1930s Italian Movies

The rich banker Rosen of Livorno fear that the Bonapartist will take all his gold, so he is hiding it inside a cuckoo clock.

An American starlet inflames two Italian peasants who forget about their respective fiance's. One of them even thinks of marrying her and begins to plan for the engagement banquet. When the girl decides to live the countryside harmony reigns again.

Rogelia, the orphan of an Asturian miner who died in a work-related accident, marries Máximo, a man as robust as jealous, drunk and violent. But when her husband is jailed, the woman will take advantage to escape with the doctor of the village so as to see the world and perhaps to form a family.

Assunta, a commoner of Naples, is scarred by her lover Michele for jealousy.

Attempting to cover the fault of one of his subordinates, an officer of the Napoleonic army is condemned to death for treason.

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A young engineer with ambitious plans tries and fails to get support from his traditional industrialist father. Only when the industrialist's son is injured in an unsuccessful experiment does the father change his mind.

Piccolo Hotel (aka Small Hotel) uses the titular establishment to weave together a vast tapestry of subplots, a la Grand Hotel. The guests include a domineering mother (Lola Braccini), her petulant daughter (Bianca Doria) and the daughter's gigolo boyfriend (Guido Notari). Also on hand is a worldly vamp (Laura Nucci) who also falls for the boyfriend, and the chronic-gambler son (Andrea Checchi) of the hotel's self-sacrificing landlady (Emma Grammatica). Though the film is set in Budapest, the characters are more Mediterranean than mittel-European. Piccolo Hotel was one of the entries in the Vienna Biennial Film Festival.

After several unsuccessful suicide attempts, Totò finds himself in an animal asylum.

An ex-boxer has trained his own son and leads him on to win the middle-weight championship of Italy. But the boy falls easy prey to a woman of light morals and renounces the hard work of sport to follow her to a winter luxury resort and at a certain moment, offers to marry her but she, not wanting to give up an advantageous connection, turns him down, advising the youth to not change the nature of their relationship. Then, the boy feeling the entire baseness of his situation, returns home to his parents who welcome him back with joy and takes up again a commitment to sport.

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The film portrays the comic adventures of a group of summertime travellers. Produced at the height of the fascist era, Treno popolare was nonetheless free of propaganda, and featured the first film score by the legendary composer Nino Rota.

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A romance between two temperamental singing stars. Highlights include a lengthy selection from Faust, with Gigli making a most impressive Mephistopheles. The plot takes a melodramatic turn towards the climax, with the lives of the characters mirrored in their on-stage behavior. Director Carmine Gallone was something of an expert in the field of filmed opera, as witness his Tosca, Rigoletto and Il Trovatore.

Depictions of the Emperor Nero and the Great Fire of Rome (64). Anachronisms are used for comedy, such as Nero telephoning the fire brigade.

An Italian proprietor of a squalid Djibouti bar collaborated in selling arms to Ethiopians fighting his own country's invasion but after finding his long lost son on the Fascist front he decides to choose patriotism over selfish profit.

A youth and an elderly libertine aristocrat vie for the favors of a beautiful woman, amid the setting of Rapallo.

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A heated sporting rivalry divides Giorgio Roberti and Fausto Renzi, both capable marathon runners. After a defeat the latter contemplates abandoning competitive sports, but is convinced by Silvia Delotti, daughter of the sports organizer of the "Aurora", to return to his father's "stable". The rivalry thus also becomes sentimental between Giorgio, already in love with Silvia, and Fausto.

Adventures of two provincial actors looking for anyway done with something to eat. They are joined by a girl, Lili. They represent a magic number, but all I get are miscues and boos.

It is only the prospect of having a child that eventually draws otherwise strictly urban new wife Suzette to the farm of an Italian working class family. She really doesn't like the country or her in laws.

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Documentary on one of the first editions of the Trofeo Mezzalama, the highest ski mountaineering race in Europe, at more than 4,200 meters above sea level, which takes place on the glaciers of Monte Rosa, from Breuil to Gressoney-La-Trinité, crossing the summits of Castor (4,199 meters) and Nez du Liskamm (4,100 meters). The film recounts the last hours of feverish preparation before the start, the teams preparing for the race linked in ropes, then follows the stages of the competition by following the groups of skiers from a plane. Created in 1933, the Trofeo Mezzalama was contested until 1938, before falling into oblivion during the war. A second version was organized from 1970 to 1973. A third biannual version has been organized since 1997.

Gianni is a poor, young newspaper salesman in Rome. However, during his vacations he poses as Count Max Varaldo, an aristocrat. Once, on a cruise in Naples, he meets Donna Paola, a wealthy snob, and her shy maid Lauretta. After trying to establish a relationship with Donna Paola, Gianni, disappointed, decides to drop his alter ego Max and propose to Lauretta. However, she now believes that he is a Count, which leads to a series of comic misunderstandings.

An Italian blacksmith who emigrated is wounded during the war on the French front, losing his memory. Hospitalized in a German hospital, he recovers it three years later and returns home from Tunisia, happy for the reclamation of the Pontine Marshes and the inauguration of the city of Littoria.

Drama set in the nineteenth century in Sorrento in southern Italy. It is an adaptation of the 1852 novel of the same title by Francesco Mastriani. A young woman named Beatrice loses her sight after witnessing the death of her mother. Unable to see Beatrice is unable to identify her mothers’ killer. The police arrest a man who they believe is the murderer. Did they get the right man or is the killer still lurking in the shadows? Years later a family friend introduces Beatrice to a renowned Doctor who specializes in restoring sight. Will Beatrice regain her sight and identify her mothers’ killer or will someone make sure that she never sees again?

ETTORE FIERAMOSCA was based on a widely-read literary action epic by Massimo D'Azeglio, published in 1833. Translated to the screen in 1938 by the most important director of the Italian fascist period, Alessandro Blasetti, it was intended to boost current patriotic fervor and pride in the Italian nation, and it contributed to a revival of Italian nationalism.

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In the center of Milan, Felicita Colombo successfully manages a delicatessen that has among its customers the best bourgeoisie of the city.

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Aboard the luxurious high-speed express “Freccia d’oro,” a jeweller carrying precious gems is targeted by thieves who take over the train, disabling alarms and barricading themselves in the baggage car. Meanwhile, a bridge ahead has collapsed, and the train is unaware due to the thieves’ isolation of the locomotive. Panic ensues among the passengers. Just as disaster looms, the young engineer sees a glowing cross in the fog, prompting him to stop the train in time. The cross is revealed to be a rosary from his mother, reflecting off the headlight. This divine sign saves everyone, and the thieves are captured.