
Acting
Giovanni Grasso
Born 1888-11-11 · Catania, Italy
Acting credits
9.0A comedy with lots of Neapolitan songs and shots of the Bay of Naples finds Maria Morelli unable to marry her singing sailor/lover, Giacomo because her father, Don Salvatdore Morelli objects. She can't elope because her father has an heart ailment and uses it to hold Maria. Giacomo misunderstands and takes off on a global singing tour.
Melody of Love
1952
7.0Piccolo 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.
Small Hotel
1939
6.8Exiled from the court of Spain, Don Salluste, the chief of police, wants to take revenge on the Queen. One day he meets Ruy Blas, a young student who happens to be a lookalike of Don Cesar, his nephew. Salluste disguises Ruy Blas and presents him as Don Cesar. It doesn't take long before Ruy Blas, intelligent, virtuous and generous as he is becomes popular and the Queen, who has fallen in love with him, appoints him Prime Minister. All seems for the best in the best of worlds but Salluste has not forgotten his revenge, far from that ...
The Queen's Lover
1948
10.0A sweeping, cinematic pseudo-documentary history of human flight, starting with the failed attempt of Icarus, and ending with the aviation triumphs of the fascist regime.
The Conquest of the Air
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8.3At 18, the beautiful and intelligent Kira comes to Petersburg as the Communists consolidate power. She rebuffs a cousin who rises in the Party and may remember the slight. She falls in love with Leo, the son of an aristocrat, who gets into political trouble and never gets out.
We the Living, Part One
1942
6.6When Passaguai family patriarch Giuseppe (Fabrizi) decides to take advantage of a corporate discount to bring his wife (Ninchi) and children to spend a Sunday at the beach of Fiumicino, a series of troubles begins for everyone, in the form of a comic nightmare.
La famiglia Passaguai
1951
7.8Aldo Piscitello, a minor government clerk, is forced in 1934 to join the Fascist party. When the war comes, he finds himself able only to talk ineffectually in secret against Mussolini, even as his own son Giovanni is sent into battle. By the end of the war, Aldo has found the courage to stand up for his beliefs, but by then it is too late.
Difficult Years
1948
6.8Episodic film with flashbacks about the lives of some sick and infirm people travelling on the same train, making a pilgrimage to the shine of Our Lady of Loreto.
The Gates of Heaven
1945
6.5During a police raid at Villa Borghese, the agent, a widower named Antonio Caccavallo, stays to get better acquainted with the young Carolina.
Toto and Carolina
1955
6.4A film made up of four episodes: a jar repairer gets trapped in a vat because of his hunch; a young unmarried mother is forced to beg to buy herself a fan; Rosario Chiarchiaro appears before a law court for casting spells; the discomfort of an overtight jacket gives a wedding witness the strength to persuade the bridegroom's reluctant parents to bless his union.
Of Life and Love
1954
6.5Saverio Luparello is the manager of Sicilian baron Occipinti's estate. The cunning greedy man intentionally lets the land turn into a wasteland, hoping that his employer, discouraged by its low returns, will sell his earth to him for next to nothing. His plans are thwarted by a share cropper, Diego Costa, who farms his lot zealously and to good results.
The Fighting Men
1950
6.8A Sicilian professor who moves to Rome gets lost in the maze of Roman ministries and gives in to corruption.
Easy Years
1953
7.0No synopsis available yet.
Il principe ribelle
1950
NRNo synopsis available yet.
La figlia del peccato
1949
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Rondini in volo
1949
9.0In a village, rumours spread that a treasure is hidden nearby. To finance the search, a farmer sells a 14th-century painting of the Madonna, leaving it with a master restorer. The farmer's daughter, who felt a particular veneration for the sacred image, goes to the restorer's workshop to see the painting of the Madonna again and falls asleep in front of it. While the girl is asleep, the restorer begins to paint her portrait, which he will title "Sleeping Girl." In the end, the girl and the painter will marry and be able to keep the painting with them.
Ragazza che dorme
1941
8.5After having been captured in a Crimea during a failed attempt to flee overseas, Leo returns in Petersburg for Kira.
We the Living, Part Two
1942
6.0The story of the most infamous bandit in Romagna, who robbed from the rich to give to the poor.
Il passatore
1947
5.9The explorer Smith leaves with Laura, a beautiful but naive girl, in search of Professor Berti, who mysteriously disappeared in Africa in the midst of one of his researches.
Two Hearts Against the Beast
1943
8.5In a small provincial Italian town, a fifteen-year-old boy meets and falls in love with a girl.
The Age of Indiscretion
1953
6.3The daughter of Signor Carloni is about to take her first communion. A problem arises when the dressmaker spends too much time working on the girl's communion frock.
First Communion
1950
6.0No synopsis available yet.
Immortal Melodies
1952
6.5Back from the war, a man discovers that his daughter has died and his wife has left their house. He searches for the girlfriend of a fellow soldier and falls for her.
Gli innocenti pagano
1952
6.1A disguised thief talks himself into a countryside class fight immediately after WWII.
Welcome Reverend!
1950