No, no, lo scandalo no! Per l’onore di Luciano! Per la
sua felicita!
According to Angela Dalle Vacche, Lyda Gys “… specialised
in positive female roles, playing naïve young women caught in evil webs and
manipulated by family members and suitors…” * in which case this
late-period vehicle certainly fits that bill! Gys was undoubtedly a diva if not
quite of the premier league – Bertini, Borelli and Menichelli – but still a
very popular actor from the classic Diva period through to the late twenties.
Produced by Lombardo Film** in Napoli – Lyda was married to
owner Gustavo Lombardo - this interesting film, directed and written by Eugenio
Perego – allows her to run through her operatic expressions by focusing as so
many true Diva films, on an almost unresolvable moral issue. It’s no
masterpiece by was part of a collaboration between the director and the Lombardos
that led to the highly regarded Trappola (1922) screened at Pordenone in
2017 my first year at Le Giornate!
The film was actually begun in 1921 and suffered production
hell with censors hacking some of the sense and length out of the film. It is a
four-hander plus two children and a couple of birds, possibly three. Leda plays
Giulia, the happily married wife of politician Luciano Quaranta (Alberto A.
Capozzi) with whom she has a young child Mimi. Luciano gives her 100,000 Lira as
he heads off to an important meeting and leaves her young brother, Alfredo (Silvio
Orsini), to look after her and their baby.
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| Oh, Brother! Silvio Orsini |
The following day, business partner Roberto Marelli (Eduardo
Senatra) arrives with a letter instructing Giulia to give the money,
immediately, to a man trying to do business with her husband who has been found
to be dishonest. Unfortunately, when Giulia opens the safe, she finds the
cupboard bare with her daft brother having blown the lot trying to recover
gambling debts.
Buying time with a flimsy excuse, Giulia and Roberto try desperately
to raise the money but no amount of credit is possible and it looks like Giulia
will have to call in a favour with Marelli even though she knows he has strong
feelings for her and that this may compromise her. As it turns out, he acts
first so that when she arrives, he has already paid the debt off. But this has
only led her into his realm and, overcome by that thing that men are overcome
by, the financier has his violent way with her, brother Roberto arriving only
to see the aftermath.
Marelli is ashamed, but Giulia prevents any violence wanting
to avoid a ruinous scandal which would affect her husband’s standing. Ah Giulia…
it’s not so easy to avoid these things in Naples… as a little while later she
discovers that she is pregnant and soon Mimi is joined by a younger sister Marcella.
Roberto pays of Marelli and Giulia, worried that he may exact revenge on her behalf,
goes to Marelli’s house to have a few choice words.
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| There's a superb floral assault from Leda Gys here. |
May you suffer in remorse as much as I have suffered in
anguish!
To be fair to Marelli, he is shown to be ruined by regret
over his sexual violence but this does not stop his growing desire to see his
daughter. Meanwhile Luciano knows nothing and the Quaranta family enjoy the
girl’s childhood. At one point the girl’s pet bird dies and their parents pretend
that it flew off to find a friend, telling the girls that the only way to love
the original bird is to love them both, that way ensuring that they love their
own. It’s one of those foreshadows…
As they say a little further south in Sicily, three can keep
a secret if two are dead and sooner or later Giulia’s going to get stranded
after her car breaks down only to be given a lift by an entirely
co-incidentally passing Mirelli before they plunge over a cliff leaving him
clinging to life in a makeshift hospital and her waking up to find Luciano
there with a lot of questions!
There’s a breathless final section where misunderstanding,
lies and feelings fly red-hot and fast; will the truth win out and forgiveness
take over? If you know Italian films of this period you know that all bets are
off… you’ll have to watch and fine out.
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| Alberto A. Capozzi talks to the birds |
There are good performances all round, even some sympathy
for Mirelli and Roberto who works hard to improve himself. The star is
undoubtedly Gys who is naturalistic within the bounds of convention and doesn’t
actually overplay her expression. In Diva films emotion can be powerful and
fatal, here Lyda extracts the tragedy out of almost normal circumstance…to that extent it's a "post-Diva" film (and on a number of other plot-revealing points!) which addresses external questions about love, trust and family.
Mauro Colombis accompanied with good grace as well, holding
together an occasionally disjointed narrative and working with the mood to give
a very satisfying presentation. Love, it seems, really is all you need.
* In Diva, Defiance and Passion in Early Italian
Cinema, the essential tract on Diva Films!
** In 1904, the Neapolitan Gustavo Lombardo (1885-1951)
founded "Monopolio" films, which would later become "Lombardo
Film", then "Titanus", now the oldest film company in the World.
His son with Gys ran the company as now does his grandson… a remarkable family
film-firm!
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