''Le salamandre'' () is a 1969 Italian film directed by

Alberto Cavallone Alberto Cavallone (28 August 1938 – 12 November 1997) was an Italian people, Italian film director and screenwriter. He was born in Milan, Italy. Cavallone's films are anti-conventional and often contain a mixture of graphic violence, surreal ...

. It gained a great commercial success and launched the brief careers of the two main actresses,

Erna Schürer Erna Schürer (born 18 August 1942) is an Italian actress, model and television hostess, sometimes credited as Erna Scheurer or Erna Schuler. Life and career Born in Naples as Emma Costantino, Schürer moved to Milan where began a career as gla ...

and

Beryl Cunningham Beryl Cunningham (8 August 1946 – 11 December 2020) was a Jamaican actress and model, mainly active in Italian cinema. Life and career Born in Montego Bay, Jamaica, the daughter of a university professor, after the high school graduation C ...

Cast

as Ursula *

as Uta *

Antonio Casale Antonio Casale (17 May 1932 – 4 February 2017) was an Italian film actor of the 1960s and 1970s who appeared in mostly Spaghetti Western Italian films between 1965 and 1976. Although his later roles were more prominent, Casale is probably mo ...

as Dr. Henry Duval (Credited as Anthony Vernon)

Production

Cavallone originally developed the script for ''La salamandre'' with Sergio Lentati which originally contained more political material. director

, relocated to Rome where he worked on television commercials and writing scripts for directors like

Duccio Tessari Duccio Tessari (11 October 1926 – 6 September 1994) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor, considered one of the fathers of Spaghetti Westerns. Born in Genoa, Tessari started in the fifties as documentarist and as screenwriter ...

and Nino Zanchin. The film that was shot focused more on erotic content. The film developed was a cheaper production of 28 million

Italian lire The lira ( , ; : lire, , ) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually fo ...

from first time producer Carlo Maietto. The film was shot in Northern Africa with interior scenes shot in De Paolis Studios.

Release

Originally titled ''C'era una bionda'' () after the distributor Cidif backed out and was picked up for distribution by Paris Etoile Film. It was distributed theatrically in 26 February 1969 in Italy. The film did well in the Italian box office grossing 500 million

References

Footnotes

Sources

External links

* 1969 films 1969 romantic drama films Italian romantic drama films Erotic romance films Italian erotic drama films Films set in antiquity LGBTQ-related romantic drama films Films shot in Africa 1960s erotic drama films 1969 LGBTQ-related films 1960s Italian films Italian LGBTQ-related films Italian-language romantic drama films {{erotic-film-stub