Les derniers jours de Mussolini

This is a great movie showing what a histrionic character and opportunist Mussolini was, double crossing until the end between the Italians, the Germans and the British, worried only about himself and not caring about the devastation he brought in his country and trying to escape to Switzerland where to live a comfortable life. Well depicted also his emotional life with her lover Petacci - which probably he exploited to the end for her devotion and total love. I was sorry that the story of the documents he was carrying with him, with all the letters exchanged with Churchill - and that would compromise Churchill if brought to the public - was totally ignored - probably too delicate a topic to be dealt with in this kind of commercial movies.

This film depicts the capture and execution of Benito Mussolini, just two days before Adolf Hitler's own suicide. It's a pitiful, pathetic end for the once strutting fascist dictator. You almost - *almost* - feel sorry for him.

Il Duce is fought over, passed around, abandoned, and captured as multiple factions pursue conflicting agendas. The Nazis want to get him out of Italy. The regular German army wants to be rid of him. A few loyal fascists want to continue fighting, but most of them abandon him. Some partisans want to put him on trial while others want to execute him immediately. And the Americans want him handed over to them "for prestige". As cinema goes, this is not exactly Oscar-winning material but the story itself is fascinating, and the historical value helps make this obscure film worth viewing.

Ten years earlier Carlo Lizzani directed 'Processo di Verona' which depicted the trial and execution of Count Ciano, son-in-law of Benito Mussolini. In that film Mussolini is only spoken of and appears briefly in newsreels. He is very much in evidence here in the person of Rod Steiger. In what is for him a subdued performance he captures brilliantly the air of resignation of a man stripped of his power who has a growing realisation that he will not be saved by the Allies and that his days are numbered. This is a far cry from the strutting, bombastic Mussolini that Steiger was to portray later in 'Lion of the Desert'. There is also an outstanding performance by Lisa Gastoni as his mistress Claretta Petacci who wishes to die with him and whose wish is certainly granted! Scene stealer Henry Fonda appears as Cardinal Schuster which serves to remind us of the connection between the Catholic Church and Fascism, although by all accounts Schuster distanced himself from Mussolini's extreme policies. Lizzani's film lacks the edge and momentum of his earlier one but still has some excellent scenes, is visually impressive and serves as a powerful historical document.

The story of the last tragic days of Benito Mussolini is not well known, even by readers and students of history and specifically World War 2. The end for Il Duce came swift and dramatically. It was a fine line of circumstances that could have either seen him escape to Switzerland or return to Germany to join Adolf Hitler in his last days. The fact of what happened to Mussolini is sad, tragic, a terrible end for a man that was the galvanizing force for the rebirth and revitalization of a new and reformed Italy when Il Duce took power in 1922. For Adolf Hitler it was Mussolini who had always been a role model and an icon of the new philosophy of National Socialism. What happened to Benito Mussolini is a disgrace for such a great and visionary man that only wanted the best for the Italian people. Rod Steiger is superb as always as Il Duce. He reprized his role 6 years later in 'Lion of the Desert' 1980 when he played the visionary leader once more. Excellent film by Lizzani a master Director and sad to hear of his death just 3 months ago. Magnificent film.

Rod Steiger once again showed his ability to play roles of political and historical men. In the past he was Al Capone, Napoleon, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Pontius Pilate, and Mussolini twice (also in "Lion of the Desert" ,1980). At his last minutes he was a kind of Mussolini humble, lost, not knowing what to do once he was arrested. Very good acting also from Henry Fonda playing the role of Milanese Cardinal Schuster, he worries more about Mussolini's fate than of those innocents who may have died during those days. The film showed well how Germans wanted to keep Mussolini and the efforts of the Americans to capture him. The director Lizzani did an excellent work trying to show these last hours of the dictator and his lover, Claretta Petacci (Lisa Gastoni). Very interesting dialogues were shown between the guerrilla fighters and Mussolini. He claimed that only Germans guilty of the war, and that he had very little responsibility on what happened, but the fighters refused all his coward arguments with real facts. Mussolini destroyed Italian democracy, eliminated political parties and unions, and also killed many innocent people. He supported well Hitler although he was a puppet in the hands of the Germans. I do not know whether Mussolini was killed together with his lover in a way it is shown in the film. What is known is that he tried to cross the border disguised as a German soldier in a convoy of trucks retreating toward Innsbruck, Austria. He was recognized and together with Claretta shot in an area closed to Como. Until here the plot must be accepted, but I wonder why Lizzani did not want to show further this history, i.e. that the bodies were hung, head downward, in the Milanese Piazza Loreto in Milan.