L'homme au gant gris

L'Uumo Dal Guanto Grigio is the title of a Renaissance portrait painting and this unusual crime drama (it might even be called a Noir) centers on two milieux, one of classic art collection and connoisseurship and the other of aspiring vocal performance. The movie offers opera tenor Mario Del Monaco a nice role as the singer who gets involved with the mysterious blonde ,a missing canvas, and murder all while trying to take advantage of a chance to perform over the radio.We get to hear him practicing and delivering several different kinds of numbers. The plot pivots, without giving too much away, on a trope popular also in Hollywood films of the 40s, where a highbrow appreciation of painting and music is often depicted as not just effete and decadent but also a sign of malignancy. Speaking of Hollywood, director Camillo Mastrocinque in this period, when his countrymen were becoming known for gritty neo realism,seems to me to have cornered a niche for himself as a craftsman of American style genre films and slick but often pleasing technique. He would later specialize in sometimes lowbrow comedy.