Odessa in fiamme

Certainly one of the lesser known corners of film history are the films made under Il Duce during World War II, so Odessa in Flames (Odessa in fiamme), 1942, was my first. Telling the tale of an opera singer who is left behind by her libertine husband when the Bolsheviks sweep through Romania, the film is divided into two acts as the singer tries to recover her son, who was stolen by the godless and particularly brutal Reds, and the husband who has wised up and joined the army. It reaches a climax as the characters all end up in Odessa as the fascist army prepares to take the city from the commies.

This is not great cinema, but director Carmine Gallone (a prolific if completely off the radar journeyman) does manage a degree of tension in a story that was as predictable as it was in the US versions of similar rah-rah films that were being churned out on our side of the pond. Imagine anything from the period with Paul Henreid and you've got the idea.

What is more interesting are the propagandist bits that permeate the story, starting with the reassuring opening that tells us that since Romania was founded by Trajan there should be no questioning Italy's involvement in that theater of war. Even cooler is a scene on the fabled Odessa Steps, although this is about as far from Eisenstein as you can get.