his slipping career by composing clas- sical music; in 1956, he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s per- formance of his premiere symphony, Reflections d’un Comique. In his later years, O’Connor was seen primarily in television commercials as a celeb- rity endorser of products; in the early 1990s, he allied himself with a wor- thy but short-lived plan to dub into English a number of classic fairy tale films from Russia’s Mosfilm Studios, which were to be sold by subscription. Unfortunately, the program fell apart after the first title was completed: Fa- ther Frost—originally Aleksandr Rou’s Moroshka—which O’Connor dubbed with Phyllis Diller and others. Donald O’Connor died of an apparent heart attack in Los Angeles, on September 26, 2003.
Actor–director Vittorio De Sica—
born July 7, 1902 in Sora, Latium— had previously worked with Bava in Pietro Francisci’s Natale al campo 119 and Villa Borghese. Raised in Naples, he became a screen actor as
ALADDIN’s initial meeting with friend Omar (Milton Reid) is not at all friendly.
early as 1918, and rose to the status of matinee idol as his good looks ma- tured. His stardom was assured on the strengths of light comedies, but as he began to direct his own films in the early ’40s, the impact of the second World War aroused a more serious, socially minded dimension in his art, first expressed in the neorealist films Sciuschia/Shoeshine (1946) and Ladri di biciclette/The Bi- cycle Thief (1948). Another of his early acclaimed films, Miraculo a Milano/Miracle in Milan (1951), which he also co-produced and co- authored, was a rare and splendid attempt to infuse neorealism with elements of fantasy—an important signal that the Italian spirit was heal- ing after the war. His 1952 master- piece Umberto D.—the story of an old man who worries what will become of his dog when he dies—is one of
ALADDIN and Omar are taken into custody by the Grand Vizier’s soldiers.
