La damigella di Bard

La Damigella Di Bard is of interest as an example of a period melodrama current at the time in 1930s Italy and as a vehicle for the popular veteran actress Emma Gramatica, whose career spanned almost five decades.(She is known to US audiences most likely as the old lady who finds the baby in a cabbage patch in De Sica's Miracle In Milan) The film was released in the US under the title Il Destino, which IMDb mistakenly lists as a separate movie. (Variety's reviewer complained there was too much dialogue.) The role of the aging but now financially challenged countess is perfect for Gramatica, who shows vulnerability (her furniture is taken away) stubbornness (refusing to help a researcher with old letters) nostalgia (flashbacks to her youth) and finally excitement (finding the long lost boy she thinks is her murdered brother's son.)