Margadonna, Ettore Maria

(1893-1975)

   Writer, journalist, screenwriter. After successfully pursuing a career in journalism and publishing one of the earliest Italian histories of the cinema, Margadonna turned to screenwriting in the late 1930s, working with many of the most significant directors of the period, including Alessandro Blasetti, Mario Bonnard, Gennaro Righelli, Mario Soldati, and Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia. In the immediate postwar period he collaborated with Alberto Lattuada on Il bandito (The Bandit, 1946) and with Renato Castellani on both Sotto il sole di Roma (Beneath a Roman Sun, 1948) and Due soldi di speranza (Two Cents'Worth of Hope, 1952), the subject for the last film earning him a Nastro d'argento. In 1950 he published an anthology of short stories and two years later also provided a creditable performance as Ivan's uncle in Federico Fellini's Lo sceicco bianco (The White Sheik, 1952). His greatest triumph, however, came in 1953 when he wrote the story and screenplay for Luigi Comencini's enormously popular Pane, amore e fantasia (Bread, Love and Dreams, 1953), which brought him a nomination for an Academy Award. He subsequently provided the story and screenplay for both the sequels, Pane, amore e gelosia (Bread, Love and Jealousy, 1954, also known as Frisky) and Pane, amore e... (Scandal in Sorento, 1955) and worked on another half a dozen minor films before retiring from films altogether in the early 1960s. His last contribution to the Italian cinema was the subject of Il monaco di Monza (The Monk of Monza, 1963), one of the Toto films directed by Sergio Corbucci.

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira