The Gold of Naples explained

L'Oro di Napoli
Director:Vittorio De Sica
Starring:Silvana Mangano
Sophia Loren
Paolo Stoppa
Totò
Music:Alessandro Cicognini
Cinematography:Carlo Montuori
Studio:Ponti-De Laurentiis Cinematografica
Distributor:Paramount Films
Runtime:131 minutes (Italy)
107 minutes (USA)
Country:Italy
Language:Italian
Gross:$72,000 (US rental)

The Gold of Naples (Italian: '''L'oro di Napoli''' pronounced as /it/) is a 1954 Italian anthology film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It was entered into the 1955 Cannes Film Festival.[1] In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."[2]

Plot

The film is a tribute to Naples, where director De Sica spent his first years, this is a collection of 6 Neapolitan episodes: a clown exploited by a hoodlum; an unfaithful pizza seller (Loren) losing her wedding ring; the funeral of a child; the impoverished inveterate gambler Count Prospero B. being reduced to force his doorman's preteen kid to play cards with him (and losing regularly); the unexpected and unusual wedding of Teresa, a prostitute; the exploits of "professor" Ersilio Miccio, a "wisdom seller" who "solves problems".

Cast

"Il guappo" ("The Racketeer")

"Pizze a credito" ("Pizza on Credit")

"Funeralino"

"I giocatori" ("The Gambler")

"Teresa" ("Theresa")

"Il professore"

Release

The original Italian release comprises six segments: "Il guappo", "Pizze a credito", "Funeralino", "I giocatori", "Teresa", and "Il professore". The US version omits the third and the sixth, leaving the following: "The Racketeer", "Pizza on Credit", "The Gambler", and "Theresa".

Paramount did not take up its option to release the film in the United States and it wasn't until February 1957 that the film was finally distributed there, being shown at the Paris Theater in New York for 18 weeks, earning the distributor, Distributors Corporation of America, $72,000.[3] The film was voted one of the Ten Best Foreign Language Films of 1957 by The New York Times.[4]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Festival de Cannes: The Gold of Naples . 2009-02-01. festival-cannes.com.
  2. Web site: Ecco i cento film italiani da salvare Corriere della Sera. 2021-03-11. www.corriere.it.
  3. News: Variety. June 12, 1957. 'Gold of Naples' Pays Off. 4. April 19, 2019.
  4. The Gold of Naples: Miscellaneous Notes. TCM. 3 December 2022.