elaborate sets were left standing at Cinecittà for a time, to be subsequently reused by Ital ian productions l ike Mario Soldati’s O.K. Nerone (1950). Thus began the tradition of popular Italian cinema aping the recent successes from America.
Il leone di Amalfi First released: 1950
B&W, 1.66:1, 90 minutes
Production: Oro Film, Laura Film. Distributor: Oro Film.
È arrivato il cavaliere!
First released: December 6, 1950 B&W, 1.66:1, 92 minutes
Production: ATA (Artisti Tecnici Associati), Excelsa Film. Distributor: Minerva Film.
Mario Bava’s colleague in documen- tary filmmaking, Pietro Francisci, was one of the first directors to stake a claim in this new era of Italian cos- tume epics, beginning with Il leone di Amalfi (“The Lion of Amalfi,” 1950, a.k.a. Il ribelle di Amalfi, “The Rebel of Amalfi”), shot at Safa–Palatino Stu- dios. The film starred Vittorio Gass- man as the son of the leader of the Amalfi republic, imprisoned by his father’s enemy (Carlo Ninchi) since childhood, who with the help of two women conspires to overthrow his jail- ers and return triumphant to his homeland. Still at work on Vita da cani, Bava was unavailable to photo- graph the picture, but he was free by the final week of special effects pho- tography and stepped in to provide his
A COMIC cheesecake shot from È ARRIVATO IL CAVALIERE!
