L'oro di Roma

I thought this was going to be some sort of Eurocrime film and instead I get a extremely tense, grim story of the plight of the Jews in Rome during the Second World War.

During a Jewish baptism, two Gestapo officers appear in the synagogue and take away the head of the community. The SS Commander in Rome gives the head an ultimatum - they Nazis want fifty kilograms of gold from the Jewish community in two days, and if they don't get it, they want two hundred heads of the Jewish families as hostages instead.

This creates a huge panic in the community. Most want to give the gold, but aren't even sure if there's fifty kilograms of gold in the community, others want to run while others want to fight, including Davide, a young hot blooded Roman who claims even getting the gold won't help matters. His childhood friend Guilia may have a chance as her fiance is Catholic Roman Jean Sorel

, and the rules don't tend so much to spread to Jews who are in mixed marriages. We follow the community in general as they scrabble to survive.

It's hugely upsetting, this film. The characters are made-up but the situation was very real. The Jewish community of Rome really did have to scrape fifty kilograms of gold together from jewellery, family heirlooms, and contribution from non-Jewish Romans, even approaching the Vatican at one point. And, as the cobbler says "The Nazis will only keep one promise - the promise to destroy us all!". It was all for nothing. The 1,259 Jews remaining in the Ghetto when the Nazis showed up were all taken to Auschwitz. Only sixteen, sixteen, survived.

The last five minutes of this film are heartbreaking. Carlo Lazzani relates treats the story with respect.

Companion to Lizzani's "Hunchback of Rome", lacking that films kinkiness and vigour.

The opening has leather suits take the WW2 Roman Jewish leader to hear that the German commander demands fifty kilos of gold or two hundred heads of families as hostages. Sub plot offers Ferrero about to marry Catholic Sorel (here a soppy juvenile ) though she was Jewish militant Blain's dream girl.

Blain's goes off to join the partisans and newly baptised Ferrero sees the sinister outcome.

Not enough telling moments in the could have been more imposing development, along with ordinary sixties wide screen production values.

With the Nazis now firmly in control of the City of Rome, they have come up with a plan to extort 100 lbs of gold from it's Jewish community else they must deliver two hundred of their most distinguished citizens up as hostage - and they know that will only be a prelude to more wholesale attacks on their faith and their assets. They have barely forty-eight hours to deliver the goods, and so many of them gather together everything of value that they possess to raise this ransom. "Davide" (Gérard Blain) wants none of this appeasement, though. He argues with his leaders that this is but the start of their persecution and that they must leave the city and join the partisans awaiting the arrival of the allies. He also has an eye for "Giulia" (Anna Maria Ferrero) but she is taken by local Catholic lad "Massimo" and a marriage to him might well see her safe from their occupiers - for now, at any rate. What now ensues sees the population divide along the lines of what to do next, but sadly that presentation is a little too superficial. Though Blain does well here as the charismatic lead and Filippo Scelzo also delivers quite poignantly as their conflicted leader determined to do what can to keep some semblance of peace until relief arrives, the other characterisations really only serve to thinly sketch out a scenario but not to really immerse us in it. It's history, so perhaps Carlo Lizzani was assuming that we all already knew this so felt it unnecessary to fill out the detail, but with so much going on in the city, he determines to focus more on the slightly soapier elements of the storyline rather than the more menacing and intimidatory ones. The photography showcases the city and all that, but aside from one or two more robust scenes towards the end, the substance of this is lacking and I as a bit disappointed.