Lieutenant Mario Ludovici, an army officer, gets himself transferred to a Libyan post when his romance with society girl Cristiana goes on the rocks. Ludovici is looked upon as a weakling by Captain Santelia, the hard-boiled commander of the troops, but after a bitter campaign against a rebel tribe Ludovici proves his true worth and returns as commander when Santelia is mortally wounded. Cristiana arrives and tries to entice him to return to Rome, but he decides to stay in Africa with the army.
Category: War
Beautifully photographed and lyrically written, this largely factual account of Mussolini’s disastrous invasion of Russia during World War II tells the story of an Italian regiment through the eyes of a farmer from Emilia, a plumber from Rome, a miner from Puglia and a colonel.
In this war drama blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, the working class and the bourgeoisie of 19th century Paris are interviewed and covered on television, before and during a tragic workers’ class revolt.
Prostitutes from Athens are transported by truck for the pleasure of the occupying Italian Army in this World War II drama. The 15 women are driven by a young lieutenant who gives a ride to a fascist major. Tension mounts between the two soldiers as the truck is attacked, and some of the women are killed. Love blossoms between one of the prostitutes and the lieutenant, and he encourages her to return home knowing he will never see her again.
Having previously portrayed Adolf Hitler in 1951’s The Desert Fox, Luther Adler once more dons the postage-stamp moustache of Der Fuhrer in The Magic Face. This time, however, Adler essays a dual role, playing both Hitler and a famed theatrical impersonator known as Janus the Great. While performing in Vienna, Janus attracts the attention of Hitler, who makes a play for Janus’ wife Vera. When Janus protests, he is beaten and thrown into prison by the gestapo. Janus escapes and vows to destroy Hitler and to that end poses as the German leader, the better to bollix up the Nazi war plans.
Jan Kadar plays a Czech partisan fighter in the waning days of the war. Just as peace is declared, Kadar is shot in the spine and sent to the hospital emergency ward. As he fades in and out of consciousness, he recalls the events that led to his participation in the underground.
Albin Skoda plays Hitler, who wanders in and out of delirium as his Third Reich crumbles. He is surrounded by reams of existential dialogue from his generals and associates, courtesy of screenwriter Erich Maria Remarque, who based his script on Judge Michael A. Musmanno’s book “Ten Days to Die”. Oscar Werner costars as a fictional “good” Nazi officer who acts as the film’s voice of reason.
During World War II, Diatta is a Senegalese student serving as a sergeant as his country fights alongside the French, even though that same nation raided his village and killed much of his family years earlier. Then, after finishing their duty, Diatta and fellow soldiers are interned at a French camp in Dakar, presumably to be paid for their services. However, their stay is long and the treatment brutal, causing the worldly Diatta to take action against his oppressive captors.