Il Generale della Rovere (1959) Il generale della Rovere (original title)

Director:

Roberto Rossellini

Writers:

Sergio Amidei (writer)
Diego Fabbri (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

21 November 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

Victorio Bardone, a petty con man, is arrested by the Gestapo and coerced into impersonating a partisan leader in order to expose another resistance organizer.

Plot Keywords:

Resistance | Nazi | Gestapo | Partisan | Con Man

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 12 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Vittorio De Sica	...	Victorio Emanuele Bardone / Grimaldi
Hannes Messemer	...	S.S. Colonel Mueller
Vittorio Caprioli	...	Aristide Bianchelli
Nando Angelini
Herbert Fischer	...	Sergeant
Mary Greco	...	Vera (the madam)
Bernardo Menicacci
Lucia Modugno	...	Partisan girl
Luciano Pigozzi
Kurt Polter	...	German officer
Giuseppe Rosetti	...	Pietro Valeri
Kurt Selge	...	Schrantz
Linda Veras	...	German attendant
Sandra Milo	...	Valeria
Giovanna Ralli	...	Olga
Anne Vernon	...	Clara Fassio
Ester Carloni
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Armando Annuale	...	Bit part (uncredited)
Gianni Baghino	...	Scalise (uncredited)
Baronessa Bazzani	...	Contessa Bianca Maria Della Rovere (uncredited)
Clarissa Corner	...	(uncredited)
Lina De Rossi	...	(uncredited)
Ivo Garrani	...	Partican chief (uncredited)
Franco Interlenghi	...	Antonio Pasquali (uncredited)
Piero Pastore	...	Prisoner (uncredited)
Roberto Rossellini	...	Man in Gestapo office (uncredited)

Directed by
Roberto Rossellini

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Sergio Amidei		writer
Diego Fabbri		writer
Indro Montanelli		novel
Indro Montanelli		screenplay
Roberto Rossellini		writer

Produced by
Moris Ergas	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Renzo Rossellini

Cinematography by
Carlo Carlini

Film Editing by
Cesare Cavagna
Anna Maria Montanari

Production Design by
Piero Zuffi

Art Direction by
Piero Zuffi

Costume Design by
Piero Zuffi

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Tinto Brass	....	first assistant director
Ruggero Deodato	....	assistant director
Renzo Rossellini	....	first assistant director: second unit
Renzo Rossellini	....	second unit director

Production Companies

• Zebra Film
• Société Nouvelle des Établissements Gaumont (SNEG) (co-production)

Distributors

• Continental Distributing (1960) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Connoisseur Video Collection (1988) (USA) (VHS) (for Tamarelle's International Films)
• Criterion Collection, The (2009) (USA) (DVD)
• Divisa Home Video (2011) (Spain) (DVD)
• Les Acacias (????) (France) (theatrical)
• Janus Films (196?) (worldwide) (all media)

Also Known As:

"Il generale della Rovere" - Italy (original title)
"General della Rovere" - USA

Runtime:

132 min | USA:129 min | Italy:138 min (Venice Film Festival)

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

Italian | German | French | Hebrew | English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Not Rated | Italy:16+

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Zebra Film

Trivia:

Director Cameo: ['Roberto Rossellini']Nervous man in the background at Gestapo office.

Quotes:

S.S. Colonel Mueller:Chaplains are not allowed in the political section. I don't trust priests. They're all spies.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

Uneven

Vittorio de Sica stars as a petty gambler and con artist near the end of the Second World War. His gambling losses are so bad that he has to swindle friends for money; oftentimes he does so with the promise of freeing imprisoned loved ones (and sometimes he even succeeds at doing so). One swindle goes wrong, and the victim informs the Nazis of what De Sica is doing. Instead of simply imprisoning him, they make a deal: if in prison he poses as General della Rovere, who was killed in an escape attempt, and root out a certain partisan leader, they will pay him off and ship him to Switzerland. De Sica is no great man, but he is also no spy. But, initially, he does what the Nazis tell him to do. This film should probably be much better than it is, but it just lacks the passion of Rossellini's earlier films. Sure, they were overly melodramatic, but I don't think the way to fix them is flatten out all the emotions of the film. Rossellini did make a nearly perfect film after his strictly neorealistic period in Stromboli, and General della Rovere, a decade later, is a huge step in the wrong direction. There are a few excellent scenes, but nowhere near enough. It helps that it ends so well. It certainly hinders the project that the whole swindling part of the film lasts for almost half the film, at around an hour. De Sica's character isn't very consistent between the two halves, either. Blame that on the script, though, because De Sica is generally great throughout the entire film. Sandra Milo, who would later co-star in Fellini's 8½ and Juliette of the Spirits, has a small role. 6/10.