L'angelo bianco

'Nobody's children', the third of Raffaello Matarazzo's films starring the popular duo of Amadeo Nazzari and Yvonne Sanson, had not only been a tremendous success commercially but had cemented the director's reputation as Italy's King of Melodrama whose tear jerkers were adored by the paying public but of course disparaged by the critics.

Matarazzo felt that there was more mileage to be had but a sequel posed problems in so far as Guido and Luisa could not very well reignite their romance as she had become Sister Addolorata and for her to relinquish her vows would have sent shock waves through the Catholic ranks. Matarazzo came up with the perfect solution by creating the character of Lina, a distinctly unholy vaudeville performer who just happens to bear a remarkable resemblance to Luisa and with whom Guido becomes obsessed........

Nazzari does his best here with one of those 'woe is me' roles although to be fair his character has plenty to be woeful about. Having found stardom under Fascism although cleverly distancing himself from the politics of the regime, Nazzari enjoyed a long and fruitful career and is probably best known outside Italy for his performance as movie star Alberto Lazzari in Fellini's 'Nights of Caberia'. His gravitas here is, needless to say, perfectly complemented by the appealing Yvonne Sanson who totally convinces as Lina whose character's development is deeply touching whilst reprising her role as Luisa/Addolorata to great effect.

Matarazzo simply tells the story here without fancy lighting and flashy camerawork and holds one's attention despite the implausible plot. The film's final minutes are guaranteed to warm the hearts of the Faithful.

I'd already had my fill of Matarazzo, but I watched this one -- a sequel to NOBODY'S CHILDREN -- just out of obligation to finish what I started. But this one was a step up. It picks up where its predecessor left off, and piles on a whole new series of tragedies, including an almost hilariously cruel boating accident. Things get even weirder when Sanson appears as a doppelganger character, and Nazzari gets obsessed with her, VERTIGO-style (and takes the opportunity to impregnate her for the third time in as many movies). Where this film surpasses Matarazzo's previous works is in the more heightened cinematic stylization and a somewhat deeper exploration of character psychology. There are actually some really good scenes here. It's still pretty soapy, and there are a few dull spots, but overall this is a "high 7" as opposed to the "low 7" for the NOBODY'S CHILDREN and TORMENTO.

I noticed that the lead actors in both movies have the same name. Is that intentional or an error ? I enjoyed both movies by Matarazzo immensely and both send strong messages that show a solid moral sense of dignity. The feeling of Italy in the era and how people really were is truly captured. As in many Italian movies of the era, you get the feeling that the actors are truly the characters that they are portraying. The director, Matarazzo is truly amazing and I am shocked that he is not mentioned with the greats of the Italian new era. Both movies should be seen back to back to get the true flavor and meaning of Matarazzo's writing and meaning of his work. Having seen the lead characters in many other great movies of the time, it shows the true power of Italian movie-making that is missing in American movies.

(1955) The White Angel/ L'angelo bianco (In Italian with English subtitles) DRAMA

The continuation of Nobody's Children" co-produced, co-written and directed by Raffaello Matarazzo with the lead star, Guido (Amedeo Nazzari) blaming his current wife on his current problems demanding for a divorce with full custody of the daughter he had with her. And sometime along the way he meets a stage performer, Luisa Fanti (also played by Yvonne Sanson) who looks coincidentally like the one he fell in love with since she turned into a nun. In a soap opera kind of way it works, before soap operas became a thing.

It's always risky to make a sequel to a great film or story, especially if the finished part has exhausted the subject and made a complete work of it, but Raffaele Matarazzo wrote most of his films himself and could not keep himself from continuing the story. In "Nobody's Children" everything was finished with nothing more to tell, the boy Bruno was dead and his mother a nun, while his father was left hopelessly alone with his wife and daughter, and here in "The White Angel" Matarazzo concludes their story. It is just another terrible tragedy. When Amedeo Nazzari thus is left alone for real with no chance to even ever see his first love again, who is lost in a monastery no one knows where, he meets this other woman, an actress, who is Luisa's opposite in character, a wanton dame for just anyone with even criminal business going on, but he can't help it. The thing is that she is like a copy of Luisa (and the same actress Yvonne Sanson) which constitutes all the attraction, but that's the case that makes this film interesting - four years before Hitchcock's "Vertigo", who might have seen this film and got some ideas from it. The new lady (called Lina) also describes an interesting development, as she changes character after having become pregnant and ended up in prison, where she meets the only wicked character in this film, a fellow convict who only can think of escaping and works hard on it.(Enrica Direll, a Gina Lollobrigida type of woman) who adds to her troubles. The prison scenes are very efficient. There is a spectacular drama building up, but there is less neo-realism here than in "Nobody's Children" and less human pathos. It's the Vertigo syndrome that chiefly makes this film interesting, while all the rest is a most typical "sequel" work to a great film that irresistibly inspired to a follow up.