| Il Vedovo | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Dino Risi |
| Written by | Rodolfo Sonego Fabio Carpi Sandro Continenza Dino Verde Dino Risi |
| Starring | Alberto Sordi Franca Valeri |
| Cinematography | Luciano Trasatti |
| Edited by | Alberto Gallitti |
| Music by | Armando Trovajoli |
Release date |
|
Running time | 100 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
Il Vedovo (The Widower) is a 1959 Italian comedy film directed by Dino Risi.
Alberto Nardi (Alberto Sordi) is a Roman businessman who fancies himself a man of great capabilities, but whose factory (producing lifts and elevators) teeters perennially on the brink of catastrophe.
Alberto is married to a rich and successful businesswoman from Milan, Elvira Almiraghi (Franca Valeri) who has a no-nonsense attitude and barely tolerates the attempts of her husband to keep his factory afloat with her money.
Alberto tries to "keep up" with his wife and her rich and successful friends but he only manages to ridicule himself. Amused by his antics Elvira publicly treats her husband as a silly clown, confident that he'll never leave her in the hope of profiting from her fortune.
One day a train on which Elvira was supposed to be traveling (to pay visit to her old mother) suffers a horrible accident falling off a bridge and no survivors are reported.
Alberto is overjoyed and in a veritable ecstatic rush plans to liquidate most of Elvira's assets, brings his mistress in her country villa and starts dreaming of a bright future only to be frustrated when Elvira appears alive and well: a last-minute phone call from his own accountant and handyman (Marquis Stucchi) prevented her from boarding the doomed train.
Frustration and anger throw Alberto in a nervous breakdown from which he emerges with a diabolic plan: to sabotage the elevator in the city attic he shares with Elvira to have her killed and inherit her fortune for good.
The German engineer working in his factory agrees with Nardi's plan and with the help of unlikely accomplices like Marquis Stucchi and his own uncle (who acts as Alberto's chauffeur) the murderous project is set in motion, with an unintended and tragicomical result. The movie is a splendid example of the commedia all'italiana which Risi directs on an unusually black register where Sordi depicts an outrageously sleazy character (arrogant to his subjects, megalomaniac, a bigoted unrepentant fascist who yet longs for recognition from the businessmen who envies). It is also a period piece, showing the contradictions and miseries lying behind Italy's postwar economic miracle.
When Il Vedovo was first released in Italy in 1959, it was subject to review by the Committee for Theatrical Review of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. Before being screened publicly, the Committee recommended the removal of the following: 1) Father Agostino, who took part in the funeral as a priest, is shown sipping a glass of wine; 2) Elvira’s line “She is a fool, an Anita Garibaldi type of fool… but instead of a hero she found my husband.”
The reason for the restriction, cited in the official documents, is because the aforementioned scene was considered immoral and the line running against national reputation and decency.
The official document number is N° 3036; it was signed on 17 Nov 1959 by Minister Domenico Magrì.
A remake entitled Wannabe Widowed , starring Luciana Littizzetto and Fabio De Luigi, was released in 2013. [1]
Alberto Sordi was an Italian actor, comedian, director, singer, and screenwriter.
Mario Alberto Ettore Monicelli was an Italian film director and screenwriter, one of the masters of the commedia all'italiana. He was nominated six times for an Oscar, and received the Golden Lion for his career.
Elvira is a female given name. First recorded in medieval Spain, it is likely of Germanic (Gothic) origin.
A Hero of Our Times is a 1955 Italian comedy film directed by Mario Monicelli and starring Alberto Sordi. In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."
Miss Italia is a beauty pageant awarding prizes every year to young, female contestants from Italy. Since the first edition of the contest, in 1939, many of the contestants have gone on to notable careers in television and film.
Enzo Petito was an Italian film and stage character actor. A theatre actor under Eduardo De Filippo in the 1950s in the Teatro San Ferdinando of Naples, with whom he was professionally closely associated, Petito also appeared in several of his films, often co-starring Eduardo or/and brother, Peppino De Filippo, brothers who are considered to be amongst the greatest Italian actors of the 20th century. Petito played minor roles in some memorable commedia all'Italiana movies directed by the likes of Dino Risi and Mario Monicelli in the late 1950s and early 1960s, often appearing alongside actors such as Nino Manfredi, Alberto Sordi, Peppino De Filippo, Anna Maria Ferrero, and Totò.
Livio Lorenzon was an Italian actor who was mainly active during the 1950s and 1960s.
Luigi Comencini was an Italian film director. Together with Dino Risi, Ettore Scola and Mario Monicelli, he was considered among the masters of the "commedia all'italiana" genre.
Dino Risi was an Italian film director. With Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Nanni Loy and Ettore Scola, he was one of the masters of commedia all'italiana.
Commedia all'italiana, or Italian-style comedy, is an Italian film genre born in Italy in the 1950s and developed in the 1960s and 1970s. It is widely considered to have started with Mario Monicelli's Big Deal on Madonna Street in 1958, and derives its name from the title of Pietro Germi's Divorce Italian Style (1961). According to most of the critics, La Terrazza (1980) by Ettore Scola is the last work considered part of the commedia all'italiana.
Furio Scarpelli, also called Scarpelli, was an Italian screenwriter, famous for his collaboration on numerous commedia all'italiana films with Agenore Incrocci, forming the duo Age & Scarpelli.
The Sign of Venus is a 1955 Italian comedy film directed by Dino Risi and starring Sophia Loren. It was entered into the 1955 Cannes Film Festival.
Alma Franca Maria Norsa, known professionally as Franca Valeri, was an Italian actress, playwright, screenwriter, author, and theatre director.
Rodolfo Sonego was an Italian screenwriter.
Crimen is a 1960 Italian whodunit-comedy movie by Mario Camerini.
The Moralist is a 1959 Italian comedy film directed by Giorgio Bianchi. Starring Alberto Sordi and Vittorio de Sica, it satirises both the upholders of traditional sexual morality and the exploiters selling sex in a willing market.
The Letters Page is a 1955 Italian comedy film directed by Steno, starring Alberto Sordi. Actually the film's full title is Piccola posta ovvero: cercasi vecchia con dote. Co-writer Lucio Fulci has a cameo appearance in the film. Cameraman Delli Colli's wife (Alexandra) years later wound up co-starring in one of Fulci's later slasher films, The New York Ripper (1982).
Allow Me, Daddy! is a 1956 Italian comedy film directed by Mario Bonnard.
Count Max is a 1957 Italian-Spanish comedy film directed by Giorgio Bianchi and starring Alberto Sordi, Vittorio De Sica and Anne Vernon. It is a remake of the 1937 film Il signor Max in which De Sica had played the title role. This film was itself remade in 1991.
Wannabe Widowed is a 2013 black comedy film directed by Massimo Venier.
 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2021) |
