The Siege of the Alcazar 1940
Set during the Spanish civil war, the story of a commander of a fort Alcazar in Toledo, faithful to general Franco.
Set during the Spanish civil war, the story of a commander of a fort Alcazar in Toledo, faithful to general Franco.
The explorer Smith leaves with Laura, a beautiful but naive girl, in search of Professor Berti, who mysteriously disappeared in Africa in the midst of one of his researches.
The film is set in 1941 during the Second World War, when the city of Benghazi in Italian-ruled Libya was occupied by British forces. Italian inhabitants of Benghazi work to resist the British and discover their military plans. One man, Captain Enrico Berti, appears to be collaborating with the British but is in fact working undercover for Italian intelligence. The film ends with the city being recaptured by Italian troops and their Nazi German allies.
Unlike most Italian films of the 1940s, Augusto Genina's Cielo Sulla Palude opened in Venice rather than Rome. The film's American title was Heaven Over the Marshes, and indeed most of the story is set in the disease-ridden Pontine Marshes on the outskirts of Rome. This was the home of Maria Goretti, a pious young girl who was murdered by her would-be seducer. For reasons elucidated in the course of the film, Maria's short time on earth made her worthy of Sainthood, which was actually bestowed upon her shortly after the release of this film. Maria Goretti is well-played by Ines Orsini. Cielo Sulla Palude served as the comeback feature for director Augusto Genina, whose previous pro-fascist films had caused him to be blacklisted after WW II.
Javier Navarro, a Falangist, is ordered to infiltrate Republican Madrid to deliver a message to a member of the Fifth Column.
A woman struggles to make a living after her husband is mistakenly presumed dead.