Mussolini: Ultimo atto (1974)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Carlo Lizzani

Writers:

Fabio Pittorru (idea and historical research)
Fabio Pittorru (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

October 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History | War

Tagline:

The true story of the greatest manhunt of the century!

Plot Keywords:

German Soldier | Nazi Soldier | Escape Attempt | Execution | Revenge

Cast

Rod Steiger	...	Benito Mussolini
Franco Nero	...	Walter Audisio 'Valerio'
Lisa Gastoni	...	Claretta Petacci
Lino Capolicchio	...	Pierluigi Bellini delle Stelle 'Pedro'
Giuseppe Addobbati	...	Raffaele Cadorna
Andrea Aureli
Bruno Corazzari	...	Lt. Fritz Birzer
Rodolfo Dal Pra	...	Rodolfo Graziani (as Rodolfo Dal Pra')
Francesco Di Federico
Manfred Freyberger	...	Otto Kisnat
Marco Guglielmi
Umberto Raho	...	Secret Agent of Fascist Service
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart	...	Jack Donati (as Giacomo Rossi Stuart)
Massimo Sarchielli
Bill Vanders		(as Bill Wanders)

Also Known As:

Mussolini: The Last Four Days
The Last Days of Mussolini
The Last Four Days (USA)
The Last Tyrant

Runtime:

Argentina:125 min | USA:91 min | West Germany:109 min (video)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian | English

Color:

Black and White (partly) | Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Aquila Cinematografica

The last days of Benito Mussolini

Rod Steiger once again showed his ability to play roles of political and historical men. In the past he was Al Capone, Napoleon, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Pontius Pilate, and Mussolini twice (also in "Lion of the Desert" ,1980). At his last minutes he was a kind of Mussolini humble, lost, not knowing what to do once he was arrested. Very good acting also from Henry Fonda playing the role of Milanese Cardinal Schuster, he worries more about Mussolini's fate than of those innocents who may have died during those days. The film showed well how Germans wanted to keep Mussolini and the efforts of the Americans to capture him. The director Lizzani did an excellent work trying to show these last hours of the dictator and his lover, Claretta Petacci (Lisa Gastoni). Very interesting dialogues were shown between the guerrilla fighters and Mussolini. He claimed that only Germans guilty of the war, and that he had very little responsibility on what happened, but the fighters refused all his coward arguments with real facts. Mussolini destroyed Italian democracy, eliminated political parties and unions, and also killed many innocent people. He supported well Hitler although he was a puppet in the hands of the Germans. I do not know whether Mussolini was killed together with his lover in a way it is shown in the film. What is known is that he tried to cross the border disguised as a German soldier in a convoy of trucks retreating toward Innsbruck, Austria. He was recognized and together with Claretta shot in an area closed to Como. Until here the plot must be accepted, but I wonder why Lizzani did not want to show further this history, i.e. that the bodies were hung, head downward, in the Milanese Piazza Loreto in Milan.