Un maldito enredo

How beautiful Claudia was, and what a cool role she plays! She is the most impressive of all, she doesn't have too many lines, but what a feeling, what a look. Then, Alida Chelli's very powerful song - "Sinnò Me Moro", stirs you deep into the heart. Excellent Pietro Germi, as a director and actor! All the others are excellent: Franco Fabrizi, Claudio Gora, Eleonora Rossi Drago, Nino Castelnuovo, Saro Urzi. 10 stars at least!

Pietro Germi doesn't belong to "high class" of the Italian's directors as federico Fellini, Visconti, Rossellini and others, due he was a bad temper, rough and refuses make part of this circle, he was unique, he implied an American style in his pictures, In Maledetto Inbroglio was clearly one of them, the plot is split in two striking cases, a robbery and a murder, just connected by both were took place in next door, Pietro Germi plays a chief of police at task force in charge to investigate both cases, seemingly has some connection linking those weird happenings, two exhaustive hours were spent to find out the murder, despite Germi changes the ending, he imposes a frenetic non stop acting which thrilled the viewer, a hard and complex case to solve, due countless directions that arise at any moment, a fabulous picture, on those quaint Italian environment, with a bit odd humor, a movie to be discovered for the new generation of cinephiles, highly recommended!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 9.25

Well worth seeing for many reasons: for the complex plot with many connections among those involved in a theft and a seemingly unrelated murder; for a look at Italy in 1959; for the good acting and fast cutting; and for the humor in the script.

Un maledetto imbroglio (1959) is a very good movie, it tells us about a country -Italy- still far from the wealth of the sixties, where low class people struggled to make a decent living, and illiteracy was still spread ... Higher class people could threaten poor peoples lives for trivial reasons and meantime humiliate them with their unjustified wealth ... Of course the Germi's task was simplified by the great book it started with, still the Director has his merits: the irony to start with. I basically agree with other opinions. if a catch can be found, I'd say acting is a little bit much too heavy. A kind of "Venus's strabismus"... Some of the actors (Eleonora Rossi Drago, Nino Castelnuovo and at times also Germi himself)overdo - overindulge in - their roles ... They fall into unnecessary theatrical poses. to my opinion the drama is in the facts being narrated and need not much emphasizing by the actors.

very good by all means, but just a bit overacted, to my modest opinion.

pion

Gadda's masterpiece is a blend of philosophical novel with mystery and murder, a baroque, caustic and ultimately poignant work exploring the myriad of interactive lives' endless and kaleidoscopic complexities - in other words, causes often interrelated that converge to the production of each individual effect. The book was rather flatenned here, but still it's Germi's most lasting and currently estimable movie, even better than The Road to Hope and Seduced and Abandoned.