Pia de' Tolomei

Film based on a true story of skullduggery, treachery and romance in the Italian Renaissance. This film is rarely seen in the U.S. the print I saw was faded, but in it's original color must have been more impressive, with actual Renaissance settings. Story is similar to Romeo and Juliet, with the lover (handsomely played by Jacques Sernas in settings familiar to him from his other film "Nights of Lucretia Borgia) connected to a young girl of an opposing faction. They come to a bad end thanks to the treachery of Bella Darvi's character.

This seldom-seen rarity is one of the films which Sergio Grieco made after his run of low-budget swashbucklers, and yet before he achieved professional success with "Salambo." It received poor reviews from the Italian critics, and marks a period of progressive improvement in Grieco's films. Gerard Landry has been replaced by Arnoldo Foa' as the main actor of the drama, and Ilaria Occhini, who looked so lovely in Giacomo Gentilomo's 'Sigfrido' just a year earlier, returns to grace the screen, opposite Jacques Sernas as the hero of the tale. Grieco uses a more obscure cast in this film, several unknown faces showing up, and much of the adventure and swordplay of his earlier films is replaced by an improved drama and dialog. It would be nice to see this film in its original Italian version, but no company has yet offered to give this film that reviving touch much needed for any film historian to successfully evaluate its merits. I consider it a film with some good potential, and another stepping-stone (albeit a minor one) in the history of the Italian adventure epic.