1940-1949 Best Italian Movies
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- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsLamberto MaggioraniEnzo StaiolaLianella CarellIn post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen, endangering his efforts to find work. He and his son set out to find it.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsAnna MagnaniAldo FabriziMarcello PaglieroDuring the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1944, the Resistance leader, Giorgio Manfredi, is chased by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a way to escape.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsEdmund MoeschkeErnst PittschauIngetraud HinzeA young German boy faces the problems of the tough life in the immediate post-WWII Berlin.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsRinaldo SmordoniFranco InterlenghiAnnielo MeleTwo shoeshine boys in postwar Rome, Italy save up to buy a horse, but their involvement as dupes in a burglary lands them in juvenile prison; the experience take a devastating toll on their friendship.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsCarmela SazioGar MooreWilliam TubbsAmerican military personnel interact warily with a variety of Italian locals over a year and a half in the push north during the Italian Campaign of WWII as German forces make their retreat.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsClara CalamaiMassimo GirottiDhia CristianiGino, a drifter, begins an affair with inn-owner Giovanna, and they plan to get rid of her older husband.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsLuchino ViscontiAntonio PietrangeliAntonio ArcidiaconoIn rural Sicily, the fishermen live at the mercy of the greedy wholesalers. One family risks everything to buy their own boat and operate independently.
- DirectorGiuseppe De SantisStarsVittorio GassmanDoris DowlingSilvana ManganoTwo criminals on the run end up working in a rice field and decide to recruit other workers for their next robbery.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsEmilio CigoliLuciano De AmbrosisIsa PolaFour-year-old Pricò becomes the subject of emotional folly by his capricious parents and negligent relatives.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsAnna MagnaniFederico FelliniPeparuoloIn part one, a heartbroken woman talks to her ex-lover on the phone. In part two, a pregnant woman believes she is carrying the child of Saint Joseph.
- DirectorRené ClémentStarsJean GabinIsa MirandaVera TalchiA French fugitive arrives in Genoa, where he becomes entangled with an Italian woman and her daughter.
- DirectorAmleto PalermiGiorgio BianchiStarsTotòTitina De FilippoSilvana JachinoMastr'Antonio Miciaccio, caretaker and shoemaker devoted to Saint John Beheaded, is trying to find out who has been stealing the oil that keeps the candle to the saint burning. He also does not approve of his daughter's boyfriend and he does not want him to marry her.
- DirectorAlessandro BlasettiStarsElisa CeganiLuisa FeridaRina MorelliA crown, supposedly made from a nail out of the Cross of Christ and the metal of Roman swords, becomes a legend and a symbol of justice.
- DirectorMario SoldatiStarsAlida ValliMassimo SeratoAda DondiniA woman of humble origins who marries a nobleman in the mid-19th century. Unfortunately, the unstoppable force of their love hits an immovable object: his grandmother.
- DirectorMarcello PaglieroStarsValentina CorteseAndrea ChecchiNando BrunoAgainst the background of Rome freed from Nazi-fascism in 1945, two personal dramas interweave between a young man, reduced to despair by his girlfriend and a still underage girl, who tries to prostitute herself to survive.
- DirectorCarlo Ludovico BragagliaStarsTotòGianna Maria CanaleCarla CalòMobster Pepé Le Mokò dies during a shootout with the police. His gang decide that his successor will be a relative of his from Naples: Antonio Lumaconi (Totò Le Mokò), a street musician.
- DirectorAlessandro BlasettiStarsMichèle MorganHenri VidalMichel SimonIn ancient Rome a love story blossoms between Fabiola, daughter of a senator, and Rhual, a Gallic gladiator. After Fabiola's father is killed, the Romans blame the Christians and the persecution begins. Rhual confesses to being a Christian, is accused of the murder and sentenced to fight to the death in the arena.
- DirectorRaffaello MatarazzoStarsAmedeo NazzariYvonne SansonAldo NicodemiFirst in a series of Matarazzo melodramas: A happily married Naples woman, with two children ,is threatened by the reappearance of a man from her past. Her husband takes a drastic action which results in the family members being separated.
- DirectorPietro GermiStarsMassimo GirottiCharles VanelJone SalinasA young, by-the-book judge is appointed to a Sicilian village controlled by corrupt leaders and the Mafia.
- DirectorAugusto GeninaStarsRubi DalmaMichele MalaspinaDomenico Viglione BorgheseIn 1902 in the disease-ridden Pontine Marshes, a disease-ridden region, 12-year-old Maria Goretti lives with her parents, poor farmhands, in the house of Serenelli, a heavy-drinking farmer who offered them board and lodging. Serenelli's 18-year-old son Alessandro is sexually attracted to the pious Maria, who resists his advances. One day the young man murders her because she won't give in to him. Before she dies, Maria forgives her assailant. After her death she is canonized as a saint.
- DirectorMario BonnardStarsLuigi TosiBarbara CostanovaGianni RizzoThe city of Pola is being evacuated after the peace conference of 1947 decided to assign the sovereignty to Tito's Jugoslavia. However the main character decides to stay, thinking that communism might bring him a better future. Life turns to be hard for him and his family until he changes his mind, but he is killed before he can leave the country.
- DirectorMario MonicelliStenoStarsTotòAlda ManginiLia AmandaBeniamino and his family have lived in a school since the end of World War II, but five years have passed and they are compelled to move, but finding an apartment in Rome is difficult. First he gets a job as keeper of a graveyard but during the night they mistake Checchino for a ghost and flee. Then they try lo live in the Coliseum. Lastly they find a fine, large apartment, only to find out that the same apartment has been rented to other people.
- DirectorMario MattoliStarsAnna MagnaniAntonio CentaMaria DoniniAssunta, a commoner of Naples, is scarred by her lover Michele for jealousy.
- DirectorLuigi ZampaStarsUmberto SpadaroAve NinchiEnzo BiliottiAldo Piscitello, a minor government clerk, is forced in 1934 to join the Fascist party. When the war comes, he finds himself able only to talk ineffectually in secret against Mussolini, even as his own son Giovanni is sent into battle. By the end of the war, Aldo has found the courage to stand up for his beliefs, but by then it is too late.
- DirectorRenato CastellaniStarsOscar BlandoLiliana ManciniFrancesco GolisanoA story of teenager from Rome during World War II.
- DirectorMario MattoliStarsTotòIsa BarzizzaMario CastellaniIn Napoli, truthful pharmacist clerk Nicolino Capece becomes erroneously recognized as a dangerous Spanish criminal and decides to escape to Spain. In Siviglia, he is blackmailed by the bandit Cast who wants him to marry rich Patricia Cotten and then kill her. So Nicolino play the bullfighter and heads to the arena..
- DirectorGiuseppe De SantisStarsVivi GioiAndrea ChecchiCarla Del PoggioImmediately after the war, bandits attack a truck that is transporting newlyweds Michele and Giovanna and the accountant of an agricultural cooperative charged with bringing four million lire into office.
- DirectorLuigi ZampaStarsAldo FabriziGar MooreMirella MontiThe peaceful, almost idyllic life of an Italian village is interrupted during the war by the appearance of two American soldiers who keep hiding in the house of one of the villagers.
- DirectorAlessandro BlasettiStarsElisa CeganiMassimo GirottiMariella LottiSome Italian partisans want to take refuge in a convent to escape German raids. The nuns are a little perplexed at first but then agree since one of the men is seriously wounded. When the partisans eventually leave, the Germans take a terrible revenge.
- DirectorPietro GermiStarsRoldano LupiMarina BertiErnesto AlmiranteA man, standing trial for robbery with murder, faces the death penalty. The testimony of an old civil servant will be crucial.
- DirectorAldo VerganoStarsElli ParvoMassimo SeratoLea PadovaniItalian resistance fighters take on the Germans
- DirectorAlberto LattuadaStarsAnna MagnaniAmedeo NazzariCarla Del PoggioA contingent of Italian prisoners of war arrive on a train from Germany after World War II to Turin. The city where Ernesto lives has been bombed, his mother is dead and his sister has gone missing.
- DirectorGennaro RighelliStarsAnna MagnaniVittorio De SicaVirgilio RientoThanks to wartime smuggling Gioconda Perfetti, a roman fruit vendor, becomes very rich. She leaves her shop and moves to a magnificent villa which once belonged to a count. She also becomes involved with some very dubious characters who profit from her ignorance and cheat her out of her money.
- DirectorGennaro RighelliStarsAnna MagnaniNino BesozziVirgilio RientoThe two drivers Giovanni and Gaetano are friends. Gaetano, bold and ruthless, thrives in the black market, while Giovanni, who is a naive and fundamentally honest worker from the North of Italy, cannot get any profit and his wife, an energetic and talkative Roman woman, can't help blaming him for his poor business skills. Returning from a trip to Naples, he brings home a little hungry orphan, Nello. At first Giovanni's wife doesn't want the boy, but then she begins to like him. The little boy does whatever he can to help the family. Nello's father, who everybody thought to have died during the war, finds his little son and, being a rich business man, he employs the good and generous Giovanni. Meanwhile the former friend Gaetano is caught by the police and convicted for his illegal trades.
- DirectorFerdinando Maria PoggioliStarsRoldano LupiLída BaarováLuigi AlmiranteThe Baron of Santafusca, an aging playboy, has squandered his fortune is about to get arrested for unpaid debts. He decides to lure a greedy priest to his crumbling ancestral estate outside of Naples and murder him for his money.
- DirectorRenato CastellaniStarsIsa MirandaAntonio CentaAldo SilvaniA Parisian engineer has a fling with a show girl who later breaks with him when she learns he is married and has a family.
- DirectorFerdinando Maria PoggioliStarsEmma GramaticaIrma GramaticaOlga SolbelliThe quiet days of two elderly spinster sisters are changed for good with the unexpected arrival of their nephew.
- DirectorAlberto LattuadaStarsMassimo SeratoMarina BertiAndrea ChecchiLiterary adaptation: A young professor fallen into poverty and an orphan girl who has become his fiancee find work in the mansion of an elderly count, whose son rapes the young woman, forcing the two lovers to separate for a time.
- DirectorFerdinando Maria PoggioliStarsLuisa FeridaRoldano LupiRuggero RuggeriA Marquis lets an innocent man take the blame for the murder of one of his foremen , who had entered into a marriage in name only with the former peasant girlfriend of the Marquis.
- DirectorMario SoldatiStarsIsa MirandaAndrea ChecchiIrasema DiliánA nineteenth-century Italian noblewoman, imprisoned in a foreboding lakeside palazzo by her uncle, comes to believe she's possessed by a long ago mistress of the manor.
- DirectorGianni FrancioliniStarsFosco GiachettiLuisa FeridaAntonio CentaCesare, a long-distance fuel tanker driver, separates from his lonely young wife after they argue. This leaves him angry and taciturn. One day he meets Piera and he falls in love again. But after a while Piera too complains.
- DirectorAlessandro BlasettiStarsAmedeo NazzariOsvaldo ValentiClara CalamaiThis is an opera in four acts composed by Umberto Giordano . The story is set in Florence at the time of Lorenzo de'Medici recounts the rivalry between Gianneto Malespini and Neri Chiaramantesi for the affections of the beautiful Ginerva and Gianneto's thirst for revenge over a "cruel joke" played on him by Neri and his brother Gabreillo. The joke ultimately takes Neri to murder Ginerva and by mistake his brother. The opera ends with Neri descent into madness.
- DirectorAlessandro BlasettiStarsGino CerviAdriana BenettiGiuditta RissoneA family man travelling for work, Paolo Bianchi, meets on a train a lonely girl, Maria. He sees her again on a bus and she reveals him that she's in troubles: she's pregnant, her baby's father has left her and she doesn't know how to tell to her parents that she's not married. She asks Paolo to play the role of her husband and he accepts....
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsAdriana BenettiIrasema DiliánAnna MagnaniTeresa, a young orphan, falls in love with Pietro, a health inspector. She will try to bring order to his reckless life full of debts and lies.
- DirectorMario CameriniStarsAssia NorisGino CerviLeonardo CorteseA story of complex emotions regarding a beautiful young girl torn between her handsome fiancée and a kind wealthy man who both admire her.
- DirectorAmleto PalermiStarsPaola BarbaraVittorio De SicaFosco GiachettiBrutalized by urban life, a woman who has sinned returns to her mother's home in the countryside.
- DirectorGiuseppe AmatoVittorio De SicaStarsVittorio De SicaRenée Saint-CyrUmberto MelnatiA man poses as a mysterious admirer to find out whether his wife would cheat on him.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsVittorio De SicaVera BergmanCarla Del PoggioA teacher writes sample letters to a fictional Mr. Hartman with her students, but the recipient really exists.