his most frequent star. During their years of collaboration, knowing of the actor’s financial problems, Bava had recommended his acting services to a number of fellow directors, and it can fairly be said that the Italian phase of his career may have re- sulted in more distinguished star- ring roles than would have been available to an actor of his age at the same time in America. Mitchell al- ways kept a special place in his heart for Bava, whom he considered the most talented of all the world-class direc- tors he worked for. They would meet once again, by surprise, but never again would Bava’s Mitchell camera photograph Cameron Mitchell. “I always hoped we would find an- other great project to do together,” Mitchell said with warmth and re- gret. “Mario and I were always look- ing for the right vehicle, the film that would be our Sistine Chapel, you know? Our Davide. We almost had one at one time; we were close. We were planning a historical thing about Peter the Great. It would have been a big film. You see, the trouble with Bava . . . it wasn’t trouble, re- ally . . . but he wouldn’t leave Italy. He loved Italy, and he wanted only to lavorare in Italia [work in Italy]. I tried to get him to do some things here [in the States], and some other things in South America, or various points around the world, but he wouldn’t budge! ‘I’m-a sorry, Camarone,’ he would tell me, ‘solamente in Italia.’ That was a big hang-up of Mario’s. I suspect that, if he found himself making a film in another country—even with a few Italians around him—he would have felt lost. I don’t think he would have been lost, because he was too good for that, but it stalled what should have been a brilliant career.” Bava’s secretary Rosalba Scavia
agrees with Mitchell’s estimation: “I’d love to have worked with him on an epic. He deserved to be that kind of director, to make that kind of film. He could have been King Vidor, but his modesty and simpatico nature were his downfall. I remember Mario hav- ing a great sense of aesthetics. He was a perfectionist but, most of the time, things were far from perfect.”
