Il Generale della Rovere *** (1959, Vittorio De Sica, Hannes Messemer, Sandra Milo) – Classic Movie Review 10,271

Roberto Rossellini’s intriguing and intelligent if rather sluggish and overlong (138 minutes) flagwaving 1959 black and white wartime picture Il Generale della Rovere has lots of interesting psychological things to say about the nature of personality.

It is set in Genoa in Northern Italy in 1943. The Nazis catch an Italian conman Emmanuele Bardone (Vittorio De Sica), who is pretending to be a colonel in the Italian army so he can swindle families of people jailed by the Germans. They then force him to play the dead Italian Resistance leader General della Rovere to uncover partisans in a political prison. But he finds that the role he is playing takes him over and he actually becomes a hero of the resistance.

It won Rossellini the Golden Lion award for best film at the Venice film festival in 1959 (tied with The Great War, also 1959) and the screenplay was Oscar nominated for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen (Sergio Amidei, Diego Fabbri, Indro Montanelli). There is a lot of careful quality work involved, but it is De Sica’s ideal performance that comes off best.

Il Generale della Rovere is little screened now, but it deserves a re-view for re-evaluation, and it is now part of the Criterion Collection.

Rossellini and Piero Zuffi also worked on the screenplay, which is based on a novel story by Indro Montanelli, in turn based on a true story. The real-life conman who impersonated Della Rovere was named Bertont, changed to Bertone in the book and Bardone in the film. Much of Bardone’s life, including his birthplace and compulsive gambling, are De Sica’s own.

Also in the cast are Hannes Messemer, Sandra Milo, Giovanna Ralli, Anne Vernon, Vittorio Caprioli, Mary Greco, Franco Interlenghi, Ivo Garrani, Linda Veras, Herbert Fischer, Nando Angelini, Luciano Pigozzi, Lucia Modugno, Kurt Polter, Giuseppe Rosetti, Kurt Selge, Linda Veras and Ester Carloni.

Re-creating the WW2 period, sets were built at Cinecittà studios in Rome and archival footage is used for rear projection. De Sica said the film was shot in 33 days and edited in 10, so it could compete in Venice.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,271

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