''See Naples and Die'' () is a 1952 Italian

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

melodrama film In film studies and criticism, melodrama may variously refer to a genre, mode, style or sensibility characterized by its emphasis on intense and exaggerated emotions and heightened dramatic situations. There is no fixed definition of the term an ...

directed by

Riccardo Freda Riccardo Freda (24 February 1909 – 20 December 1999) was an Italian film director. He worked in a variety of genres, including sword-and-sandal, horror film, horror, ''giallo'' and spy films. Freda began directing ''I Vampiri'' in 1956. The f ...

Plot

Drug dealer Sanesi is trying to get her old friend Marisa to have her husband, a senior bank official, sing. But the official becomes convinced that Marisa is cheating on him with Sanesi and throws his wife out of the house. In order to prevent the situation from deteriorating, Marisa decides to assassinate Sanesi. A murder trial then opens against Marisa. Her acquittal in self-defense will lead Marisa and her husband to reconciliation.

Cast

Gianna Maria Canale Gianna Maria Canale (12 September 1927 – 13 February 2009) was an Italian film actress. Biography Canale was born in 1927 in Reggio Calabria. In 1947, she competed in the Miss Italia beauty contest, where she was runner-up to Lucia B ...

: Marisa *

Renato Baldini Renato Baldini (18 December 1921 – 5 July 1995) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 87 films between 1950 and 1983. He was born in Rome, Italy. Selected filmography * ''It's Forever Springtime'' (1950) - Un carabiniere al processo ...

: Giacomo Marini *

Vittorio Sanipoli Vittorio Sanipoli (27 October 1915 – 25 July 1992) was an Italian stage, film and television actor. He appeared in around a hundred films and television series between 1942 and 1980. Life and career Born Luciano Sanipoli in Genoa, he made his ...

: Roberto Sanesi *

Franca Marzi Franca Marzi (18 August 1926 – 6 March 1989) was an Italian film actress. She appeared in 80 films between 1943 and 1977. Life and career Born in Rome as Francesca Marsi, after working in the revue, Marzi made her film debut in her early ...

: Lover of Senesi *

Carletto Sposito Carlo Sposito (1 May 1924 – 9 September 1984) was an Italian character actor, sometimes credited as Carletto Sposito. Born in Palermo, he was among the most active actors in the post-war Italian genre cinema. He was also pretty active on sta ...

Claudio Villa Claudio Villa (born Claudio Pica; 1 January 1926 – 7 February 1987) was an Italian singer and actor. Biography Tenor Claudio Villa was born Claudio Pica in the Trastevere quarter of Rome in 1926. He recorded over 3000 songs, sold 45 million ...

Production

Following the success of his previous film '' La vendetta di Aquila Nera'',

directed his next film produced by Umberto Momi and Carlo Caiano through their company Associati Produttori Indipendenti (A.P.I.). Freda claimed he shot the film within 15 days, with three on location in Naples and the rest in Rome at CSC studios. The film marked the first collaboration between Freda and his longtime director of photography,

Gábor Pogány Gábor Pogány (1915–1999) was a Hungarian-born Italian cinematographer. Born in Budapest and educated in Britain, Pogány emigrated to Italy and spent much of his career in the country. He worked on over a hundred films during his career, main ...

. Freda commented on his collaboration with his Hungarian cinematographer, stating that "It is quite astonishing, but it was the Hungarians and the Czechs who revolutionized cinematography in Italy. Stallich, Vich and Pogany. They reinvented the use of lighting on sets... This trio remained famous in Italy the name of 'Hungarian school'".

Release

''See Naples and Die'' was distributed theatrically in Italy by Associati Produttori Indipendenti on March 29, 1952. The film grossed a total of 381,384,000

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 ...

domestically in Italy. The film was released in the United States as ''See Naples and Die'' in 1959 where it was released subtitled and distributed by Crown Pictures.

Reception

Italian critic and film historian Roberto Curti stated that Italian critics "generally panned the film". On its release in the United States, the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' stated the film had a "sodden script" and that "Gianna Maria Canale, as that pretty, luckless lady, is involved in nearly every cliche dear to the devotees of daytime detergent dramas on radio, but unsmilingly she comes through ..There are English titles but even without them it is fairly clear that sad is the word for the manufactured tragedies in ''See Naples and Die''."

References

Bibliography

External links

* 1952 films 1950s melodrama films Films directed by Riccardo Freda Films shot in Naples Italian black-and-white films Italian drama films 1950s Italian films 1950s Italian-language films {{drama-film-stub