Raffaello Matarazzo’s Runaway Melodramas: Eclipse Series 27
Chains/Tormento/Nobody’s Children/The White Angel
Directed by Raffaello Matarazzo
Studio: Criterion/Eclipse
Year: 1949-1955
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Running Time: 94/98/96/100 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: Dolby Digital 1.0 Italian
Subtitles: English
MSRP: $ 55.95
Release Date: June 21, 2011
Review Date: June 20, 2011
The Films
At a time when the new kid on the cinematic block was Italian neorealism, winning awards around the world for films like Open City and Shoeshine and Bicycle Thieves, mid-level Italian studio director Raffaello Matarazzo was churning out familiar studio product: low budget comedies and literary adaptations which were very popular with the masses. In 1949, he began a series florid melodramatic films which the country embraced in the same way America embraced the heightened dramas of director Douglas Sirk. Four of these melodramas, all starring Italian movie idols Armedeo Nazzari and Yvonne Sanson, are a part of this latest Eclipse release Raffaello Matarazzo's Runaway Melodramas.
Chains – 3/5
Rosa (Yvonne Sanson) and Guglielmo (Armedeo Nazzari) have a very happy marriage until a man from her past, Emilio (Aldo Nicodemi), comes into her life again quite by accident. He’s never gotten over Rosa despite years away from his one-time fiancé, but she has no interest in either taking up with him again or going away with him and abandoning her husband and two children. When her son Tonino (Gianfranco Magalotti) sees Emilio holding his mother’s hand under the table at her birthday party, his anger and confusion leads to his father’s growing suspicions about his wife’s erratic behavior. When he finds a threatening letter from Emilio to Rosa demanding she see him before he reveals all, Guglielmo decides it’s time for a showdown which will change all of their lives forever.
By keeping her former romance a secret from her husband and keeping the cad’s ever-present overtures to her also under wraps (even though she did nothing wrong in either situation), Rosa’s silence is the fulcrum for the plot’s entire melodramatic structure, and it’s a very slim structure to be sure drawn out to more than it’s worth by screenwriters Aldo De Benedetti and Nicola Manzari. Director Raffaello Matarazzo helms the slim story with precision even if it doesn’t offer him many places in which to dazzle. There is a lively fireworks display that is momentarily diverting and a Christmas celebration that milks its sentimental nature shamelessly, but there is nothing the director can do to circumvent the outrageously cockeyed legal maneuvering surrounding the murder trial which climaxes this tale. As the leading actor, Armedeo Nazzari mixes the looks of Errol Flynn with the quiet, sincere demeanor of Gregory Peck. Yvonne Sanson recalls another famous Yvonne – De Carlo whose lovely albeit icy exterior masks a warm and caring interior.
Tormento – 2.5/5
After her husband (Armedeo Nazzari) goes to jail for a crime he didn’t commit, Anna Ferrari (Yvonne Sanson) is thrown out of her father’s house by her wicked stepmother (Tina Lattanzi) and is reduced to scrubbing floors and tending the kitchen of a nightclub in Rome. But her young daughter (Rosalia Randazzo) has such a frail constitution, Anna can’t provide her with food and adequately heated surroundings to keep her healthy, so she must ask her stepmother for help. The woman agrees to take the child on the condition that Anna will enter the Home for Wayward Women and never see her daughter again. Anna has no choice but to agree for the sake of her child’s welfare, but the little girl is miserably unhappy under the cold dominance of the old woman, and Anna can’t stop thinking about what she’s had to sacrifice in her life all because she was trying to be the best wife and mother she knew how to be.
Aldo De Benedetti’s screenplay would have been quite a serviceable Joan Crawford vehicle some twenty years earlier as the female protagonist is basically a saint victimized by one and all. Even the few people who try to extend her a kind hand (Roberto Murolo as a nightclub entertainer who had loved Rosa from afar and tries to get her a better paying job only to have that blow up in her face) don’t seem able to make her life any easier. With these kinds of odds stacked against her, it’s hard to watch this pulpy fiction with a straight face, and matters aren’t aided with the continuation of wrong-headed legal thinking regarding guilt or innocence in Italian courts that takes Anna’s husband away from her in such a ludicrous fashion. Armedeo Nazzari once again gets top billing but is clearly a supporting actor in this film. Yvonne Sanson again takes center stage as the poor, put-upon Anna. She plays it straight forwardly and doesn’t milk the turgid melodrama though the screenwriter does have Anna prone to fainting maybe once or twice too often. Tina Lattanzi’s wicked stepmother might as well have had Legree as a last name so malicious and dastardly is the character she plays.
Nobody’s Children – 3/5
Dominant family matriarch Countess Elisabeth Canali (Françoise Rosay) does not want her son (Armedeo Nazzari) involved with the peasant daughter (Yvonne Sanson) of the family quarry’s watchguard. So, she sends her son to England to take care of family business and with the help of crooked quarry foreman Anselmo Vannani (Folco Lulli) has all of the correspondence between the two intercepted. When Luisa gives birth to the count’s son, she secretly goes to live in the shack of a hermit lady, but while both are out, Anselmo steals the child and burns down the shack forcing the mother to conclude her child has died in the fire which leads her to join a nunnery. Twelve years pass, and the count still knows nothing about his son, not even that his own mother has secretly been paying for his boarding school all these years. When the boy Bruno (Enrico Oliveri) runs away from school in an attempt to learn who his parents are, situations change for all concerned.
While Aldo De Benedetti’s screenplay still melodramatically deals with innocent dupes being completely dominated and manipulated by schemers and vipers of all kinds, the core story here has a slightly more appealing narrative than that of Tormento. Matarazzo’s direction is as smooth as ever, and there are even some action scenes near the climax which are well staged and involving. Sure there are the expected hang-wringing and tears that one would expect from this über-purple prose, but the story does grab the viewer more this time than in the two previous movies. Yvonne Sanson claims the first half of the movie for herself while Armedeo Nazzan dominates the second half. Both of the film's villains Folco Lulli and Francoise Rosay act their roles with great relish.
The White Angel – 3.5/5
Embittered by the loss of his son, Count Guido Canali (Armedeo Nazzari) legally separates from his shrewish wife (Enrica Dyrell) due to her part in keeping the identity of his son a secret. She, however, grabs their daughter and tries to escape in a speedboat during a storm ending in the deaths of both mother and daughter. Distraught, Guido pours himself into work and on a business trip happens upon a cabaret entertainer Lina Mercolin (Yvonne Sanson) who is the spitting image of his lost love Luisa (also Sanson), now a nun in an unknown convent. A night of love results in pregnancy, but Lina is connected to a counterfeit scheme and gets four years in prison for her part. The lives of Guido, Lina, and Luisa all overlap during Lina’s tumultuous time inside a women’s prison.
By far the best of the four films in this collection, this sequel to Nobody’s Children nevertheless overdoses on the outrageous melodramatic tricks of the trade including the wife driven to madness by lost love, a single night of lovemaking that always results in pregnancy, and the heavy veil of Catholicism which hangs over all of these movies in the set. The last twenty-five minutes of the film turns into a women’s prison movie complete with iron-willed matrons and sadistic inmates planning a daring escape! Director Matarazzo does do wonders with the process screen photography during Elena’s intense escape in a speedboat, and the split-screen work when Luisa meets Lina is as adept as any of Hollywood’s efforts involving twins in the same shot played by the same actress. Due to her dual role, Yvonne Sanson really gets to act her heart out in these roles, and she’s utterly convincing as two separate entities. Armedeo Nazzari suffers nobly as befitting his role in this film. Especially compelling is Guido’s best friend Poldo played by Alberto Farnese (he was in the previous film as well) who gives an earnest and intense performance suggesting great depths of emotion he had to offer if given bigger roles.
Video Quality
Chains – 3 5
All of the films in this set are presented in their original 1.33:1 cinematic aspect ratios. Sharpness is pretty good for most of the film’s running time, but there are some occasional soft shots especially in the film’s last third. There are also dust specks and a few scratches but not as much as one might expect from a film of this age and one not subjected to much clean-up as the Eclipse titles are always lacking. There is also some spotty print damage early on. The white subtitles are easy to read. The film has been divided into 16 chapters.
Tormento – 3/5
Once again, sharpness is pretty good throughout though there are signs of age with dust specks, some debris, and scratches popping up intermittently. Grayscale registers good whites but very mediocre black levels. Aliasing is a fairly constant problem with the thin striped jackets and robes that are present. The white subtitles are very easy to read. The film has been divided into 18 chapters.
Nobody’s Children – 3/5
The film looks better than the previous two with more consistent sharpness and better black levels (though they do vary throughout the presentation). There are dust specks, scratches, and some print damage on occasion. White subtitles are easy to read, and the film has been divided into 16 chapters.
The White Angel – 3.5/5
The photography is the sharpest and clearest of the four movies in the set, but there are random scratches and bits of print damage here and there. Sometimes contrast is dialed in too brightly though that is only a problem in a couple of scenes. Black levels are pretty solid, too. The white subtitles are, as always, easy to read, and the film has been divided into 15 chapters.
Audio Quality
Chains – 3 5
All of the films are afforded a Dolby Digital 1.0 track. As the film was completely post-synched, the dialogue has that flat, airless sound typical of this kind of dubbing technique. The music and sound effects have a trebly and somewhat distorted brittleness lacking any bass in the mix. Though most of the track is clear, there are some moments of crackle and occasional flutter which intrude on the otherwise clean soundtrack.
Tormento – 2.5/5
Hiss is a constant problem with this transfer, and in quieter scenes it overpowers the dialogue. There is also crackle in certain places during the presentation. Again, with the dialogue post-synched, nothing sounds immediately present, and there is the same lack of fidelity one would expect from a film of this age which has not had a digitally cleaned soundtrack.
Nobody’s Children – 2.5/5
Hiss is the predominant problem with the audio track with this movie sometimes overwhelming the dialogue. There are also pops on occasion and some crackle, but those occur with less frequency. Once again, post synching gives the track a hollow tone, but one gets used to it as the film plays.
The White Angel – 3.5/5
Again, the soundtrack is the strongest of the four films, the one closest to a more modern sounding sound mix with better balance between dialogue and music, some bass in the mix, and less distracting flutter and crackle. There is low level hiss present, and while the dialogue has still been post synched as in the other films, there is a slightly more natural sound here than in the earlier ones.
Special Features
1/5
The Eclipse line does not include any bonus material, but each of the four slimline cases contain interesting and revelatory liner notes by film expert Michael Koresky.
In Conclusion
3/5 (not an average)
These baroque melodramas directed by Raffaello Matarazzo won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s interesting to see what Italians were enjoying in their local cinemas when the rest of the world was celebrating the neorealism being displayed in works by De Sica, Rossellini, and Fellini during the same period.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
