Daily Archives: December 14, 2016

Generale della Rovere
Directed by Roberto Rossellini
Written by Sergio Amidei, Diego Fabbri, Indro Montenelli and Roberto Rossellini from Montenelli’s novel
1959/Italy/France
Zebra Film/Societe Nouvelle de Establissements Gaumont
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Victorio Emanuele Bardone: Do you know what is the cause of all my troubles? Gambling! I always lose! What’s more, I always pay, and I’ve never cheated.[/box]

My YouTube experience with Rossellini’s film was such a disaster that I hesitated to review it.  Despite everything, it had so much merit that I can recommend it and am waiting for an opportunity to see it properly.

It is late in WWII as the Allies are marching northward into Italy.  They have not yet reached Genoa, where the movie takes place.  Victorio Bandone (Vittorio de Sica) is a compulsive gambler, womanizer, and fraud.  As the film begins, he owes a German officer 50,000 lira. He scammed 100,000 lira from a family on the promise that he could help a detained relative but promptly lost the whole amount gambling.  The debt to German is something he must pay and his successive schemes to get the money all fail spectacularly.

The courtly, affable Bardone is given one last chance – a choice between prison and a big pay off with a trip to Switzerland as a bonus.  The Germans have killed Generale della Rovere, the military leader of the resistance, rather than capturing him as intended.  They want to put Bardone in jail to impersonate the general and thus lure the political head of the organization, Fassio, and his comrades there to rescue their leader.  It is an offer Bardone cannot refuse.  When a group of rebels is arrested, the Germans still don’t know which one of them is Fassio, and Bardone must stealthily identify the man.

The free subtitled version of this film on YouTube was unsatisfactory.  There was an iris effect obscuring parts of the frame.  Then the sound went out of synch.  To add insult to injury the video cut off the last five climactic minutes of the film!  I was vaguely able to parse out what happened using my Spanish to decipher the Italian from the original language version.

Despite all that, this was among my favorite Rossellini films thus far.  It turns out De Sica is pretty wonderful on both sides of the camera.  He turns in a moving and nuanced performance.  The feel harkens back to Rome: Open City without all the harrowing torture of that film.  I can recommend it in some suitable format.

Generale Della Rovere was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmISuh4rDWw

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First Man Into Space
Directed by Robert Day
Written by John Croydon and Charles F. Vetter; story by Wyott Ordung
1957/UK
Amalgamated Productions
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Doctor Paul von Essen: The conquest of new worlds always makes demands of human life. And there will always be men who will accept the risk.[/box]

The filmmakers beat Yuri Gagarin by a couple of years in this OK Sci-Fi monster flick.

A military facility in New Mexico is testing the limits of manned flight in a vehicle greatly resembling the Bell X-1 rocket with which Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier.  Cmdr. Charles Prescott commands the mission and his brother Dan is the test pilot.  Dan is a hot shot and would rather push his machine to the max than follow protocol.  He barely survives an encounter with the “Controlability Barrier”.  Chuck blames Dan’s rebellion, in part, on his Italian girlfriend Tia (Marla Landi).

Despite Dan’s unpredictability, the authorities decide to send him up again right away for an even more ambitious mission.  Despite strict orders and briefings, Dan secretly decides he will be the First Man Into Space.  He accomplishes his mission and brings back invaluable information, but at what cost?

This is an odd mix of straight forward space travel adventure with plenty of scientific jargon that morphs into a monster movie.  It borrows heavily from (1955) but is not quite as successful.  Nonetheless, it is a fine example of what serious filmmakers can do with a tiny budget.  As usual with Criterion’s Monsters and Madmen box set, the commentary by Tom Weaver and producer Richard Gordon is the highlight.

Trailer