Heaven Over the Marshes

Heaven Over the Marshes 1949

5.40

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.

1949

Totò nella fossa dei leoni

Totò nella fossa dei leoni 1943

5.80

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.

1943

The Siege of the Alcazar

The Siege of the Alcazar 1940

5.70

Set during the Spanish civil war, the story of a commander of a fort Alcazar in Toledo, faithful to general Franco.

1940

Bengasi

Bengasi 1942

5.50

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.

1942

Carmen and the Reds

Carmen and the Reds 1939

5.80

Javier Navarro, a Falangist, is ordered to infiltrate Republican Madrid to deliver a message to a member of the Fifth Column.

1939

Nebbie sul mare

Nebbie sul mare 1944

1

A woman struggles to make a living after her husband is mistakenly presumed dead.

1944